I led design for Inter IKEA’s CMS, creating a tool that content creators across Marketing & Communications use daily to produce and distribute assets. I mapped workflows, redesigned information architecture and content models, and introduced reusable templates and blocks to cut repetition. I also established a Figma-based design system, usability testing cadence, and QA processes to ensure accessibility and scalability. The CMS enabled faster delivery of shoppable imagery, improved efficiency for creators, and raised the design maturity of the organisation through structured rituals and systemisation.
Client
IKEA
Sector
Retail
Project team
Product Owner
Business Analyst
Agile Coach
Visual / UX Designer
Visual Designer
Solution Architect
Front-end Developer
Back-end Developer
QA Tester
Timeline
62 weeks
Constraints
Must work within IKEA’s global content strategy and governance requirements. Deliver a tool fit for both novice and advanced content creators. Ensure accessibility, localisation readiness, and brand consistency. Create design ops processes to keep a cross-functional team aligned.
Overview
Problem
Content creators were spending excessive time on repetitive tasks and struggled with unclear, inconsistent processes across channels. The lack of a cohesive CMS meant inefficiency, duplication of effort, and difficulty in maintaining consistency at IKEA’s global scale. The business needed a tool that simplified authoring, reduced manual work, and enabled content to be created once and distributed across multiple markets and channels.
Challenge
Create a CMS that improves efficiency for content creators, reducing time spent on repetitive tasks. Establish a design system to maintain consistency, accessibility, and scalability. Support a “create once, publish anywhere” approach to streamline distribution. Foster design maturity within IKEA’s internal teams.
Solution
An internal CMS tailored to content creators’ workflows, with simplified navigation and task flows. Content-authoring models that separate text and assets from presentation. Modular templates and reusable blocks for efficiency and consistency. A Figma-based design system codifying tokens, components, and patterns for scalability. Developer-ready specs and QA processes to ensure smooth implementation. Iterative usability-tested prototypes that guided incremental releases.
Results
Delivered a CMS that reduced repetitive work and improved speed for content creators. Early releases enabled faster delivery of shoppable range imagery to retailers. Design system improved velocity and reduced UI inconsistencies. Content creators reported clearer workflows and less time wasted. The organisation established design maturity within Marketing & Communications through rituals and systematisation.
My process
Research activities
Stakeholder workshops with content creators, product managers, and tech leads to map workflows. Task analysis of content creation, review, localisation, and publishing processes. Audit of existing content tools and systems to identify inefficiencies.
Definition activities
Established design principles (efficiency, clarity, reuse, accessibility). Prioritised features.
Design activities
Produced wireframes, prototypes, and design system components; wrote copy and states for complex tasks.
Testing activities
Usability testing of prototypes with content authors at multiple stages.
Iteration activities
Iterated on navigation, editor flows, and error handling.
Handoff activities
Shipped high-fidelity specifications. Design system documentation. QA support for implementation.
Research
Insights in the beginning
Content creators wanted reduced repetition. “Don’t make me write the same thing three times.” Separation of content from presentation was critical for scaling across markets. Templates and reusable blocks were essential for consistency and speed. Training time needed to be minimal. The tool had to be intuitive and support onboarding.
What we would track post-launch
Time to complete common authoring tasks (pre vs post-CMS). Reduction in duplicated content across markets. Adoption and satisfaction among content creators. Reuse rate of templates and blocks.
Key decisions
Separate content from presentation
Build content models that allow creators to author once, then distribute to multiple channels — this was to reduce duplication, improve governance and support a global scale.
Reusable templates and blocks
Design modular templates and reusable blocks to standardise content creation — this was to speed up workflows and ensure consistency across regions and teams.
Accessible, brand-aligned UI
Apply IKEA’s brand system and WCAG standards to all templates and components — this was to ensure inclusivity and global coherence.
Figma-based design system
Create a scalable, atomic design system with clear tokens, components, and documentation — this was to accelerate delivery, keep teams aligned, and reduce design/engineering drift.
Design rituals and QA
Embed design reviews, documentation, and QA into the development cycle — this was to ensure build quality, reduce rework, and support long-term maintainability.
Risks and how they were managed
Complex workflows
Solved by mapping end-to-end processes and validating with creators.
Scaling across regions
Mitigated with modular blocks and localisation-ready models.
Design/development drift
Prevented by introducing QA checks and design documentation.
I designed an intranet that is making it easy for employees to find and share internal knowledge and information, while helping them clearly understand what they should be working on.
