E-cocars website launched
August 24th 2006
This month has also seen the launch of the new website for E-cocars
The brief for this site was to develop an interactive online survey website to gather information, which would lead to the launch of a car share project for young people in Devon.
Jeremy Farr from E-cocars explains and feeds back on the new site and the development process;
'The process of working through what it is that we needed from our new website was fairly tricky. Fortunately Cosmic and in particular John Elliot and Ben Mayo-Smith have been very patient and understanding. I came up with all the various functions that I required to enable me to operate the car club and John worked away at making the booking system run smoothly. The aim of the new Moorcar website was to be a shopfront to visitors to the site and at the same time handle all the bookings for an increasing number of cars in an increasing number of locations.
The layout of the new site allows for very simple navigation with immediate visual confirmation that a booking has been made. This is one of the most essential features of the car club, that members know that a car is booked and ready to be driven away. There is also a handy map to indicate the designated parking spaces for the cars. From the administrators side the site will also allow me to update the location and type of vehicle at a stroke. The content management system ensures that I can update all of the pricing variables to integrate with a monthly statement to members.
Ben has also been working on the layout of an unusual on-line questionnaire. The site e-cocars.com is intended to reach young people 16-19 yrs and in a few minutes and a few clicks of the mouse, collect data about the ridesharing needs of this age group. Current rideshare schemes in Devon are targeted at people making regular journeys to the same workplace or school. The simple question was what would encourage young people to use an internet-based rideshare scheme. From my research this is a totally novel concept, even though young people are among the most transport poor residents there is no special provision made for this group. The retired have free bus passes but young people are expected to use an irregular bus service or rely on friends or relatives to access services and social events. Would the familiarity with web-based services enable young people to arrange a lift with drivers outside of the immediate circle of friends and relatives? How would the issues of potential danger to the young person and of drivers be managed? Is the whole concept of offering and accepting lifts a thing of the past?
I came to Cosmic because of your history of working with young people and I felt you would have the skills and experience to take my concept for the questionnaire and make it work. From the comments of numerous young people who have clicked their way through the pilot you have succeeded.'