PPA Blog

Guest Blog: There's No UX in CMS

Teams will happily invest A/B testing, iteration and optimisation of UX for end-users, but what about editors?

Ask any almost editor, they’ll say the same thing: there’s no such thing as a good CMS. In most cases we don’t blame them – systems are optimised for everyone except the people that pour in the content.

End users are treated to multi-variant testing to optimise everything down to the colour of a button, but content management interfaces are much more ‘that’ll do’ – MVP,  but where the ‘P’ stands for ‘pain’.

This, at best, is an oversight. An editor’s time is better spent producing content than managing it – hours invested in developing a user experience for editors that supports creative effort will increase quality and quantity, plus make output more cost-effective.

Interfaces for Edit are flexible in two key ways. First, they offer full-screen writing modes where everything else gets out of the way, leaving only editor, cursor and imagination to get to work. Second, the structure of content presentation is configurable, adapting to the workflow of your project rather than imposing a universal way of working that may not fit your team.

For some projects, Edit engineers have developed bespoke interfaces designed on spec for specialist applications. Maybe you have complex datasets that need visualisation or mixed media assets that want taking care of in different combinations. Edit doesn’t force awkward combinations of plug ins, it adapts for optimal workflow.

And to achieve much of this does not necessarily mean a full CMS upgrade. At Edit, we are not into replacing technology for the sake of it – indeed we are happy to assist in making your existing software more flexible or user friendly.

Got an application you think might challenge our team? Get in touch and we’ll see what we can do – or ask about one of our Workflow Workshops, which can help set you on the right path.

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