ORCA Rewrite
The Problem
ORCA cards allow residents of King County to painlessly pay for a variety of public transportation options with one card. The ORCA website exists as a resource for current cardholders and for residents who would like to obtain an ORCA Card. While their goal is to make public transportation easy to use and accessible to everyone, the current state of the website is not very user-friendly. For my UX Writing class at the School of Visual Concepts, I rewrote the “Contact ORCA” flow to provide clearer communication to cardholders. I was the sole UX Writer for this project, and had two weeks to complete my rewrite.
Goals
After reviewing the “Contact ORCA” section’s current state, I identified a two goals for my rewrite:
Simple, straightforward text regarding sending a message to the ORCA team and fixing potential errors.
Streamlined navigation to aid cardholders in answering their own questions.
Contact ORCA Page and Navigation
The page users are greeted with after they select “Contact ORCA” is overwhelming to say the least. There are multiple font colors and weights, lists, and broken links that would make some users abandon the idea of contacting ORCA altogether.
The first thing I noticed was the numbered list actually includes four ways for users to get in touch with ORCA. However, the first item is too vague to make sense of, so I removed it altogether and reordered the list. The first two options allow users to potentially contact a real person right away. As a third option, if they can’t make it to an office or if it is outside of business hours, they can submit their message using the form.
The rest of the content does not belong on this page- it is either contradictory or exists to redirect users to another part of the site. To prevent users from incorrectly landing on the Contact ORCA page, I updated the navigation bar to help users land in the right place on the first try. The first three menu options (Have a card, Get a card, ORCA options), are not descriptive enough. The first time I looked at the navigation bar, I had no idea where any of these sections would lead me.
About ORCA- This replaces the “ORCA options” section and allows users to learn about the different types of ORCA cards that are available. FAQs can also be found in this section.
My ORCA Card- Users can go here to make updates to the card that they already own. This replaces the mysterious “Have a card” section.
Get an ORCA Card- This provides a clear call to action for site visitors who are looking to purchase an ORCA card.
Contact Us- This section is the same as the “Contact ORCA” section, but with a friendlier tone.
BEFORE
AFTER
Error State 1
The first error state I reviewed is below, showing invalid user info. While the error message certainly grabs the users attention, I updated it with simpler instructions in a friendlier tone. I also removed the illegible text below the “Daytime Phone Number” section, which read “Required for call back during weekday”. The small text was distracting and redundant- users won’t expect a call if they don’t provide their phone number.
BEFORE
AFTER
Error State 2
The second error I tested was an incorrect serial number. Current state lets the user know that the number is invalid, but doesn’t provide a solution if they have only entered one serial number. I rewrote the error message in a friendlier tone that gives users a suggestion for how they can improve the accuracy of their serial number.
BEFORE
AFTER
Message Confirmation
The final section of the Contact ORCA section I rewrote is the confirmation message users receive when they have successfully submitted their message. The confirmation users receive is very wordy, and one of the most important parts, the message ID, is not sufficiently highlighted. In the rewrite, I listed the ID number first, followed by a friendly message. The word “processing” puts users at ease, letting them know that ORCA taking action on their request right away.
BEFORE
AFTER
Next Steps
Being this project had a short timeline, I didn’t have time to do any testing. If I had more time, the first two things I would do are:
Conduct a survey with at least ten ORCA Cardholders to learn their current frustrations with the site and find out what kind of content they would like to see added.
Test my rewrites to see if they create a more pleasant experience on the ORCA site.
There is a lot of information on some of the ORCA pages, and the content doesn’t feel like it’s geared towards users. I’m interested in learning which existing pages user visit most often, and which ones could potentially be removed altogether.