Business Insider CMS
Creating Muse, the next-generation CMS for a more efficient newsroom
Business Insider’s editorial team was held back by a decade-old CMS with slow load times, clunky workflows, and outdated tools that couldn’t support modern storytelling. Reporters and editors spent more time wrestling with the system than creating content, while developers struggled to maintain and scale the aging platform.
I designed a proprietary CMS from the ground up, shaping it around the newsroom’s real workflows. By streamlining publishing flows and validating designs directly with reporters and editors, I delivered high-fidelity designs and a scalable design system, laying the groundwork for a CMS that would empower the newsroom.
Working closely with a Product Lead, we began with a discovery phase that included shadowing newsroom staff, running user interviews, and forming testing groups across editorial roles. The insights were synthesized through affinity mapping, which revealed common themes and recurring pain points.
Notes from 8 testing groups identifying and organizing pain points and improvement requests
Affinity map example
I then developed detailed personas, such as The Breaking News Reporter and The Lifestyle Editor, to represent core user groups and ensure the design stayed rooted in real-world needs. These personas guided every design decision, helping prioritize features and interactions that would truly make a difference for the people using the platform.
Breaking News Reporter persona
With these personas in mind, I translated workflows into low-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes. These prototypes reimagined key publishing flows and WYSIWYG interactions, serving as early models we could put in front of users for validation.
A walk-through of the early concept story editing tool framework can be viewed here
Early concept wireframe
Prototypes were tested with the same newsroom groups in an iterative cycle: observe, gather feedback, refine. This process quickly surfaced usability issues and allowed us to validate design decisions before moving to high-fidelity designs. Once the flows were proven, I defined the platform’s visual direction (clean, modern, and intuitive) bringing the vision closer to its final form.
A walk-through of updated functionality and visual direction can be viewed here
Visual direction defined
With the core experience validated, I then established the first version of the design system. This included a component library, style guide, and documentation, creating a single source of truth for the product and ensuring consistency across future development.
Screens from the early-stage CMS design system
The biggest lesson from this project was the value of continuous user engagement. By embedding ourselves in the newsroom and treating staff as partners in the design process, we were able to move past assumptions and build a platform that truly met their needs.
Equally important was investing early in a design system, an upfront effort that ensured scalability, alignment with engineering, and long-term success.