Ensuring the smooth operation of Canada’s securities industry
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) is an umbrella organization for provincial and territorial securities regulators in Canada. Their primary aim is to enhance, coordinate, and harmonize the regulation of Canada’s capital markets. The CSA also works collaboratively on regulatory programs across Canada and addresses policy decisions that affect the capital market and its participants.
The primary goal of the CSA website is to serve as a centralized platform that complements information found on member sites—consolidating essential data for investors, firms, and other regulators. The site aims to enhance communication by addressing key issues, offering a national harmonized voice on financial regulation, and hosting critical messaging, education, and enforcement information. This is particularly beneficial for smaller jurisdictions with limited resources, which can direct their users to the CSA website. Additionally, the site provides vital information around fraud and serves as a central space for market participants and individuals to access timely regulatory updates and educational materials.
Designed to meet the needs of key users — registrants navigating compliance, investors and consumers seeking clarity, educators promoting financial literacy, and researchers analyzing regulatory data.
The CSA’s website was over a decade old, with outdated navigation that made it challenging for defined audiences, such as firms and retail investors, to find key information like alerts and updates. The design was not responsive, meaning that as mobile traffic increased, users experienced frustration when accessing the site from devices other than desktops. Additionally, the homepage had limitations that made it difficult to highlight key messaging effectively. Another notable challenge was the cumbersome process when making changes to the site’s content. Administrators would need to make a single content change and then publish them across multiple sections of the site. These issues collectively hindered the website’s ability to serve its users efficiently.
The project commenced with a kick-off meeting involving internal stakeholders, including representatives from key jurisdictions. We then conducted a comprehensive content inventory of all English and French assets. During the discovery phase, audience needs and the technical scope were defined through user stories, with a particular focus on site administration. Collaborating with Julie, we pinpointed the most common administrative tasks, while Adam and Kyungmi mapped each process to identify ways to minimize steps and duplication of efforts.
Additional testing with administrators revealed potential for further reducing data entry time. Mike introduced custom Gutenberg blocks for display templates, enabling content preview during entry, thus eliminating an extra, time-consuming step.
Analytics and user feedback identified “Investor Alerts” as a frequently repeated task, leading Kyungmi to streamline search functionality and listing format for faster scanning. We implemented tracking analytics and allocated budget for further testing.
After finalizing the content inventory, Adam conducted tree tests with the main audience and jurisdictional members separately. The varying results exposed navigational structure assumptions and gaps, leading to additional testing and navigation refinement. To ensure user-centered navigation, we recruited audience members to test the existing navigational structure and proposed future structures through card sorting and tree jack exercises. This ensured the site’s navigation was highly efficient before implementation.
A complex migration plan was devised due to the need to migrate most pages from ASPx to WordPress. This migration was executed during each development release, allowing the client to test the new site with real content. Wireframes and visual designs were created and presented to the client for feedback, optimizing the design for top tasks based on existing research and stakeholder discussions. Multiple development releases were conducted, allowing for incremental testing and more efficient use of client time.
We developed WordPress admin functions tailored to the CSA’s existing workflows, refining where appropriate to ensure that updating content was much quicker and with more control than before. The project was launched on time and on budget, meeting all the client’s requirements and significantly improving the overall user experience.
The redesigned site significantly improved user engagement and task completion rates. It is fully responsive and WCAG 2.2 AA compliant. Tree exercises showed a success rate of over 85% when navigating the new site, even for the most complex tasks. Usability testing indicated that the new checkbox pattern was intuitive, leading to better user interaction and satisfaction. The administrator tasks were streamlined, cutting content creation time by over 75%, and the overall administrative experience was enhanced through iterative design and testing phases.