HGTV Canada
HGTV Canada was the final lifestyle brand I helped launch while working at Corus Entertainment. Unlike the previous redesigns for Food Network Canada and Slice, this project had a much tighter timeline and required a different approach. The business wanted the HGTV website to launch in the same quarter as the Food Network Canada redesign. With limited time and a separate development team assigned to the project, we needed to find a way to deliver a high-quality product without repeating months of design and research work. To meet this deadline, we decided to reuse the structure we had built for Slice and adapt it for HGTV’s content and brand identity.
Client
Corus Entertainment
Years
2021 - 2022
The Challenge
Reusing the framework developed for Slice allowed us to move quickly, but HGTV had different content needs that introduced new complexity. The site required additional features and page types that didn’t exist in the Slice experience, particularly around show discovery and editorial content. At the same time, the project required a full platform migration from .NET to WordPress and needed to maintain a mobile-first experience consistent with the other lifestyle brands. Balancing speed with quality became the central challenge of the project.
My Approach
To determine where we could reuse existing components and where new design work was required, I created a feature matrix comparing the Slice platform with HGTV’s product requirements. This allowed the team to quickly identify which pages could be adapted and which needed new design solutions.
I supplemented this analysis with targeted user surveys to better understand how audiences interacted with key areas of the HGTV ecosystem. These insights helped inform the design of several important content hubs, including shopping guides, episode guides, an all shows page, and an all hosts page. Working closely with the visual designer, we explored how existing Slice layouts could evolve to reflect HGTV’s brand while still maintaining structural consistency across the lifestyle network. We produced a series of design mocks that demonstrated how the framework could support HGTV’s unique content and presented these concepts to leadership for alignment.
Visual examples of how the Slice framework could be translated 1:1 with HGTV’s content.
Navigating Stakeholder Priorities
Another challenge was that a separate development team within the company would be responsible for building the HGTV website. Because they hadn’t been involved in the earlier Slice and Food Network launches, it was important to quickly transfer the knowledge and lessons our team had already learned.
To make this process manageable, I created a series of short onboarding sessions for the developers. Instead of overwhelming the team with a large presentation, I delivered focused fifteen-minute sessions spread across several weeks. This format allowed developers to absorb information gradually and created space for questions as they became more familiar with the platform and design decisions.
Outcome
HGTV Canada launched successfully in March 2022 alongside the newly redesigned lifestyle network ecosystem. By reusing the Slice framework and adapting it strategically for HGTV’s needs, we were able to deliver the product within an aggressive timeline while maintaining a consistent user experience across the network’s digital properties.
