Creative Director & UX Leader
UX leadership and enterprise
website transformation
One website, rebuilt around its audiences.
43% fewer clicks
I led a six-person UX and creative team through the complete rebuild of OTPP.com, including its architecture, platform, content, responsive experience, and publishing system.
The project started in February 2021 and launched in November 2021. It brought together four key divisions: Member Communications, Corporate Communications, Investments, and HR.
Role
UX and Creative Lead
Team
UX designers, UX researchers, front-end designers, and creative designers
Scope
Research, UX strategy, information architecture, accessibility, design systems, stakeholder alignment, and delivery
Duration
February to November 2021
What I Lead
As Manager, UX & Creative:
-
Directed internal UX team in collaboration with Accenture’s UX group (4 designers)
-
Managed integration with dev partner Digital On Six
-
Coordinated with internal content and agency teams
-
Ran weekly Sprint Reviews with executive stakeholders
-
Delivered UX strategy, IA, research, and Figma-based design system
How We Did It
-
Ran stakeholder interviews and user tests to map key journeys
-
Defined 3 UX personas: Searchers, Seekers, and Skimmers
-
Led IA revamp using card sorts and label testing
-
Built responsive Figma components with accessibility baked in
-
Personalized content by region (NA, EMIA, Asia-Pacific)
The Challenge
OTPP.com reflected the organization behind it more than the needs of the people using it. Visitors often had to understand which division owned the information they wanted. The website was also non-responsive, new pages frequently required custom layouts, and publishing involved four separate steps.
Figma Component Library / Design System for the OTPP Site Overhaul
What I led
I reorganized the experience around audience goals. Each division identified and rated the priorities for its section of the website, and I used those rankings to weight the UX around the top three goals for each audience.
That prioritization shaped the information architecture, navigation, page hierarchy, and research prototypes. I also led the development of a reusable responsive UX system that made the site easier for internal teams to maintain.
The impact
43% fewer clicks to complete priority tasks. Publishing dropped from four steps to two, and content production became 30–40% faster within six months of launch.
The website was also designed to meet WCAG 2.0 AA standards and has remained in use since 2021.
1. Rebuilding the website around user priorities
The project began with interviews across Member Communications, Corporate Communications, Investments, and HR.
Each group had different goals. HR wanted candidates to reach job listings quickly. Member Communications needed clear pathways for working and retired members. Investments and Corporate Communications needed room for more specialized audiences and content.
I asked each group to identify and rate the goals for its section of the website. I then weighted the UX around the top three priorities for each audience.
This gave us a practical way to make decisions when stakeholder needs competed. It also helped keep the architecture focused on the tasks users were most likely to arrive with.
The resulting structure organized the website around audiences rather than OTPP's internal divisions.
Tony combines strategic UX thinking with strong systems leadership. He helped turn a complex website problem into a clearer, more scalable platform by aligning teams around user needs and practical decision-making.
Vanessa Mariga, Manager, Member Communications, OTPP
2. Testing the decision before committing to it
Some stakeholders worried that adding an audience layer to the navigation would increase click depth and make the website harder to use.
Rather than settle the issue through stakeholder opinion, I asked the UX research team to run a rapid validation sprint using a Figma prototype with internal and external participants.
Participants quickly recognized patterns they had seen on their banks' websites.
On the previous OTPP.com, participants averaged seven clicks across priority tasks, with the greatest difficulty in Careers. In the redesigned prototype, the average fell to four clicks, a 43% reduction.
Testing also confirmed that working members, retired members, and job candidates could identify the right pathway without knowing which OTPP division owned the content.
The findings gave senior stakeholders enough evidence to approve the direction and allowed the team to keep moving.
3. Designing for different ways of finding information
Research showed that people approached the website with different levels of intent. Some arrived knowing exactly what they needed. Others wanted context first or scanned a page until something useful caught their attention.
We turned those behaviours into a working model called Searchers, Seekers, and Skimmers.
Searchers needed direct routes to priority tasks. Seekers could open supporting information when they wanted more context. Clear headings and visual cues helped skimmers understand a page quickly.
The model gave designers, writers, and stakeholders a shared way to evaluate navigation, content, and page hierarchy throughout the build.
4. Making the site easier to maintain
The rebuild also had to improve what happened behind the website.
I led the development of a reusable UX system in Figma with responsive components and page patterns based on real publishing needs. It included flexible templates, content modules, navigation patterns, accessible typography, interaction states, and shared design rules.
We limited unnecessary layout variation while leaving enough flexibility for different content needs.
The new system reduced publishing from four steps to two. Within the first six months, content production was 30–40% faster than under the previous process.
I also led sprint reviews, stakeholder meetings, and presentations to senior leadership throughout the project. Through the monthly Design Exchange, I aligned UX, brand, information, and educational designers across Toronto, New York City, Singapore, and the UK.
5. What stayed with me
The publishing experience shapes the public experience.
I entered the project focused on how visitors would use the website. The work gave me a clearer view of how much their experience depends on the systems behind it.
When internal teams can publish clearly, respond quickly, and make consistent decisions, visitors get a better experience too. The component system was designed with both groups in mind.
The project also changed how I handle disagreement. When a team stalls around competing opinions, I look for the smallest useful test that can move the decision forward.
Here, a focused research sprint gave us the evidence we needed to make the call and keep building.
Next project
One global brand system. 30% faster delivery.
See how I led the development of an accessible OTPP brand system adopted across teams, regions, channels, and external agencies.
[VIEW THE OTPP BRAND CASE STUDY]
[GET IN TOUCH]
