Planning the information architecture for the Oystercard website

Replacing paper tickets with smartcards on London’s busy transport network has been one of the world’s biggest ticketing initiatives. 6,000 buses, 255 Underground stations, 28 National Rail stations and 2,300 local ticket outlets have been fitted with new smartcard equipment.

A key challenge was to encourage people to take up the Oystercard. This involved explaining the practicalities of where to get one, how to use it, and how to recharge it. Simple language was necessary, as the audience included people for whom English was not their first language.

To develop the information architecture for the Oystercard website, John Waddington developed a series of scenarios reflecting the range of user goals of visitors coming to the site to find out about or purchase Oystercards. The wireframes for the new website were tested extensively in usability labs by a representative sample of current and potential tube commuters to ensure that the site navigation was easy to use.

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