Tribunals Ontario Website Usability Testing
Government of Ontario / Summer 2024 - Fall 2024
Goal
The Tribunals Ontario (TO) communications unit modified existing website content to a new template design. They engaged the XD to usability test the to-be launched modernized website, with the hope of achieving intuitive navigation, a clear portrayal of the application process, and to remove accessibility barriers.
Approach
We ran usability tests with past Tribunal applicants as well as internal TO call centre staff to understand how the website might best meet both user groups' needs.
Project Snapshot
Team
3 Designers
2 Developers
1 Communications Consultant
1 Senior Manager
Timeline
4 months
Tools
Miro
Zoom
Alchemer
Constraints
Recommendations limited to layout and navigation; content less amenable to change
TO website did not use the Ontario Design System
View the live redesigned site
User journey and test tasks
SMEs from the TO team provided us with an overview of the typical user journey that a Tribunal applicant would take:
We ran task-based usability tests mirroring these essential user journey steps, asking users to:
Find information on how they would prepare to submit an appeal
Walk through how they would submit an appeal
Find next steps after submitting an appeal
The good
Effective call-to-action (CTA) buttons
Users appreciated the many CTA buttons sprinkled throughout the site, noting they were consistently present on most of the site's pages, making them easily accessible at any point in their journey.
Call centre staff appreciated CTAs that highlighted where to find legal help as their visibility made them easy to guide clients to.
Additional resources
Call centre staff found additional resources provided in callout tables to be helpful in directing clients to information commonly asked about such as acts and legislation.
Call centre participants also found information on what to expect during a hearing to be highly relevant for applicants that wonder what the hearing process is like (applicants sometimes ask to sit in on hearings to get a better sense of the process).
Navigation Findings and Recommendations
❌ Call centre staff sought out frequently accessed pages immediately, suggesting a need for shortcuts, whereas applicants new to the process struggled to orient themselves.
✅ Facilitate two navigation streams on the homepage, providing quick links to forms and portals for experienced users and directing less experienced users to steps of the filing process
❌ Users expected the filing process tabs to serve as a tutorial-style guide instead of a table of contents
✅ Display process step information through paginated displays that indicate the next step of the process promptly.
❌ Users expected the global navigation to relate to their tribunal of interest and were surprised when it didn’t. They expected the same of the search bar, desiring results specific to a single tribunal.
✅ Create visual separation between the global navigation and site pages so as to not confuse the two.
The white background of the primary nav matched the white background of tribunal-specific pages
A colour that separates tribunal-specific pages from the primary nav indicates greater semantic separation
Content Findings and Recommendations
Although direct changes to content wasn't under our purview, we suggested methods of altering the content's placement and emphasis to help make it more understandable.
❌ Users found some important information was missing from the site, such as untraditional circumstances and timelines. Some of this information was present but buried in dense, long pages.
✅ Revise and update content, bringing it up higher in the information architecture and highlighting it towards the top of pages to minimize the need to scroll.
❌ Users located relevant information in sometimes unexpected locations. They also often found information on the website difficult to understand.
✅ Rename some page headings to better describe their content. Add brief descriptions of what to expect on a hyperlinked page before users enter it.
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❌ Multiple users made suggestions on alternative information layouts to optimize the accessibility of the information presented.
✅ Supplement written information with diagrams (e.g., flow charts) to visualize process steps and/or process timelines. Instructional videos can provide an audio and visual alternative for process step descriptions and details.
Handoff and Next steps
When presenting our findings to the TO communications team, we recommended conducting an in-depth content review to identify outdated or otherwise irrelevant content, as well as to prioritize plain language and digestible information.
Since my involvement in the project, Tribunals Ontario has gone on to make revisions to site layout and content in line with our recommendations. The website will continue to undergo changes through an iterative process.
View the live redesigned site
My takeaways
A number of constraints resulted in our impact being limited to recommendations without mockups to illustrate them. Though not ideal, it tested our ability to effectively communicate detailed and nuanced insights with minimal visual support. Without our own mockups, we turned to trusted sources such as Ontario's own design system and GOV.UK's design system to showcase examples of alternative layouts, components and styles that might help the TO team achieve their goals.
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