55,949

Resources Unified

6

CMS Platforms

1

Source of Truth

Enabled global search, reduced internal effort by hundreds of hours, and created a scalable foundation for dynamic content experiences.

The Reality of Our System

Our content ecosystem had grown rapidly—but without a unified structure.

  • 55,000+ educational resources
  • Spread across 6 independent CMS platforms
  • Stored in separate databases
  • Inconsistent metadata structures
  • No centralized way to search or manage content

As a result, even simple tasks became complex.

Fragmentation at Scale

Finding Content Required:

  • Searching multiple CMS platforms
  • Interpreting inconsistent metadata
  • Manually combining results

This Led To:

  • Hours lost per task
  • High internal friction
  • No scalable search

ROLE

Lead UX Designer

Timeline

8 months

Team

Product Manager + Engineering

Responsibilities

UX Strategy · Information Architecture · Metadata & Content Modeling · System Design · Cross-functional Collaboration · User Flows · Wireframing · Design Systems · Prototyping

Approach

Systems-first thinking · Collaboration with engineering · Focus on scalability over short-term fixes · Designing for long-term flexibility

From Fragmentation to Single Source of Truth

We shifted from disconnected systems to a unified content platform.

Before

  • 6 CMS platforms
  • Metadata stored inconsistently
  • Static, manual workflows
  • Limited visibility into content

After

  • Single CMS system
  • Structured, centralized metadata
  • Scalable workflows for managing content
  • Unified interface for search and filtering

“We didn’t just improve content management—we created the foundation for how content is discovered, surfaced, and scaled across the entire platform.”

Designing a Scalable Content System

This wasn’t only a UI redesign—it was a system transformation.

Metadata

CMS Platform

Bulk Editing

Resource Table

1. Metadata Architecture

Designed a flexible metadata system that could scale across all resources.

  • Created standardized metadata fields
  • Defined controlled vocabularies
  • Enabled consistent tagging across 55K+ resources

This became the foundation for search, filtering, and content relationships.

2. CMS as a Platform

Transformed the CMS from a content repository into a scalable platform.

  • Enabled dynamic creation of metadata fields
  • Allowed teams to define and evolve structure over time
  • Reduced dependency on engineering for content changes

3. Bulk Editing at Scale

Managing thousands of resources required efficient workflows.

  • Designed bulk editing tools for metadata tagging
  • Enabled updates across large datasets
  • Significantly reduced manual effort

4. Unified Resource Table

Created a single interface to manage all content.

  • Customizable table view
  • Filter, sort, and search across all resources
  • Centralized visibility into content

This became the primary working surface for internal teams.

Impact

Operational Impact

  • Saved hundreds of hours in content search and management
  • Reduced complexity across teams

Product Impact

  • Enabled global search across platforms
  • Standardized metadata across all resources

Engineering Impact

  • Reduced need for custom integrations
  • Simplified future development and data access

Metadata drives all downstream experiences

What This Made Possible

This system didn’t just solve current problems—it unlocked future capabilities.

Global Search

A single source of truth enabled search across all products.

Dynamic Content Pages

  • Auto-generated collections
  • Metadata-driven publishing
  • Reduced manual page creation

Scalable Product Ecosystem

  • Foundation for personalization
  • AI-driven recommendations
  • Unified experience across platforms

Reflection

The biggest shift was realizing that metadata is not just a content concern—it is the foundation of the entire product experience.

What I Learned

  • Metadata is foundational to discovery
  • Systems design extends far beyond interface design
  • Early structural decisions have long-term impact

What I’d Do Next

  • Introduce governance and validation for metadata
  • Explore AI-assisted tagging and automation
  • Expand personalization capabilities

More Case Studies

Let’s Work Together

Let’s simplify complex products together

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