CASE STUDY
Government Grant Website Redesign
Redesigning 3 pages of the Canada Digital Adoption Program website to help small businesses find and understand government funding.
BEFORE
AFTER
ROLE
First UX Opportunity
TIMELINE
Designer + Developer
SCREENS
3 Pages Redesigned
OUTCOME
Launched on Live Site
OVERVIEW
About this project
Magnet partnered with the Government of Canada to deliver the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), which provides grants and resources to help small businesses adopt digital tools. I was working as a Digital Communications Assistant when my manager offered me the chance to lead the UX redesign of the CDAP partner website.
ROLE
Digital Communications Assistant (first UX design opportunity)
TEAM
1 Designer (me), 1 Developer, 1 Project Manager, 1 Translator
TIMELINE
5 months (May – September 2023)
WHAT I OWNED
Wireframes, page layouts, user flow simplification, content hierarchy, dev handoff
THE PROBLEM
What was wrong with the existing site
Small business owners (many of whom aren't tech-savvy) were landing on pages full of dense government language, unclear navigation between grant types, and buried calls-to-action. The core challenge: how do you make government funding programs feel accessible to people who aren't used to navigating bureaucratic websites?
Problem 1
Information overload with no clear entry point
The homepage presented both grant programs side by side with minimal differentiation. Business owners had to read paragraphs of text to figure out which grant applied to them.
Problem 2
Inconsistent page structure across grant pages
Each grant page organized eligibility, application steps, and FAQs differently. Users learning one page's structure couldn't transfer that knowledge to the other.
Problem 3
Buried next steps
The most important action of applying for the grant, was buried under dense eligibility text with no visual separation between "am I eligible?" and "how do I apply?"
USER FLOW
Simplifying the navigation
Before designing any screens, I mapped out how users were navigating the existing site and identified where paths were splitting unnecessarily.
I simplified this by consolidating information onto fewer, longer pages. Each grant got a single comprehensive page with eligibility, how it works, FAQ, and a clear CTA. Instead of spreading that across multiple sub-pages.
THE REDESIGN
Before and after
Homepage: From wall of text to decision tool
The old homepage tried to explain both grants in paragraph form. The redesign turns it into a simple choice: two cards, each with a grant name, one-line description, and two CTAs. A business owner should identify which grant is relevant within 30 seconds.
BEFORE
AFTER
Boost Your Business Technology Page
The original page buried eligibility criteria in paragraphs and mixed business-facing and youth-facing information. The redesign separates these into clear columns, adds a numbered step-by-step section, and consolidates FAQ into an accordion.
BEFORE
AFTER
Grow Your Business Online Page
I applied the same structural pattern such as clear hero, eligibility with side-by-side columns, step flow, and consistent FAQ. This consistency between grant pages means a user who reads one page already knows how to navigate the other.
BEFORE
AFTER
PROCESS
From wireframes to final design
I created low-fidelity wireframes for all three pages before working with the developer on implementation. The wireframes focused on content hierarchy and making sure the most important information appeared in the right order for someone scanning quickly.
Working with the developer was mostly async via Slack. I'd share wireframes with layout direction and content placement, they'd implement, and we'd go back and forth on adjustments. The bilingual requirements (English and French) added complexity to every layout decision, since text that works in English often expands significantly in French.
OUTCOME
What I delivered
Wireframes and layout direction for 3 redesigned pages
Simplified user flow reducing unnecessary navigation branches
Content hierarchy restructuring for clearer information scanning
Design direction handed off to developer via Slack
All 3 pages launched on the live CDAP partner website
REFLECTION
What I'd do differently
If I were doing this project again with more experience, I'd push harder on two things.
First, I'd advocate for user testing before launch. The redesign was informed by reviewing the existing site structure and discussing pain points with my team, but we didn't test with actual small business owners. Even 3–5 quick tests would have validated or challenged my assumptions about how users scan these pages.
Second, I'd pay more attention to the mobile experience. Government grant sites get significant mobile traffic, but my wireframes focused primarily on desktop layouts. Responsive behavior was left largely to the developer's judgment rather than being explicitly designed.
This was my first real experience shaping how users interact with a digital product. Before this, my work at Magnet was marketing-focused. When my manager offered me the chance to redesign these pages, I realized that the part of marketing I was most drawn to was the part where you decide how information is organized, how users find what they need, and how a page guides someone toward an action. That's UX. This project is why I changed direction.
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