Content management systems (CMS) serve as foundational infrastructure for digital experiences, supporting organizations as they scale content, teams, and technology over time. As platforms mature, sustained leadership is required to guide their evolution by balancing proven capabilities with the need to adapt to changing user expectations, emerging technologies, and new modes of collaboration. At dotCMS, this moment of evolution called for a deliberate, UX-led strategy to ensure the platform’s continued relevance and leadership in the market. As Head of UX, I set the direction for this transformation by aligning user experience, product vision, and long-term platform strategy, thus modernizing the interface not as an isolated redesign, but as a foundational investment in usability, productivity, and future innovation.
The UX Problems with Legacy CMS Platforms
Legacy CMS platforms often suffer from outdated interfaces, clunky workflows, and a lack of intuitive design. Common pain points include:
Inconsistent UI Elements – Mismatched styles, varying font sizes, and inconsistent spacing can make navigating the system frustrating.
Complex Navigation – Users often struggle with deeply nested menus and unintuitive navigation structures.
Lack of Modern Design System – Without a structured design system, legacy CMS platforms often feel fragmented and outdated.
Unoptimized Workflows – Routine tasks require too many steps, leading to inefficiencies and user frustration.
Limited Accessibility & Responsiveness – Many older CMS platforms fail to meet modern accessibility standards or provide a seamless experience across devices.
The UX-Driven Strategy for Improving dotCMS
To address these challenges, I put together a UX-driven roadmap focusing on usability, efficiency, and consistency. Here’s how the UX team at dotCMS will tackle the redesign:
1. Adopting a New Design System
A modern design system provides consistency, scalability, and efficiency. We will introduce:
Standardized UI Components – Colors, typography, spacing, icons, buttons, forms, tables, and many other common elements were unified to create a seamless experience.
Accessible Color Schemes & Typography – Ensuring all users, including those with visual impairments, can interact with the platform effectively.
Clear Visual Hierarchy – Emphasizing key actions while decluttering unnecessary UI elements.
2. Redesigning the User Interface
A fresh UI significantly impacts usability. The redesign includes:
A Clean, Minimalist Aesthetic – Will reduce visual noise, and thus cognitive load, to help users focus on tasks and their content.
A new information architecture – To provide a more organized and hierarchical view of the information across the application to facilitate finding relevant information and increasing the sense of mastery.
Consistent Icons & Visual Cues – Making interactions intuitive and familiar with meaningful iconography.
3. Enhancing Navigation & Information Architecture
Reworking the navigation structure and information architecture will ensure users find what they need effortlessly:
Collapsible Sidebars & Clear Menu Labels – Simplifying navigation while maintaining access to essential features.
Global Search & Quick Access Panels – Enabling users to locate content instantly.
User-Centric Categorization – Grouping features based on workflows rather than technical constraints.
4. Optimizing Workflows for Efficiency
Improving efficiency will require simplifying key workflows and rethinking common tasks:
Embracing AI – Will put dotCMS at the forefront of AI innovation and will help our users leverage this new and powerful technology throughout the application.
Reducing Clicks & Steps – Common tasks, such as content creation and publishing, will be streamlined.
Auto-Saving & Inline Editing – Will reduce friction and allow users to work faster without unnecessary interruptions.
Bulk Actions – Will enable power users, a big part of our userbase, to perform tasks with fewer interactions.
5. Improving Accessibility & Mobile Responsiveness
Ensuring inclusivity and responsiveness will be a priority:
WCAG Compliance Enhancements – Improving contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility.
Responsive Design Implementation – Ensuring an optimized experience across several popular screen resolutions.
The Impact of UX Enhancements
After implementing these changes, the impact on usability and efficiency will be significant:
Reduction in Task Completion Time – Optimized workflows will help users accomplish tasks faster.
Higher User Satisfaction Ratings – Feedback should reflect an increase in user confidence and comfort.
Increased Sense of Mastery – Users will feel like they are experts using dotCMS in less time. They will master more features, more quickly.
Increased Adoption Rates – More users will embrace dotCMS as their preferred content management tool.
Faster Time to Market – Internally, the design team together with the engineering team will be able to produce consistent, usable and high quality functionality, faster.
Conclusion: Shaping the Future of dotCMS Through UX Leadership
Evolving a platform as foundational as dotCMS requires intention, sustained focus, and long-term vision. That journey is already underway. By actively engaging with our customers and partners, we’ve begun translating real-world feedback into a clear, UX-led strategy that balances immediate improvements with a broader roadmap for the future. Beginning in Q4 2025*, our work will focus on establishing strong foundations, adopting a modern design system and standardizing the visual and technical layers that support it, while progressively advancing toward the long-term UX vision outlined in our roadmap.
This is not a one-time initiative, but an ongoing commitment to thoughtful evolution. As dotCMS continues to grow, we remain focused on building in close collaboration with our community, continuously learning, validating, and refining our direction to ensure the platform supports how teams work today while remaining adaptable to what comes next.
I hope this article offers clarity into how the UX team at dotCMS is shaping the future of the platform and illustrates how a UX-driven approach can serve as a strategic lever, driving productivity, user confidence, sustained engagement, and faster paths to innovation. We invite you to be part of this journey and to continue sharing your perspectives as we move forward.
*This article reflects a good-faith exploration of potential directions and concepts. It is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to deliver specific features, designs, or timelines. Priorities and plans may evolve based on ongoing research, feasibility, and strategic considerations.