DriveTest Center offers driver licensing and examination services, such as knowledge tests and road tests, on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation (MTO). In Canada, it is mandatory that all drivers possess a driver’s licence, this includes international drivers.
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According to DriveTest.ca:

“Every year, we conduct 725,000 road tests, administer 588,000 written tests, process 600,000 driver's licence applications, and answer easily over a million questions about driver licensing. Year-round, drivers of passenger and commercial vehicles visit DriveTest Centres to obtain, restore, and upgrade their licences.”

You can view the live DriveTest.ca website and compare with the REDESIGN I build in Webflow.

DriveTest Redesign

DriveTest Center offers driver licensing and examination services, such as knowledge tests and road tests, on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation (MTO). In Canada, it is mandatory that all drivers possess a driver’s licence, this includes international drivers.
‍

According to DriveTest.ca:

“Every year, we conduct 725,000 road tests, administer 588,000 written tests, process 600,000 driver's licence applications, and answer easily over a million questions about driver licensing. Year-round, drivers of passenger and commercial vehicles visit DriveTest Centres to obtain, restore, and upgrade their licences.”

You can view the live DriveTest.ca website and compare with the REDESIGN-PROTOTYPE I build with Webflow.

Original Design

Redesign

Next Project

Orginal Design

Redesign

Side note: I do not work for DriveTest.ca and the perspectives from this redesign are my own. Unfortunately I don’t have access to the user data that influenced the design decisions of the original design, as i could use them as a guide to improve the goals of DriveTest. As a result, this redesign is brief, I used my personal experience with DriveTest and Jakob Nielsen's usability heuristics as a guidance on improving functionality and aesthetics.
I'm also NOT suggesting that DriveTest.ca abandon their current design and appropriate my redesign. This is a personal project I decided to partake to hone my design skills.

Before I begin explaining my design process, I’d like to share the story of how I came across this project through my personal user-journey of booking a road test.

Helping my father.

My task was to book a driving test for my father. I wanted to call in personally to ask if it was possible to join him during the examination as a translator because he doesn't speak English. I searched on Google for "Ontario driving test" and found the DriveTest website. About 10 seconds in, I couldn’t find any indication of their contact information. So, I thought it would make sense to find the nearest drivetest location and call directly.

I began my search, and after 3 steps of...
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1. Clicking FIND DRIVE TEST CENTRE ( landing on new page)
2. Zoom in on the Ontario map / city of Toronto / East of Toronto.
3. Click on the nearest location, scroll up and down the info card, only to find out there is NO NUMBER to call.

Frustrated and confused, I go back to Google and search "DriveTest number" and to find their contact information.

I call in (15 minute waiting time), I asked what I needed to and ready to book a driving test. The person on the other line says to me “I’m sorry, you can't book a test over the phone at this time due to difficulties with the service, it has to be done online or in person at the DriveTest center locations.”  

Now I am feeling even more frustrated and thinking “I should of just tried finding the information I needed online. But it was confusing enough. I felt it would have been pointless to try.”  
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I was able to book a driving test, but it felt as i've lost so much time trying to do so, when it shouldn't.

And time is something no one can get back.

Evaluating DriveTest.ca

Due to the situation, to book a road test it must be done online or in-person. There is a lot of online traffic that may slow down the process, so It is essential that drivers have an efficient way of booking their driving test, furthermore building trust with DriveTest and the services they provide.

I first began by observing what I am seeing on my screen. Being aware of what my eye is drawn to, what I am feeling when I see it, fully grasping of what’s in front of me and writing it down.

Then I question:
  1. What is this product/service for?
  2. Who is the audience?
  3. What are the goals of the user?
  4. What emotions does it evoke?

‍‍By answering these questions (sometimes by a well educated-guess), I can better align what I was observing with the goal of the product; allowing me to further identify areas of improvement.

Using’s the perspective lens of a driver with the goal of booking a road test, and keeping in mind the website’s main priority to book a road test, I analyze the website again to time how long it took to bridge the two goals.
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When applicable I used Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristic as guidance for improving the functionality of the website.

DriveTest.ca Landing Page

1. Hierarchy issues are noticed between the block of information and the hero image. Due to competition of space, the hero image loses value as the block of information draws the attention of the user by providing them content to focus on.
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Generally, when elements are sharing a clearly defined area, they are perceived to be part of a group that provides similar information. I believe this block has four distinct categories of information; increasing in complexity which in turn increases the time for the user to make a decision.

2. The bolded yellow text is irrelevant for that group of information, it creates more competition between the other text and call to action (BOOK A ROAD TEST & FIND A DRIVE CENTRE).

3. Competition between two Call To Action buttons (BOOK A ROAD TEST & FIND A DRIVE CENTRE).
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Now we’ve reached the point where the user can click BOOK A ROAD TEST to accomplish the main goal of the website, but we're also presented with an other option of finding a DriveTest centre. Which can be appealing because drivers can search for a location that is convenient, but clicking FIND A SERVICE CENTRE diverts the user away from the goal of booking the road test. ‍

4. The section on the navigation bar "BOOK A ROAD TEST & FIND A DRIVE CENTRE" are doublicated options that can be confusing for the user as it makes them question: “Which do I choose? Do they have different meanings?”
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Side note: I believe the reason why the original designer(s) choose to include the sections "BOOK A ROAD TEST & FIND A DRIVE CENTRE" on the navigation bar, is so that the options are accessible when visiting other pages.
As this option is more accessible, its aesthetics suffer; causing further confusion and delay on decision making.

5. Section items on navigation bar: Driver’s Licence and Driver’s Test cause a delay in decision making. The term "Driver" is repetitive which increases the cognitive load for the user. For a better user experience, users shouldn't have an increase in cognitive load by trying to recall information when it could easily be recognized.

Mental process of recalling information
Solution:

By changing the terms Driver’s Licence to Licences & Driver’s Test to Test Information, the user has clear identification of the two options.

Mental process of recognizing information

6. Usually users are scanning the the website to find important information, coming across a large body of texts makes it hard to follow therefore diverting away from useful content.

DriveTest.ca Redesign

Solutions:

Replaced the image with one that is better suitable.
Added an opening phrase that connects the drivers with the service.
Created more space by separating the content into different areas.
Repositioned the "Book a road test" CTA so its clearly visible for the user, allowing them to focus on it.

Solutions:

I added a "Find a DriveTest location" that provides users more accessibility to searching a location.
Under the assumption that ‍DriveTest wants the bolded text (NOW OPEN:  The Mississauga DriveTest Centre located at 255 Longside Drive, Mississauga, ON.) to be known to the drivers, I made it apparent by positioning at the top of section.

Solutions:

Separated each content into different, separate chunks of information and adding them into a slider. Allowing the user to be focused on less amount of text.

Solutions:

Accessibility is key to gaining information. Having a clear information architecture allows users to easily navigate through the site. My approach was to combine the two sections "Book a road test" and "Find a drive centre" into “Contact Us.”
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Within "Contact Us" users are able to access DriveTest's contact information and the option to book a road test.

Furthermore, I included a "Contact us" section on the home page as it allows users to gain access to contact information.

Reflection

Redesigning the DriveTest website was rewarding as I got to design a solution for a problem that I have personally experienced, while keeping in mind other users of the website.  The exciting part of this project was designing a layout that included a strategy that achieved the website's goals on a single page. I believe that, making information architecture a priority allowed this design to provide intuitive navigation and bridge the users with their goals at much faster speed. My next step to making the design better would include gaining a better understanding of the DriveTest's brand and creating engaging visuals that elicit a positive emotional response.

TEL: 054-2666560
Created with ❤ by Maya Karmon.
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