Background

More than 600 Postmedia employees use WordPress as their editorial and publishing platform. Postmedia has 113 newsrooms between national, broadsheets, tabloids and communities.

Goal

Develop an in-house, highly scalable product, where Postmedia’s editorial team can create, edit, and publish smart content for single/multiple markets, communicate with other users, and track real-time performance. One platform that fits all needs

My Role

As the sole product designer, I led the design process starting from the ideation phase to the high fidelity designs. I collaborated with David Perl (Information Architect) to conduct user research and user testing.

Old CMS Platform

Behavioural Archetypes

There are 6 behavioural archetypes: The Word Enthusiast, the Intricate Editor, the Collaborator, the WordPresser, the Media Specialist, and the Social Media Butterfly.

Users' Pain Points

We interviewed one person from each behavioural archetype. Here are some highlighted pain points and a visual workflow.
“

Far too many fields to fill in on every story, feels like I spend as much time filling in fields as I do editing a story.

Anonymous Postmedia Employee2018
“

Have to use too many separate programs to complete full workflow. Difficult to layout stories or be creative with design/visuals.

Anonymous Postmedia Employee2018
“

Creating posts is the most time consuming part of the workflow.

Anonymous Postmedia Employee2018

Challenges & Solutions

We noticed that users have multiple applications open at once, since they use different platforms to communicate, write, edit, and publish. Therefore, in the new platform we are introducing the right toolbar, which will provide the user with new tools, such as Notes, Comments, Review, Preview, and History.

Right Toolbar

Users will be able to hide, show and drag the right toolbar to customize their screens based on their needs. We added new tools and moved some old tools there that will require two screen view.

  1. Notes to import notes, write notes, and edit them. Importing notes from other platforms will be helpful for reporters on the go.
  2. Comments to highlight sections, add comments, add checklists and reply to comments for ease to track edits and paragraphs.
  3. Review to spell and grammar check. These functionalities exist in WordPress; they are added to the right toolbar under one umbrella for ease of editing.
  4. Preview will give users visual reference on how the article will look like in all devices, which will help them make creative decisions.
  5. History to help users track changes and edits.

Admin Dashboard

Giving admin the option to add multiple users at once to single or multiple newsroom(s). Also, dividing required fields into sections for ease of filling, editing and finding.

User's Profile and Calendar

A User could be working on multiple stories with different deadlines so a visual calendar will help him/her filter and prioritize projects. Also, users need to have profile pages to edit their information and preview permissions.

Customize Toolbar

Since different users have different needs and like to use certain tools more than other, customizing their main toolbar is essential.

Add and Edit Media

Users can choose what type of media they want to add if its an image, a video, or a podcast. They have the option to choose media from the library or upload a new one. Users can also edit images by setting a focal point to make sure the image is cropped correctly when resized.

Adding Embeds & Publishing

Users can choose what type of iframe they would like to add if its a poll, map, table, podcast, video, or other interactive elements. They can also set the size and alignment.