Gutenberg Technology CMS
Improving CMS Authoring Efficiency Through Structural Redesign
Overview
Led the redesign of Gutenberg Technology’s CMS authoring experience to improve how users create and manage content. The solution addressed structural and navigation challenges that slowed down workflows, enabling more efficient content creation through clearer system organization and improved feature discoverability.
My role
Led research and testing, translating insights into system-level design and interaction flows
Owned project delivery, including stakeholder alignment, timelines, and user recruitment
Team
Gloria Y (Me)
Atharva Nayak
Grace Ho
Karla Santamaria
Timeline
3 months
Sep – Dec 2025
Context
Outdated CMS Workflows Make Content Creation Difficult for New Users
Gutenberg Technology’s CMS supports complex content authoring, but its workflows have not been updated for years. As the system evolved, its structure became increasingly difficult for new users to understand, especially when navigating unfamiliar features and workflows for the first time.
For users without prior exposure to the platform, it is challenging to understand how to get started, how different parts of the system connect, and how to move from exploration to actually creating content. This creates friction early in the experience and prevents users from progressing efficiently.
Problem
Users Can Recognize the Interface, But Struggle to Create Content
New users are able to recognize familiar interface patterns, which gives an initial sense of confidence. However, this familiarity quickly breaks down when they attempt to complete real authoring tasks.
😖
Users struggle to understand where to begin
🤔
Users find it difficult to move between different parts of the system
😣
Users cannot clearly connect their actions to results during content creation
Method
Understanding Behavior Through Eye-Tracking and Usability Testing
To evaluate how users interact with the system, we combined behavioral and attitudinal research methods to help us better uncover not only where users struggled, but how they interpreted the system.
Eye-Tracking
To observe attention and scanning patterns
Retrospective Think-Aloud (RTA)
To capture user thought process and reasoning
System Usability Scale (SUS)
Music-related content spreads through social sharing, but current streaming platforms don’t support this behavior natively.
Insights
Familiar Interfaces Do Not Guarantee Usable Systems
Usability testing revealed a clear gap between how easily users could learn the interface and how effectively they could use it. While users could pick up the interface quickly (learnability: 72.2), they struggled to complete tasks (usability: 56.9), resulting in an overall SUS score of 60, below the industry benchmark of 68.
This gap indicates that the issue is not a lack of features or visual clarity, but a deeper misalignment between the system’s structure and how users understand content creation. Without a clear mental model, users are left navigating a system that feels familiar on the surface but confusing in practice.
Solution
Improving the Authoring Experience Through Targeted System Changes
Rather than redesigning the entire system, the solution focuses on addressing key breakdowns in the authoring workflow. Each improvement targets a specific usability issue, improving clarity, discoverability, and interaction feedback across the experience.
Impact Overview
Faster Onboarding
By clarifying starting points and system structure, new users can move from setup to content creation without hesitation. This reduces early friction and shortens time-to-value.
Improved Authoring Efficiency
Clear hierarchy and predictable interactions allow users to create and organize content with fewer errors and less backtracking, increasing overall productivity.
Reduced Cognitive Load
Making interactions and system behavior explicit removes the need for guesswork, lowering mental effort and reducing reliance on external training or documentation.
Higher Feature Adoption
Improving discoverability of drag-and-drop and AI features ensures users engage with core functionality, unlocking the full value of the platform.
Behavioral Shift From Guesswork to Guided Authoring
The experience shifts from users interpreting how the system works to being guided by it. Users act with intention, understand structure immediately, and interact with confidence rather than trial-and-error.
Stronger Product Foundation
By addressing structural clarity and system feedback, the redesign creates a scalable foundation for future improvements, including upcoming authoring flow refactors and AI-assisted features.
Client Delivery
Driving Future Development with Research-Backed Solutions
I presented the findings and recommendations in a final readout, connecting observed user behaviors to system-level design decisions. Each recommendation was grounded in evidence, helping the team understand not just what to fix, but why it matters.
The final delivery included a comprehensive research and design package, enabling the team to move directly into implementation. This included the presentation deck, usability recordings, highlight reels, gaze analysis, and prioritized design recommendations.
With an authoring flow refactor already planned, this work provided a clear, evidence-based foundation for prioritizing improvements and aligning design decisions with product goals.
“Great to have a fresh view on something we’re so accustomed to, especially because we’re hoping to refactor our creation flow next year. This is going to be very useful for us for our upcoming work.”
— Gutenberg Technology Team
Reflection
Designing Systems Means Designing for Mental Models
This project reinforced that the biggest usability challenges in complex systems are often not caused by feature complexity, but by a mismatch between how the system is structured and how users think. What initially appeared as an onboarding issue was ultimately a deeper problem of misaligned mental models. This shifted the focus from simplifying the interface to clarifying how the system communicates structure, actions, and feedback.
Working with eye-tracking data also changed how I approach design decisions. Observing where users actually focused, compared to where I expected them to, revealed how easily visual hierarchy can fail. It pushed me to rely less on assumptions and more on observable behavior when evaluating clarity.
Beyond design execution, this project expanded my perspective on product thinking. It required considering how usability improvements impact onboarding efficiency, support costs, and the scalability of future features. If I were to extend this work, I would conduct a study to evaluate how users adapt to the system over time.
