Anatomy of a Website: The story behind SEPTA’s online makeover

Written by jrood

It was a high-tech feat more than a year in the making - all leading up to a moment that came with a fairly simple act.

"It was basically
flipping a switch," Brian Anderson, manager of communications for the
Philadelphia area transit agency, said when asked to describe the launch of the
redesigned septa.org. While turning on the website – "going live," in
techie terminology – may have appeared easy, the work leading up to the public
debut was the exact opposite.

Unlike many major transit
agencies that turn to outside specialists to handle their online needs, SEPTA
utilized the talent of its own employees to tackle everything from the overall
design to the smallest word of written content. Much of this was handled by a
four-person Web Team from the Communications Department. Anderson, who in his
role as Webmaster spent many days and nights readying the redesign for public
consumption, tapped Multimedia Specialist Bijan Molayi to help him get
everything up and running.

But it all started with the
foundation laid by Graphic Artist and Designer Angela Zippi, who gave the site
its eye-popping new look.

"We wanted a website
that was fresh, clean and easy to use," said Zippi, who received an assist
from fellow Designer Adeola Fadeyibi in handling this massive task. "We
believed we had the capabilities to do this in-house, and we put our heads
together and came up with a design and a plan."

Besides the obvious savings
in costs realized by having employees handle major tasks such as design and content
production, keeping website management internal gives SEPTA much-needed room to
continue to grow online. With its own Web Team in place, the transit authority
has the flexibility to make constant updates and improvements aimed at meeting
the needs of customers through septa.org.

"We keep all of the
control and creativity," Anderson said. "The sky really is the
limit."

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