Context

Caleres was investing in a content management system for their 16 websites. This gave web managers more control over the content aspects of their sites freeing up developer hours to work on bigger initiatives that would push the sites and the company forward.

My role on the project was two fold.

1. I needed to help make sense of the various components that were being built within the CMS and document them accordingly for the web managers to know what components were available for them.

2. I was also tasked with updating the corporate site using the new CMS.

Define

For the first task, I spoke with the developers to help outline the components they were building as well as look at the CMS to create the source of truth for components. For the second ask, I audited other corporate sites with a portfolio of brands and met with the PR team to make sure I was including everything they needed.

The problem

How might we make sense of customizable components to share out and how might we create a content site using the components?

Design Process: Part 1

I whiteboarded the components as I understood them onto different whiteboards. There was a meeting with the developers and the project manager to ensure I covered all existing and future components. From there, I mocked up the components in Sketch with notation of what each component did.

Design Process: Part 2

Using these component I designed a new corporate site using the existing brand guidelines and created a new information architecture. I presented to the CEO and received the green light to start building out the site in the CMS. Upon completion, I handed the template off to the PR team to add all the appropriate assets.

Feature 2: Brand Pages

I created several page templates within the CMS for the 16 specific brand pages. Based on what assets were available for those brands, the pages needed to be flexible. By building out templates, the web manager could choose which one was suitable for that specific brand.