NJTPA Website Redesign
McCormick Taylor worked with NJTPA to redesign and modernize the agency’s digital presence. The effort focused on creating a fast, secure, and fully accessible website that improves how planning, project, and funding information is organized and delivered to a broad audience, including subregional partners, industry professionals, and the public.
The Challenge
NJTPA.org serves diverse audiences, including municipalities, county officials, board members, elected leaders, state and federal partners, GIS professionals, funding entities, and the general public in northern New Jersey. Over time, expanding content, evolving accessibility requirements, and increased mobile use made it difficult for users to quickly locate studies, reports, and planning resources. The existing structure limited discoverability and did not fully reflect North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority’s (NJTPA) commitment to transparency and public engagement.
How We Helped
The website redesign was grounded in a collaborative, user-centered discovery and evaluation process conducted in close partnership with NJTPA. We began by reviewing existing user feedback and internal staff input to identify key challenges and opportunities for improvement. This was paired with a comparative analysis of peer Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) websites to assess best practices in content organization, navigation, and user engagement.
Insights from this research informed targeted recommendations to improve the site’s information architecture, navigation structure, and overall user experience. We also evaluated three Content Management System (CMS) options, documenting findings and recommendations in a technical memorandum to support informed decision-making. Together, these efforts established a strong foundation for a redesign aligned with NJTPA’s goals for clarity, accessibility, transparency, and long-term maintainability.
During the design phase, we developed multiple design concepts for NJTPA.org, exploring different visual approaches and functional features. Single page mockups were also created for two related websites – InTransitionmag.org and BeStreetSmartNJ.org – preserving their existing designs while ensuring alignment with the main website. Design concepts were reviewed collaboratively with editors and senior staff, refined through feedback, and advanced into working prototypes.
The project also included the development of a detailed implementation plan and schedule, along with a comprehensive inventory of existing pages. This inventory defined roles and responsibilities for content migration and provided clear guidance to ensure a consistent and efficient transition.
In the development phase, approved designs and documentation were applied to the construction and migration of content, consolidating NJTPA’s three existing websites into a single, unified platform. Training sessions and detailed documentation were provided to NJTPA staff to support content migration and ongoing site management. Final staff reviews, punch‑list resolution, and comprehensive product and user acceptance testing were conducted prior to launch to allow for a successful deployment.
Results
We delivered a fully responsive website that adapts seamlessly to desktop, tablet, and mobile experiences. The platform includes 35 custom page templates for structured content types and 96 unique custom pages. Navigation and page layouts were simplified to reduce cognitive load and help users reach key content faster. Studies, reports, data and planning resources are now organized through clearer menus, and an intuitive information hierarchy.
A major enhancement was the redesign of the Studies section, which now allows users to search across all ongoing and completed studies by year, subregion, and program, transforming a previous static content area into a practical research and planning tool.
As part of the broader refresh, we also redesigned Street Smart NJ and InTransition magazine, aligning their look and feel with the main website while preserving their distinct functions for their intended purpose and audiences. Together, these efforts consolidated three separate websites into a single, streamlined platform that better serves NJTPA’s mission and its users across northern New Jersey.
