Travel site re-platform
Objective
The primary objective was to re-platform the business’s website onto a new CMS with minimal disruption to existing processes, sales, and SEO. We also sought to seize the opportunity to uplift the customer experience wherever possible. This complex challenge required balancing technical restrictions, addressing knowledge gaps, and adhering to a tight delivery timeline.
Target audience
Internal stakeholders and SMEs
Product owners, marketing teams, and engineering teams that rely on the CMS for content updates and business operations.
End-users
Users seeking an intuitive and engaging platform to explore products, make purchases, and find relevant information with ease.
Problem statement
How might we re-platform the business onto a new CMS in a way that supports SMEs and end-users, minimises operational downtime, preserves SEO, and enhances the overall user experience, despite technical constraints and delivery timelines?
Role & responsibilities
Role
As a Lead UX Designer on the project, collaborating closely with a researcher, business analysts, product owners, and tech leads.
Responsibilities
Facilitated and participated in discovery workshops to gather business, user, and technical requirements
Collaborated with a researcher to plan and conduct user interviews and usability tests
Created wireframes, prototypes, and conducted gap analyses of existing and potential design components
Coordinated with local and off-shore development teams to ensure a seamless design handoff
Oversaw design implementation, ensuring alignment with user insights, brand guidelines, and performance criteria
Research
Methodology
Workshops
Conducted cross-department sessions to understand the existing platform’s context, historical decisions, constraints, and department-specific requirements (SMEs, engineering).
Competitor analysis
Investigated how other organisations handled CMS re-platforming to identify best practices and potential pitfalls.
User interviews and usability testing
Partnered with the a Researcher to create test scripts, prototypes, and interview guides. We observed users interact with the prototypes and synthesised their feedback into actionable insights.
Key Findings
User expectations
Customers expect a consistent and fast experience, with clear navigation and content structure.
SEO and content strategy
Preserving high-performing SEO elements and ensuring that content migration did not harm search rankings was critical.
Technical constraints
Legacy components and existing design system elements were incomplete, requiring significant gap analysis.
Knowledge gaps
Various SMEs had different levels of familiarity with CMS functionalities, highlighting the need for extensive onboarding and clear documentation.
Ideation
Collaborative workshops
Leveraged workshop insights to ideate on key improvements. Mapped user journeys and pain points to potential solutions (e.g., simplified navigation, updated information architecture).
Feature prioritisation
Used MoSCoW to prioritise features and ensure alignment with technical feasibility, timeline, and business goals.
Rapid prototyping
Developed low-fidelity wireframes to quickly visualise how new components and content structures would look and behave, iterating based on feedback from stakeholders.
Design
Design Challenges
Incomplete design system
We had to reconcile new design patterns with existing legacy components, balancing brand consistency with modern UX standards.
Content modeling constraints
Many pieces of content were tightly coupled with legacy templates, complicating the re-platforming process.
Phased release schedules
The need to deliver incrementally meant some features or components would roll out before others, requiring meticulous design version control.
Solutions
System of interactive components
Created a modular set of reusable elements (typography, color palette, icons, layout modules) that ensured a cohesive brand feel and streamlined development.
Component gap analysis
Identified which legacy components could be “lifted and shifted” versus those that required a complete redesign.
Dual-track approach
Aligned design sprints with development sprints, ensuring continuous collaboration. While designers worked on next-phase designs, development teams built previously approved components.
Incremental delivery
Built a phased roadmap allowing priority features to go live earlier, mitigating risk and ensuring continuous user feedback loops.
User-testing
Testing methodology
Usability testing
Conducted remote and in-person sessions to validate navigation updates and ensure clarity of updated components.
Data analysis
Compared legacy page data against newly designed pages to measure improvements in engagement, conversion rates, and SEO performance.
Performance testing
Collaborated with engineers to ensure the new platform met speed and responsiveness benchmarks.
Feedback integration
Iterative refinements
Following each round of testing, we synthesised user feedback and updated components or workflows to address usability issues.
Stakeholder alignment
Regular check-ins and workshops with SMEs and product owners to confirm design decisions aligned with business requirements and constraints.
Impact
Quantitative Results:
SEO reservation
Minimal impact on organic traffic post-migration.
Improved conversion rate
Early tests indicated a lift in conversions in key user flows.
Faster page load times
Achieved a decrease in page load times due to optimised, streamlined code and new platform.
Qualitative Feedback:
Positive stakeholder reception
SMEs reported feeling more confident in updating and managing content within the new CMS.
Customer satisfaction
User interviews highlighted improved site navigation and clarity of information.
Lessons learned
Working on this re-platforming project significantly enriched my ability to manage complex stakeholder needs and technical constraints. Balancing short-term fixes with long-term user-centric solutions taught me the value of phased rollouts and iterative design. Collaborating closely with off-shore and local teams also enhanced my communication skills and adaptability.
Conclusion
By strategically combining comprehensive discovery, collaborative research, thoughtful design, and structured implementation, we successfully migrated to a new CMS with minimal disruption to business operations, sales, and SEO. Through iterative user-testing and stakeholder engagement, we were able to lift the overall customer experience. This project showcases to the importance of human-centred practices, cross-functional collaboration, and adaptive design methodologies in delivering impactful, large-scale digital transformations.