Kerala RTC Website Analysis

We are sure that, we have played an important role for the recent modifications of Kerala RTC's official website. We posted a lot of suggestions, complaints and the drawbacks of the official website. Many of our readers had commented on it, regarding their expressions, opinions and suggestions.

Now a days, we can see some improvisations, regular updates and changes in the official website of the state owned transport corporation. But, coming to the real fact, the website is now exactly looking like a blog or some magazine's home page. Let us briefly analyze the official website here.

Overview

KSRTC website is the online interface for all commuters in general, users like information seekers, loyal customers, frequent travelers and occasional travelers. The intent of writing this analysis is to highlight the current web architecture and propose changes that can be incorporated to enhance the user experience holistically. Comparisons are made to some of the most successful websites that own similar business across the country.

Analysis

Currently the site focus has been on imparting information that is related and unrelated to the customer in general. A more organized navigation and information architecture will help the site to morph into a more user friendly eCommerce website.

Booking process

The booking processes starts on the home page and the user will be redirected to other URL makes it easier for a user to find a place to initiate reservation. Clicking on the link will launch a new page and take users to the online booking application. Currently users have to be a registered to make an online reservation. Still they are not implemented the online reservation to all the depots. Users are experiencing major problems while doing the booking process. Authorities should take this as a higher priority issue.

Once you register you are allowed to login to the account and then search the buses and begin your booking processes. We have found a lot of bugs in the reservation portal. One of the main error is regarding the boarding point selection. If a passenger selects Alappuzha as boarding point for a Bangalore bound bus which is starting from Thiruvananthapuram, the average arrival time of that bus at Alappuzha is not given in the website.

Links

Link placement on the website is not hierarchical. There is a random placement of links and buttons which are not intuitive and follow any user flow. This will result in a frustrated experience which is what we have learnt from the feedback we have received so far on the website. Broken links are more on the home page.

Search

There is no prominent search option which is intuitive and robust that would help users to initiate reservation. Currently user search for destination time tables which is available only in the ticket booking page and also it shows only the timetable of the buses which have the reservation option. Search can also include interactive maps which can help users plan their trip.

Karnatka RTC is offering the feature in a good manner: Click here to visit

Features

Features like maps, trip planners, last mile connectivity and local mass transit information would go a long way in making the website more user friendly and in return increase revenue for the organization.

Here are some examples of travel website worth looking at it.
http://www.ksrtc.in [Karnataka RTC]

http://www.wmata.com/
http://www.greyhound.com/home/
http://www.vta.org/
http://www.mbta.com

How you rate the official website of Kerala RTC?