Challenge
Canadians across the country rely on CTV News as their trusted source for national and global current affairs. With strong brand recognition from their nightly national newscasts and localized programming, CTV News has established itself as a leading digital news destination in Canada—consistently ranking among the top news sites in the country.
Despite this prominence, the CTV News homepage utilized numerous carousel implementations for different content types that weren't serving their intended purpose effectively. The National News broadcast promotion carousel, in particular, employed an accessibility-problematic UI pattern that neither showcased broadcast content effectively nor provided clear pathways to video content. While editorial teams were accustomed to this format, they were unaware of better alternatives that could enhance content discovery while improving accessibility.
The challenge was to reimagine this high-profile component in a way that would maintain its promotional function while addressing accessibility concerns and creating a more intuitive content discovery experience—all within the constraints of an aging CMS platform and established editorial workflows.
How might we transform the National News broadcast promotion from a conventional carousel into an accessible, purpose-built component that:
Better articulates the narrative value of the broadcastProvides clearer pathways to both specific clips and the full newscastMaintains visual prominence without relying on accessibility-compromised interaction patternsServes as a model for how other content carousels might be reconsidered across the platform
There is a strategic opportunity here
By reimagining this high-profile component rather than simply "fixing" it, we could demonstrate how questioning established UI patterns can simultaneously improve accessibility, enhance user experience, and better fulfill business goals—setting a precedent for similar improvements across the site.