For 15+ years, CentricMinds has offered a Digital Workplace Solution for organisations of all sizes. Joining the team, I started redesigning the outdated and complex backend CMS to improve user experience and functionality.
I reviewed the CentricMinds CMS and documented the workflows, including screenshots. This allowed me to ask questions and identify opportunities to improve the UI and UX experience. Invision App was essential for adding comments to the screens, asking about CMS features, and getting clarification from the developer team.
I initially suggested that we do a reskin before we started the project. I had timing concerns for the backend redesign, build, and testing. As we transitioned into the design phase, we decided to move forward with the reskin option.
I recommended using the fullscreen modal due to its better user experience. Fullscreens adapt to screens and reduce vertical scrolling. Unfortunately, the decision was made to stay with the current modal. I introduced the option for the user to expand the modal to fullscreen.
It was essential to provide a style guide that would work for both CMS and front-end workspaces. I put together a component library with options for developers to use.
Opting for fewer color options made it more efficient for the developers to implement changes across the CMS and frontend workspace.
Part of the project involved updating the frontend workspace, which included a reskin and the redesign of various areas.
As much as I wanted to undertake a redesign, I recognised that this approach needed to be lean. That decision opened the next phase of moving critical features to the front-end build, allowing ongoing improvements and an updated user experience.
CentricMinds CMS is powerful but can be complex and confusing for non-technical administrators. I had to navigate the admin workflows and ask numerous questions to understand it better. However, collaboration was limited due to our small team and time constraints.