My Role & Responsibilities

I led the design for the CMS redesign effort with a dual focus:

• Creating intuitive, scalable patterns across core storytelling workflows

• Establishing a design system branch tailored to internal tools

I worked closely with engineers, product managers, and editors to guide the design process end-to-end—from discovery and research to system-level thinking and high-fidelity design.

Research & Discovery

To ground the redesign in newsroom needs, I conducted:

• User interviews with editors, producers, and reporters across departments

• Surveys to uncover pain points in publishing workflows

• Audit of legacy flows and components to identify inefficiencies and overlaps

We learned that users craved clarity, consistency, and the ability to move fast without feeling lost in the tool. They wanted smarter ways to collaborate and a CMS that reflected how modern teams really work.

IMAGE 1: Snapshot of research methods or interview script
Caption: Legacy Ellipsis was a rigid, single-user system that made collaborative editing nearly impossible. Editors relied on Slack, guesswork, and memory to coordinate changes.

Redesigning for Collaboration

We reimagined core workflows like editing, publishing, and story creation around flexibility and team collaboration:

• Introduced clearer UI hierarchy and multi-column layout for context

• Designed modular story building blocks that worked across formats

• Prioritized accessibility, keyboard navigation, and editorial voice

New patterns emphasized transparency—so users could always see who changed what, when, and why.

We didn’t just improve usability; we changed the culture of how stories were built together.

Building a Parallel Design System

Because The Post’s existing design system (WPDS) was geared toward audience-facing products, it didn’t account for the editorial and administrative patterns our tools relied on. I led the creation of a sibling design library focused on internal CMS tooling.

This system included:

• Reusable components for content editing, publishing states, and notifications

• Guidelines for media-rich layouts, content previews, and metadata patterns

• Systemized spacing, states, and hierarchy unique to editorial tooling

It was built with scalability in mind, allowing future features to plug in seamlessly.

Impact & Outcomes

Ellipsis 2 is now the foundation of The Post’s internal editorial workflow. It:

• Reduced friction across teams by unifying tools and terminology

• Enabled collaborative editing and real-time feedback loops

• Established a flexible system to support everything from breaking news to evergreen content

Beyond the newsroom, these patterns will influence future versions of ArcXP, The Post’s commercial CMS offering. I’ll be consulting with ArcXP as they adapt our internal features for media clients globally.

Final Reflections

Shipping Ellipsis 2 wasn’t the finish line—it was the reset button. This project re-centered our newsroom tools around the editors, reporters, and producers who use them every day. Through collaboration, flexibility, and a commitment to systems thinking, we didn’t just modernize a CMS—we redefined what scalable storytelling infrastructure could look like at The Washington Post.

“When you design for scale, you’re not just building systems — you’re shaping how people work, create, and collaborate.”
_{<i>Ellipsis 2 wasn’t just a redesign — it was a reset. One that re-centered our tools around the people who use them every day.</i>}