Designing custom content management systems meant making it easy for clients to upload content. But more importantly, it was about creating an experience that imbued them with the confidence to use these tools.
Customized Content Management Systems
To offer our clients more flexible control over the types of content they could upload, we often created customized back-end systems that could support their requests for dynamic content. Whether it’s user management systems, or the ability to create and drop in a custom poll on any page, these CMS’ were highly robust and often fairly complicated. Not only was it my job to design the form that the CMS would take, but also to ensure that the experience of using these systems was as easy as possible. We wanted to give our content editors the confidence to make the right choices when using our tools.
Case Study 1: BBC Worldwide’s Subscription Management
Role: User Experience Designer
Subscriptions overview page
Subscriptions Tool
Outlining the tooltip copy
Documenting Behavior
As the user experience team evolved its practice over time, we began to create interaction design documentation that would outline the exact behaviors as intended by its designers. Whereas formerly in the past, agreements over interaction would take place verbally, we would now specify them on paper based on how we designed the back-end tool that would control its behavior. By having a hand at designing both ends of this spectrum, we were able to fully ascribe the intended experience of our designs.
Case Study 2: Madison Square Garden’s Ranking Tool Functionality
Role: Lead Designer
CMS for a customized ranking tool
Setting values through the CMS
Detailing the front-end behaviors