A full-cycle UX redesign improving TTC website navigation through IA auditing, usability testing, and iterative validation.
Role
UX Designer
Users
TTC riders (task-based usability testing)
Methods
UX audit, usability testing, IA analysis, low-fi & hi-fi prototyping
Context & Goal
The TTC website supports essential rider tasks such as trip planning, service updates, and fare information.
However, users often struggled to locate key information efficiently due to unclear navigation and content hierarchy.
The goal of this project was to identify usability gaps in the existing experience and iteratively improve clarity, findability, and task efficiency through research and testing.
• The project began with an evaluation of the current TTC website to understand where and why users encountered friction.
• Research activities included:
• UX audit of the existing website
• Task-based usability testing with riders
• Observation of navigation behavior and task completion challenges
• This phase focused on identifying patterns rather than isolated issues.
Key Insights
• Insights from the audit and testing revealed consistent challenges:
• Users struggled to locate critical information quickly
• Navigation labels did not align with user expectations
• Key rider tasks were buried under secondary content
• These issues indicated a misalignment between the site’s structure and rider mental models.
Design & Iteration
Design decisions were informed by research insights and validated through multiple rounds of testing and refinement.
Clarifying navigation by restructuring content around user tasks
Analysis of the existing IA showed that content was organized by internal logic rather than rider goals. To address this, the team restructured the IA to prioritize primary rider tasks.
Key actions:
Mapped user goals to content categories
Simplified navigation hierarchy
Revised labels to match user language
Design decision
Shift from organization-based categorization to task-based navigation.
Testing structure and flow before visual refinement
Low-fidelity wireframes were created to validate the revised IA and navigation flow without introducing visual bias.
The focus at this stage was:
Navigation clarity
Page structure
Task completion path
This allowed early feedback on structure before moving to detailed design.
Validating design decisions through user feedback
The low-fi prototypes were tested with users to assess whether the new structure improved clarity and usabilit
Feedback indicated:
Improved understanding of where to find information
Reduced navigation confusion
More predictable task flows
Based on feedback, iterations included:
Refining navigation labels
Adjusting content grouping
Removing unnecessary steps
Refining the interface while preserving validated structure
After validating the structure, the design was refined into higher-fidelity screens that maintained the tested IA while improving visual hierarchy and readability.
Final designs aimed to:
Reinforce task prioritization
Improve scanability
Support accessibility considerations
The redesigned experience resulted in:
Clearer navigation structure
Faster access to key information
Greater user confidence when completing tasks
While this was a conceptual redesign, testing indicated meaningful improvements in usability and comprehension.
This project reinforced the importance of:
Grounding design decisions in user research
Letting information architecture drive interface design
Iterating based on real user feedback rather than assumptions
While this was a conceptual redesign, testing indicated meaningful improvements in usability and comprehension.
This project reinforced the importance of:
Grounding design decisions in user research
Letting information architecture drive interface design
Iterating based on real user feedback rather than assumptions
While this was a conceptual redesign, testing indicated meaningful improvements in usability and comprehension.
