Someone tasked with designing admin panels asked senior designers this question in an online forum.

There are no business objectives aligned to admin panels as much as to the consumer panels, the question poster said. They wondered if companies conduct as much UX process in designing admin panels compared to consumer (user) panels.

I’ve redesigned the information architecture of 30+ enterprise websites and apps, many of which included internal site overhauls and multiple stakeholder interviews with admin panel users.

My experience with Internal vs Customer site UX is that:

• Yes, companies prioritize customer interfaces.
• Company investment in internal UX depends on team size and how crucial content/good UX are to the company’s value proposition.

The smaller the content teams and the less dependence on strong UX as a differentiator, the less justified and necessary the investment becomes.

My perspective on Internal vs Customer site UX is that:

• Internal UX is customer UX because the systems (sites, apps, help desks, chatbots) form an ecosystem that impacts end-users through delays, inconsistencies, and errors, even without direct interfaces.
• The line between internal UX and customer UX is non-existent in users’ minds.
• Framing the benefit of this work as “admin experience improvements” is unlikely to prompt action.
• “The CMS we have now is too hard to use.” Many internal UX redesigns, like content management systems (CMS) updates, begin by voicing this feeling. But you need to define pains and goals to be successful.

A clear definition of success sets you up for success and ensures you’re not spending time or energy on initiatives that won’t move the needle.

Framing the benefit of this work as “admin experience improvements” is unlikely to prompt action.

Are admin panels as valuable as customer panels?

Now, is internal UX as valuable as customer UX, since, as the question poster put it, “there are no business objectives aligned to admin panels as much as to the consumer panels”?

I’ve witnessed many benefits to designing effective internal UX. I’ll focus on one type of admin interface here, that of content management systems.

A CMS is a software used to create, publish, and edit digital content. Common CMSs include WordPress, HubSpot, and Ghost.

Goals for the redesign of an internal CMS interface may include:

• Reduce content publishing time by 25% (from 45 to 34 minutes per piece) → Increase content team productivity, lower costs, enable faster content go-to-market (business impact)
• Increase average time on site by 15% through improved content discoverability and site navigation → Direct correlation to ad revenue, lower bounce rates, improved SEO performance (business impact) + Implement more intelligent content recommendations, enhance internal linking, optimize search functionality (UX impact)

How to improve your CMS with information architecture

Boost efficiency and transform your UX for internal users through information architecture for your content management system.

A well-designed CMS is beneficial in multiple ways for ABCDE: Agencies, Businesses, Content managers, Developers, and End-users.

Agencies – Internal UX benefits

• New business opportunities
• Additional value delivered to your clients
• Opportunities for employee retention and professional development through upskilling in new methodologies and UX design

Businesses – Internal UX benefits

• Increase content team productivity
• Enable faster content go-to-market
• Enhance author experience
• Increased content consistency, ultimately contributing to greater trustworthiness

When you uplift those who bring your content to life—your marketing team, ContentOps folks, and website content managers—you nurture the very soul of your brand’s story.

Content managers – Internal UX benefits

• Drive user retention and revenue streams
• Increase ad revenue, reduce bounce rates, enhance SEO
• Improved author experience
• Streamlined publishing and editing processes
• More personalized content recommendations, enhanced internal linking, optimized search functionality
• Professional growth in the UX design field

Developers – Internal UX benefits

• Make people’s lives easier by streamlining their daily tasks
• Drive user retention and revenue streams
• Be seen as an expert and elevate your role at the crossroads of tech, business, and user experience

End-users interact with content that is:

• Findable – if they’re looking for something specific, they can find it easily
• Valuable – a lot of thought has gone into what gets prioritized, so the surfaced information helps guide users
• Timely – information flow is optimized to match users’ needs at each step, not showing too much or too little information

“We don’t build cars; we build factories.”

I like this phrase that refers to those who work on improving internal systems to make colleagues’ work easier and more productive.

We don’t build the car ourselves, but we help make it happen by optimizing processes, formalizing standards, and creating reusable frameworks, so those who go into the factory to build cars know exactly what to do to build beautiful, fast, reliable vehicles.

AI Policy: I personally write each draft and final copy on this website. All content reflects my own thinking, ideas, style, and craft.  I do not use AI such as ChatGPT or other LLMs to generate articles. Occasionally, I ask AI (such as Formalizer or Equativ) to summarize or re-state my own ideas and may restructure sections based on the response.