Nic Marson Projects
iN2L CMS
The content management system (CMS) allows iN2L employees to author and edit content for use on the iN2L platform.
The content management system (CMS) allows iN2L employees to author and edit content for use on the iN2L platform.
Optimize the architecture and user-interface of the current content management system based on employee feedback.
December 2021 to April 2022
The current CMS was tied to existing devices and suffered from poor performance.
The new design seeks to improve work efficiency by simplifying common tasks and adding more automation to the process of managing content. It is also device agnostic, making it more future-proof than the current version.
UX researcher and UI designer designing the iN2L CMS from conception to delivery.
Gathering information from personal research and interviews. Writing and discussing information architecture with the content team. Designing and testing low and high-fidelity prototypes with the team and iterating on designs based on feedback.
The iN2L content team confirmed initial assumptions about the CMS. Personal experience and a competitive audit of other content management systems identified common patterns and expected features.
Content editors were spending most of their time waiting for operations to complete, or following obsolete methods to complete their work. This inefficient use of time costs the company money in lost wages.
The CMS was built using old and inefficient code and the user flow did not follow modern conventions.
Basic content creation and editing took an inordinately long time and users would have to keep multiple tabs open to be more efficient.
Mapping the user's journey through content creation revealed what new views were needed to have the best experience.
I met on several occasions with the content team, interviewing them as a group, to take notes. We reviewed the current CMS together and discussed pain points. After reaching a consensus I moved onto the next step.
Content editors already had a wish list of improvements. It was important that I include these along with the pain points I discovered.
The current CMS suffered from unnecessary duplication of data that could lead to syncing issues. The redesign should eliminate those issues.
Finding content in the current CMS required memorization of paths. The redesign should have search and robust filters.
As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from the user research.
These first concepts helped the content visualize concepts that were difficult to explain verbally, such as combining library and layout items onto one page.
Based on feedback from meetings and the wireframes I created a lo-fi, interactive prototype in Figma. This had the desired effect of demonstrating concepts that were difficult for the content team to visualize.
View Lo-fi Prototype
Additional mockups were needed based on feedback from the low-fi prototype including:
The hi-fi prototype demonstrated all the potential workflows the content team requested. It included content filtering, dialog pop-ups, and error states.
View Hi-fi Prototype
Added content label and description to title
Added alt text requirement to media library images
Used high contrast colors
What I learned:
The content team had acclimated to the current CMS workflow and couldn’t see the massive issues affecting their processes. It took a lot of patience and demonstration to convince them initially that huge changes were needed. Once they were aware of the issues, they were completely on board with the redesign.
Continue to process feedback
Create responsive layouts for mobile devices