Gemstones.com Article Builder & Content Management System
A custom article builder and CMS platform for gemology experts.
My Role
I was the sole UX/UI designer on an agile team of stakeholders, project managers, subject matter experts, developers, and quality assurance testers. I was responsible for determining the overall design direction of the project, while collaborating with the rest of the team on ideation.
Deliverables
Interaction Design: High-Fidelity interactive Prototypes for desktop and mobile screens.
UX/UI Design:
Workflow Mapping
User Interviews
Competitor Analysis
Custom Component Creation
Project Specifications
Duration: 6 weeks
Tools:
Sketch
Illustrator
Jira
Overview
Gemstones.com is the one-stop destination for all gem information, providing quality educational material and inspiration to explore the world of gemstones. Gemstones.com wanted to open its doors to gemology leaders across the world and invite them to publish articles directly onto the website.
Our Goal
Create an easy and intuitive way for gemologists to publish articles on gemstones.com. We wanted to honor the incredible work and research from our contributing authors while producing beautifully formatted and visually consistent articles on the front end.
The Solution
Build a custom content management system. Gemologists will be invited to join Gemstones.com as a contributing author. Once joined, they will gain access to a CMS loaded with everything needed to submit high-quality scientific research directly on gemstones.com
Defining the Workflow
A flowchart was created to outline the user's complete path from email invitation, to final interaction.
Designing the Account Dashboard
Before we began work on the CMS we needed to carve out an area on the existing site for it to live. There are multiple things our authors need to fill out before they can begin publishing such as a biography, professional title, and photo. We also need an area for users to edit their login info.
Problem
Where will the CMS live on the site and how will our users get to it?
The Solution
Create a complete account dashboard where users can access their articles, general account information, and professional biography/photo.
User Interviews and Competitor Analysis.
I spent time with our subject matter experts in gemology and asked them what they want to see in their custom article builder. While conducting interviews we learned our users wanted:
Utilize full set of rich text tools including sub and super script.
Insert quotes and citations
Upload single images.
Upload side by side images.
Upload videos.
Knowing that our authors are already publishing work online I wanted to research the most popular CMS platforms out there. My goal was to pull from any functional commonality shared between them to create an interface our users would feel confident in using. After my research some things I felt it was important for our users to be able to do on our platform were:
Build an article with a content block approach rather than a standard form format.
Reorder content directly on the page.
Expand and collapse content blocks to maximize workspace.
See a preview of what their article will look like once published.
Designing the Article Builder: Creating Custom Components.
Since Gemstones.com is an established site there is already a brand and visual language it's users are familiar with and expect to see. I added to the existing branding by designing UI elements that would compliment and strengthen the overall visual language.
Problem
How do I utilize discoveries from my research while designing a unique experience for gemstones.com users.
The Solution
Don't reinvent the wheel. Take only what works well from popular CMS platforms while utilizing Gemstones.com's established visual identity. This combined with the guidance and insight from gemology subject matters while result in a completely custom environment tailored for our users.
Lessons Since Launch
Since launching the Gemstones.com article builder we have been collecting feedback from external and internal users. We are listening closely and documenting any and all feedback. We currently have a growing list of great idea to implement into the next iteration of the Gemstones.com Article builder.