CMS Workflow Optimization
TVO Media Education
TVO is a multi-platform digital learning organization. While migrating educational content to their new CMS platform, I discovered critical usability issues that were hindering team productivity.
As the product designer, I conducted user interviews to diagnose these pain points and redesigned the workflow accordingly. The targeted UI improvements resulted in a 50% reduction in content management time.
My Role
Product Designer
Timeline
3 Weeks
Key Deliverables
UI/UX Redesign, Interactive Prototype
Skills
Workflow Optimization, Product Design, Prototyping, UX Research
The Challenge
An internal tool was hindering team productivity.
The Digital Learning Team relied on a new internal CMS to manage and publish all educational curriculum. While the tool was essential to their daily operations, the workflow was slow and unintuitive. Team members were spending an excessive amount of time on routine tasks, leading to significant productivity loss and growing frustration.
My mission was to diagnose the specific bottlenecks in the workflow and redesign the user experience to be faster, more efficient, and user-friendly.
Research
Understanding user pain points and workflow inefficiencies
I conducted extensive user interviews with the TVO Digital Learning Team to understand their daily workflows, pain points, and frustrations with the existing system. This research revealed that the biggest issues were related to navigation complexity, redundant steps, and lack of intuitive design patterns.
Research
Understanding user pain points and workflow inefficiencies.
I conducted extensive user interviews with the TVO Digital Learning Team to understand their daily workflows, pain points, and frustrations with the existing system. By observing their processes live, gaining my own hands-on experience, and documenting their feedback, I was able to gather the raw qualitative data needed to identify specific opportunities for improvement.
Analysis & Findings
Synthesizing feedback into design priorities.
After the interviews, I analyzed the feedback to move from individual pain points to spotlight core issues. This synthesis process revealed three high-priority areas that needed immediate improvement.
Key Insights:
The Problem: Out of 1,237 users, 22 added items to their cart, but 0 completed a purchase.
The Audience: 50% of all users were on an iOS mobile device, making them the largest and most critical user segment.
Key Insight: The conversion failure was not random; it was a specific issue happening on the final checkout page and primarily affecting our largest audience segment.
Design & Solution
High-Impact, Low-Effort Fix
The research clearly showed that a single button was the primary cause of failure. The solution didn’t require a complex redesign, but rather a precise, surgical change. My guiding principle was: fixing the single biggest point of friction.
Let's ditch Shop Pay and integrate Apple Pay for iOS users.
This was a strategic decision rooted in the research findings:
Eliminating Friction: It removes the need to create or log into a new account.
Leveraging a Native Experience: It uses the device's built-in, trusted security (Face ID/Touch ID).
Efficient & Testable Solution: This single change allowed me to rapidly test my hypothesis without a costly redesign.
Validation & Iteration
Solving one problem, discovering another.
After deploying the high-impact fix, my focus turned to validation. I monitored the site for immediate quantitative results while also initiating informal user interviews to gather deeper qualitative feedback.
Immediate Validation
Making the First Sale
The change had an immediate and definitive impact. Just 14 days after the new checkout went live, the site secured its first-ever online sale.
This was crucial quantitative proof that the payment friction had been the primary conversion blocker. The initial hypothesis was officially validated by a real transaction.
Qualitative Feedback
Uncovering the Next Challenge
With the core usability problem solved and the first sale secured, the user interviews were designed to uncover the next layer of challenges—those related to brand perception rather than functionality.
Proposed Iterations
Building brand trust through design.
Building brand trust based on the qualitative feedback, I proposed a series of strategic design iterations to evolve the website from a storefront into a trusted brand experience.
The proposal included redesigning the homepage to tell the maker's message, showcasing craftsmanship on product pages, and implementing social proof like customer reviews.
Marketing Integration
Nurturing potential customers for long-term growth.
With the new website, the focus shifted to proactive growth. I integrated an email marketing system to capture leads via an automated 2-step email reminder sequence. This strategy works to convert immediate sales while building a valuable email list for future campaigns.
Outcome & Impact
From $0 to a Profitable Business
The targeted UX upgrade produced immediate and significant results, transforming a storefront website into a brand experience.
Reflection & Next Step
A roadmap for continued growth.
This project was a valuable lesson in using data to make focused, high-impact decisions. This core learning directly informs the next steps for the brand.
Key Learning: Focus on the Biggest Blocker
Instead of pursuing a costly and time-consuming redesign, I identified the single point of highest friction and fixed it. This targeted, high-leverage approach is crucial when resources are limited, proving that the most effective solution is often the simplest and most focused one.
Next Step: Measure and Optimize the Funnel
Now that a sales baseline is established, the top priority is to gather more data over time. This would allow us to accurately measure the specific reduction in checkout abandonment and A/B test new ideas. Analyzing the performance of the email marketing campaigns and the website's usability together will be key to optimizing the entire customer journey for long-term, sustainable growth.
Next Project
TVO CMS Internal Tool Productivity Upgrade
Redesigned content management workflows for TVO’s Product Team.