Making Public Transport Accessable for Everyone

Auckland Transport’s goal is to make public transport accessible, easy, and affordable – for everyone.

As a longstanding UbiQuity platform user, when AT identified the need for a programme especially for visually impaired customers, they turned to Qrious to help bring the project to life.

‍

People from all walks of life and abilities use Auckland’s public transport services. While the AT HOP card has made using and paying for transportation a lot easier, some customers find it hard to read the digital displays on buses and trains, or to use the online portal. Users are often unsure how much money is left on their card, or whether they’ve tagged on or off successfully

‍

The challenge

People from all walks of life and abilities use Auckland’s public transport services. While the AT HOP card has made using and paying for transportation a lot easier, some customers find it hard to read the digital displays on buses and trains, or to use the online portal. Users could be unsure how much money is left on their card, or whether they’ve tagged on or off successfully.

‍

So, AT HOP challenged Qrious to use the UbiQuity platform to develop an automated programme that would easily communicate travel and balance details to their accessible customers.

‍

To achieve this AT HOP needed to bring their various sources of data into a centralised database from where user and travel data could be sent to the UbiQuity platform. As the data contained both personal and monetary information, the data needed to be encrypted to ensure the privacy of each customer.

‍

The email template, and language used in both the email and text communications also needed careful attention so that it would make sense when read out loud by a screen reader.

‍

"This project was a huge challenge for us, not just in terms of working through the data, but also ensuring the email templates and language use was right."

- Kash Chitniss, Campaign Manager, AT HOP

‍

The solution

Data

The various sources of AT HOPs customer and travel data were first centralised in ATs data warehouse. This data – in particular the AT HOP card number is encrypted using cipher block chaining before being sent between the two databases via API. This allows the unique ID to be stored in UbiQuity without exposing the full number.

Travel or account activity data is then used to populate the dynamic content in the email or text, showing the recipient their most recent travel information or AT HOP balance. Logic was built into the email template ensuring that only copy relating to the available data was sent to each customer.

‍

Accessible templates

As screen readers read all available text in an email – whether body copy or alt text sitting behind images - the template needed to be stripped back of most of its design and branding. Scripting language was used within the email code to ensure that the screen reader could read the email in a way that was contextually relevant and easily understood by the recipient.

The preference form also needed to meet accessible guidelines, with customers able to navigate through the form exclusively using their keyboard, whether this was tabbing to the next field, or using the space bar to make selections.

‍

"The team at Qrious were great at working through challenges with us, asking the right questions to get the right results. And the customers are just thrilled with it."

- Kash Chitniss, Campaign Manager, AT HOP

‍

The results

Optimised data flow

Information is sent to AT HOP customers when most accurate and most relevant to them. Engagement and preference changes are sent back to AT's data warehouse, which acts as the single source of truth for their customers.

‍

Flexible contact preferences

Once a concession is loaded onto their card, accessible customers are automatically invited to opt-in to the programme. They can choose how to receive information – text, email or both; daily, or only when they have travelled.

‍

Personalised, unique content

Each email is unique and fully personalised to the customer. Content reflects the latest activity data related to each account. Missed tags and recent top-ups or purchases trigger different variations of the copy.

‍

Great customer experience

For accessible customers, keeping on top of their AT HOP balance and journeys is now a lot simpler. The information they need is delivered straight to their fingertips in a format that is easy for them to understand.