Researching Content Management Experiences

July 16, 2010 · Posted in blogging, Uncategorized · Comment 

To anyone who has ever struggled to maintain their site using a Content Management System (CMS): you’re not alone, we feel your pain.

Chris and Paul in DesignByFront.com are doing some research into the user experience of content management systems, so if you’ve ever been involved in managing a website, they’d love to get your insight.

Click here to take the short survey!

Why are they doing this?

Front believe that every website should get better and better and better over time. Unfortunately, many people find it difficult enough to look after the site they have, rather than getting to focus on continuous improvement.

Almost every site delivered at Front uses a content management system so that non-technical users can take ownership of the site once its live.

Key to this is the regular addition of high-quality content. However, too often the design of Content Management Systems don’t reflect the way that those involved in authoring, editing or reviewing content actually work; despite claims to the contrary, almost all CMS tools are designed around how a site works for its users, rather than focusing on the needs of those who’ll be responsible for it once live.

This creates a barrier to publishing good content, and restricts the growth and quality of the site. A better CMS experience should result in better content being created for a site, which in turn results in a better experience for the site’s users.

Front are not the first to think about this. Jeff Veen wrote about the problems inherent in Content Management Systems way back in 2004, but things haven’t changed much since then, and now it’s time to get the discussion started again.

So, if you’ve ever been involved in managing a website with a CMS, they’d love to hear your thoughts.

According to Front:

To make sure we really understand what the key issues are, we’re carrying out a small piece of design research on content management. We want to know how the experience of using a CMS could be improved, and so along with performing user interviews and usability testing, we’ve put together a quick survey to gather input from the broader web community.

We’re doing this research because we realise that while we put a lot of time and attention into creating beautiful online experiences for our client’s users, we perhaps don’t give enough thought to the experience of our clients themselves.

To take part, fill in our quick survey

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