Content management systems are usually specified in workshops, demonstrated in calm conditions and signed off by people who will not use them every day. The result is often a system that is complete and well structured, and frustrating to use under pressure.
Under pressure is when it matters. If the tool slows people down on deadline, they will find a way around it, and those workarounds become the real process.
Every required field has a cost
Each required field is added for a good reason: better search, better syndication, better reporting. But each one is also a decision someone has to make before they can publish. Add enough of them and publishing a short news story takes longer than writing it.
- Only require what is genuinely needed to publish safely
- Fill in sensible defaults from the section, author or template
- Suggest tags and related content rather than asking for them from scratch
- Allow some fields to be completed after publication
- Group rarely used options out of the way
Every extra required field is a workaround waiting to happen.
Watch people use it
The best way to design editorial tools is to sit with the people who use them. Watch a news editor publish a breaking story, a sub-editor work through corrections and a picture editor find an image. Note every pause, every second tab opened and every note kept outside the system. Each one is a design problem.
Speed matters more than features
A CMS that takes several seconds to save, preview or search will be avoided, however powerful it is. Performance is a feature for editorial tools. Previews should be instant and accurate, search should find things by the words editors remember, and saving should never lose work.
Design the workflow, not just the form
- Make it obvious who is working on what, to avoid two people editing the same piece
- Keep versions, so changes can be seen and undone
- Support scheduling and embargoes without workarounds
- Make corrections quick, clearly recorded and visible to readers where they should be
Editorial tools rarely win awards, but they shape everything a publisher produces. Design them for the worst hour of the day, and the rest of the day looks after itself.
