A Chalmers University of Technology Master’s thesis - User experience enhancement of a complex digital content management platform

Abstract

Data-intensive administrative systems support multiple workflows for users with various backgrounds and levels of expertise. When such a system grows organically without a deliberate design strategy, structural complexity can accumulate into an overly complicated user interface that increasingly burdens users and impedes scalable adoption. The purpose of this project was to identify the pain points caused by this complexity in a system, as well as to determine the extent to which iterative design improvements can mitigate them. The system being evaluated and redesigned is the back-office platform developed by Opera’s Gothenburg office, for which functional completeness was initially prioritised over usability due to resource constraints. The project followed the Triple Diamond framework, progressing through initial system evaluation, usability problem and requirement definition, iterative low- and high-fidelity prototyping with consequent user studies, prioritisation, and final implementation. The initial and final user studies consisted of semi-structured interviews with think-aloud tasks, followed by the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), which captured both qualitative and quantitative data, enabling direct comparison before and after the redesign. The primary pain points identified were navigational structure, information density, and the absence of onboarding guidance. These issues pushed users from efficient, skill- and rule-based interaction toward effortful, knowledge-based reasoning, with a measurably greater impact on novice users, who had developed no compensatory strategies and often avoided the system altogether. The redesign addressed these pain points through a new navigation structure, a simplified main page, and new features including persistent support information and the ability to favourite frequently visited pages. In the final evaluation, qualitative feedback from interviews and UEQ results were in strong agreement. Participants consistently described navigation as noticeably faster and more intuitive, and the majority of UEQ scales reached the Excellent benchmark category, with particular improvements in Perspicuity and Efficiency. The scores from the identified user groups converged in the final round, suggesting that the redesign lowered the threshold for novice users without disrupting established experts’ workflows. The results demonstrate that sustained, iterative user engagement is essential when redesigning complex systems with heterogeneous user groups, and that significant usability improvements can be achieved through structural refinement without requiring a complete reimplementation.