Designing for the Forgotten User UX for Content Managers

John McKinney and Tim Boisvert

Ashe Avenue has extensive experience building tools for clients and editors who work with CMS everyday (Vice, High Times, Daily News, Huffington Post, CNN)

Our experience with CMS

The relationship that the writer has with the CMS differs depending on the size, vertical, editorial approach, history, publishing frequency, and many other factors.

There is no magic bullet solution

Big Outfits (CNN, NYT)

Mid-Size Online Pubs

(Vice)

Blog Setups

What the idealist developer sees

The main design issue with most content management systems stems from the lack of awareness regarding how the editor expects to go about creating and managing content.

The disconnect

Data vs. Design

What’s most important to your editor? Design for that first. There may not be room for it later.

Filling the jar

Convenience

Minimal Repetition (DRY)

Simplicity

What’s important to an editor?

Content Development

Asset Management

Online Preparation

Publishing

The editorial process

Major outfits

Mid-size pubs

Blogs

The editorial process

Hyper-micro-publishing

Looking forward

Storification

Pull a thread through related articles as time marches on

Looking forward

Single-use presentation

Layout created for a specific article

Looking forward

Sponsored + external content

Looking forward

Increased compression of the application stack

Platforms-as-a-service will further enable rapid, micro-commits

Language and database abstractions aimed at non-technical users

Changes in the technical landscape

Discover the editor’s viewpoint and expectations Think big but start small Plan for global brands, additional verticals, complex data structures

Conclusion

Slideshare

We will provide this deck on Speakerdeck later this week.

Thank You ASHE AVENUE LOVES YOU. STAY BRUTAL.

Q&A