YCAT wins national first-place award for website

Talk about a makeover! The redesigned website for the Yuma County Area Transit has undergone such a transformation that it's been recognized as the best in its category.

Better known as YCAT, the bus system's new website recently won a first place award in the Electronic Media category.

The Yuma County Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority, which operates the bus system, competed with entries from other public transportation systems with less than 4 million passenger trips. YCAT's ridership in fiscal year 2012 was 364,000.

Nearly 500 entries from all over North America competed for awards in the four categories of print, electronic, campaign and special event.

The awards were announced at the Oct. 1 annual meeting of the American Public Transportation Association in Seattle, Wash.

Each year, the APTA AdWheel Awards recognize public transportation systems and APTA business members for excellence in advertising, communications, marketing and promotion.

Winning the award was “definitely exciting,” John Andoh, transit director, said.

“The hard work paid off. Among all other transit systems in the country, ours is award-winning, and we didn't spend much money to do it,” he noted, adding that the redesign cost $9,500.

The new website was developed by MGM Internet Solutions under the guidance of Matt Molenar and his staff. The project started in October 2011 and was completed in March 2012.

Andoh described the previous website as being too busy and hard to maneuver for information and riders did not have the ability to print schedules.

The new website is very comprehensive, attractive and easy to use. “It makes transit easy to use in Yuma,” Andoh said.

The website now features an interactive trip planner, maps and schedules, information about YCIPTA, its staff and board members, tips for riders, news, rider alerts and calendar of events.

Andoh's favorite feature is the trip planner, which allows bus riders to input their current location and their destination and the tool will tell them what bus stop to take, how long they have to walk to get to the bus stop, how much it will cost and how long the trip will take.

Riders can also click on a Google-powered interactive map and see a photo of the actual bus stop.

Andoh invited Yuma County residents to “check it out!”

To view what the former YCAT website looked like, visit http://web.archive.org/web/20110512185544/http://www.ycat.org/. To view the new YCAT website, visit www.ycat.org.

For YCAT transit information call 928-783-2235. For Greater Yuma Area Dial-A-Ride reservations, call 928-539-7076.

Mara Knaub can be reached at mknaub@yumasun.com or (928) 539-6856. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSMaraKnaub or on Twitter at @YSMaraKnaub.