Suzie's Work | CMS Platform

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CMS Platform

Role

● Product Designer

Contribution

● User Research & Usability Studies

● Design System

● Wire-framing

● Interactive Prototyping

Project background

KEF is a British audio brand that specializes in the production of high-end speakers. For years, the company has maintained an e-commerce presence. Generating a significant portion of overall sales, the online stores have become a major sales channel, on par with physical retail stores and distributor networks.

As the product catalog expanding, KEF recognized the need to develop an internal tool to streamline the management of their e-commerce stores across 17 regions.

research

In the early stages of the project, we interviewed and surveyed KEF staff who would become the primary user group. Though interviews and group discussions, we understood their day-to-day use-cases and struggles.

Mis-operation

Even the most experienced professionals can make mistakes, such as mistakenly publishing or archiving a page. Over 60% of the interviewees reported uncertainty and anxiety while taking actions that directly affect the e-commerce store, even after double checking their work.

Efficiency

It is very common for users to do the same update for different stores across regions in various languages. The large volume of repetitive work harms work efficiency and potentially leads to more mistakes.

Working from a different time zone

It has been a challenge for users to perform tasks that need to be executed at a very specific time, such as launching a new product. The challenge becomes more critical for those who work in a different time zone.

Solution

A Platform that enables the company to manage its e-commerce stores effortlessly.

Scalability

Throughout the designing process, I have been very careful to ensure the platform is scalable enough. Given that the business strategy may shift over time, it is crucial that the system provides stable and long-lasting support. It must be able to seamlessly accommodate the current workflow, while also capable of handling the increasing complexity of the company's e-commerce store structure and team size.

Simplicity

It was learned in the interview that the current process for managing e-commerce stores requires relatively long training sessions. The company aims to onboard new employees more quickly, making it essential for the new platform to be both intuitive enough for easy understanding and comprehensive enough to handle daily tasks effectively.

Role-based access control & activity log

The platform empowers administrators to define and customize specific roles and permissions for different users, such as SEO writers, regional sales executives and managers. All user activities are thoroughly logged within the system. The access control and activity logging prevent unauthorized modifications and help consolidate efficient collaboration and productivity across departments.

Minimize the risk of unintended actions and provide immediate remedies for any errors

The system includes an auto-save feature that preserves a version history for each update, enabling easy restoration of previous edits. Additionally, the system requires users to input additional confirmatory information when irreversible actions are attempted, helping ensure critical operations are executed deliberately and cautiously.

Easy workflow with mass import & scheduled publish

The research revealed that before updating content like product or SEO, users always create a spreadsheet containing all the item details, strictly following a predefined template. This structured data format inspired the system to be designed with a mass import function, capable of auto-retrieving and processing the data. To further streamline the workflow, the system allows users to schedule page publications for specific dates and times, facilitatiing efficient work even when users are operating from different time zones.

Impact

Since the CMS platform was launched, many of my colleagues have provided positive feedbacks that the new platform helps them manage their workflows more easily. As a designer, it is very gratifying for me to directly witness my work being helpful to the users.

time zones

Global and regional teams across 7 time zones work and collaborate seamlessly.

60%

time saved

Productivity has been boosted by time saved on tasks that require manual efforts perviosuly, such as product information input and SEO input.

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