The Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) helps the province's publicly funded colleges, universities, and research hospitals commercialize their innovations. To create a more user-friendly process through which clients could apply for innovation services and funding online, OCE turned to Akendi.

Through stakeholder research, Akendi learned that the existing portal's one-size-fits-all format was cumbersome and confusing to users. In fact, an OCE staff member would often need to help applicants complete forms that were meant to be “self-serve.” Through end-user interviews and workshops we identified key user personas that informed the creation of wireframes.

The design was further improved through usability testing insights that ultimately resulted in simpler forms and an updated visual design that is clear, concise, helpful, and visually appealing.