State of the art anayisis (by Jonas M)

Waxholmsbolaget in comparison to other public transportation sites.

How to find the site

The tourists we spoke to never used an app or internet searches. Their main source of information was the information provided by their hotel. They could also stop and ask strangers when confused about finding a location.

If turning to the internet, the official Visit Stockholm site provides several links to different type of public transportation, one of these are Waxbolmsbolaget, which runs the ferries in Stockholm.

Waxholmsbolaget website

The page initially displays in Swedish, but a "Visitor"-button is easy to find in the upper right corner. This seem to be a standard as my reference sites (official sites for traveling in Gothenburg, Stockholm (SL) and Berlin) have the same placement. The site for Waxholmsbolaget continues to mainly promote the Stockholm Archipelago as some kind of day trip. It also provides information on payment, contact and what to navigate when on the website.

The goal seem to be to provide information to people sitting at a computer and planning their journey/trip in a non-stressful environment. In comparison, the other sites are mainly focused on providing quick accessible information in how to travel from point A to point B on their front page. Waxholmsbolaget prioritizes tourism information rather than quick navigation information. In short, the website provides the same information as any tourist guide in the hotels. 

When wanting to travel from point A to point B, things get a lot more difficult. The other travel sites have quick access to the A to B trip planner, even though they lack some information to tourists (like a good map interface). Waxholmsbolaget English site does not have this feature, though it is present in the Swedish version of the site - it is simply removed! It really dumb down the user and takes an approach of "let me plan a major trip for you" rather than allowing the user to use a ferry as a minor part of a trip chosen by themselves. 

This hand-holding focuses too much on making the ferry and it's destinations the peak experience of the day, rather than a tool of transportation. For a user that just wants to travel from point A to B, this site is completely useless. Though, the SL page will account for ferries and thus it might be obsolete to make two similar websites - focusing on the experience aspect might be a good complement for the A to B approach of SL

The lack of new technology is omnipresent...

What is always present in journey planners are map functions. All these sites seem to lack advanced map functions. The city of Linköping have superb interface for travelling in their website, http://www.ostgotatrafiken.se. It completely dominates the major cities travel helpers in Sweden, especially Waxholmsbolaget. It simply lists all stations, bus stops, etc... on a map and you can simply click on one and it will plan your journey from your current position, or address of your hotel, and show the path you need to walk in order to find the stations. This is the ultimate tool for a person unfamiliar with the city.