In any given month simplygo.com has a large number of requests for information, such as timetables, service changes and news on new buses. During the last lot of bad weather, there were almost 250 thousand page views over a three day period!
What we have seen is a large increase in the number of people accessing information on the move from mobile phones and tablets. We currently have a mobile specific website, but we think the time is right to give our website a make-over and to add some great new features.
Responsive
The new simplygo.com will be responsive to the device that you are viewing it on. In simple terms, this means that if you are sitting at your desk, browsing at home, or checking up on travel updates on one of our buses the website will scale up or down to fit your device.
New Design
The look and feel of simplygo.com has also been looked at and there are a number of other enhancements, such as improvements in navigation, better search facilities and revised content.
Popular
Mobile and tablet use has increased tremendously over the last year and a half, so we believe that our fresh new website is the way forward.
Not forgetting...
Our new website will be going live very soon! In the meantime, you can still of course access information using our current website, the key mobile app, on Facebook and Twitter and lots of other ways.
To celebrate the recent achievement of reaching 50,000 ‘likes’ on our Facebook page we recently ran a competition to win a brand new iPhone 5.
Pictured is the lucky winner Ian Haugh, who is a regular traveller on our Diamond buses. He is shown here receiving his prize from a member of our Customer Services Team. Enjoy your prize!
We also asked a quick question on the use of our social media. You gave us a rating of 90% "Great", which we are really pleased about!
Listed below are some of the comments that we received. Thanks to everyone that took the time to get in touch.
- "Very impressed with use of social media during bad weather."
- "Overall very good at keeping the general public up to date with all delays etc, especially during bad periods of weather."
- "regular updates to let us know what is happening all the time on both twitter and facebook! great service!!"
- "When using the facebook page there is always updates on buses and always updates on road closures. If i have a enquiry i also get a very helpful reply."
We are always on the look out to make improvements to how we can communicate, so will be going through the comments in full.
There will be further competitions coming soon, so keep updated on Facebook and Twitter.
We have had Recite "Text to Speech" technology on simplygo.com for some time now, and it has now just been improved!
Recite is a unique assistive technology that enables most parts of
simplygo.com to be read out aloud with the click of a button from any
computer.
The following gives a brief overview of the enhancements:
- The main improvements are to the user interface to make it more graphical and easier to use. The changes we have made have been as a result of user testing and working with experts at the British Dyslexia Association.
- As part of the updated user interface the colour changing, font adjustment and translation features are now available in the graphical view of simplygo.com, rather than just the text only view as before.
- There have been some "under the hood" changes to improve speed.
If you use Recite on our website we would like to get your feedback on this.
To celebrate the recent achievement of reaching 5,000 ‘followers’ on Twitter we recently ran a competition to win a brand new iPhone 5!
We
had around 1600 entries with the lucky winner being Colin Gleave shown
here being presented with his prize by John Morris, Service Delivery
Manager.
There will be further competitions coming soon, so keep updated on Facebook and Twitter.
Latest beta version of the M-Ticket facility is now available to download for testing for Android devices.
The new version has:
- Fixes for user upgrading from version 1+
- Addition of a toolbar to the bottom of the screen for quick access to tickets
You can help us improve this by downloading the new version and letting us know if you have any issues by filling out the feedback form.
Go North East are wishing The Royal British Legion all the best using social media to mark the Two Minute Silence on Remembrance Sunday.
The British Legion will be the first UK organisation to use the Thunderclap social media tool.
On the morning of Sunday 11 November, in advance of the Two Minute Silence at 11am, numerous Tweets will be sent by social media users showing simultaneous support.
Keep an eye out for our special Poppy Bus around the region helping to raise awareness of the excellent work done by The Royal British legion.
You can read more and add your support on The Royal British Legion website.
