Yahoo homepage redesign: accessible personalization
Mohammad Al-Qasem
Yahoo Homepage Redesign
User-centered redesign of Yahoo's homepage for usability, accessibility, and personalization. High-fidelity Figma prototype validated through a focus-group study (n=7) against Nielsen's 10 heuristics.
Overview
Course project for CSCC10H3 — Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Toronto Scarborough. The brief: choose a real-world product with usability problems, run the full user-centered design cycle, and deliver a validated prototype.
We picked Yahoo's homepage because it embodies three issues we wanted to design around:
Visual clutter — too many widgets, no hierarchy
Accessibility gaps — no easy entry into screen-reader friendliness, contrast options, etc.
Zero personalization — every visitor sees the same page
Process
Phase 1 — Project proposal
Identified Yahoo's interface as the redesign target; framed UX issues; set goals for the cycle.
Phase 2 — User research
Survey with 166 responses to quantify the issues
Semi-structured interviews to surface qualitative pain points
User personas + scenarios + a hierarchical task analysis to anchor design decisions
Phase 3 — Prototype design
Low-fidelity wireframes evolved into a high-fidelity Figma prototype with three new flows:
Accessibility splash screen on first launch — text size, contrast, voice, screen-reader toggles
Customizable widgets on the home grid — pin, hide, reorder
AI-powered search assistant — composes Yahoo Mail drafts from a single prompt
Phase 4 — Usability evaluation
Focus group (7 participants, ages 16–55)
Evaluated against Nielsen's 10 heuristics
Documented findings, design limitations, and future work
Files
Phase IV Usability Evaluation Report.pdf — full write-up: literature review, methodology, resultsKey takeaways
Inclusive design earns time investment up front (the splash screen) but pays off across every subsequent session
Users praised the widget customization and overall navigation clarity
Strongest feedback gap: clearer toggle states and in-app documentation; both went on the future-work list
Course context
UTSC CSCC10H3 — Human-Computer Interaction, 2024.
Contributors
Mohammad Al-Qasem
Elena Manneh
Francis Ayyad
Arina Azmi
Masahisa Sekita
Zhao Ling Zhang
Kaven Liu
Contact
LinkedIn: in/mohammadqasemm
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Posted Aug 8, 2026
Shaped a redesign from 166 survey responses and a seven-person usability study, adding accessible onboarding, customizable widgets, and AI search.
