Forbes Internship: CMS UX Design
Redesigning "Bertie," Forbes' AI-powered editorial assistant, to make its features more discoverable and useful for writers publishing on Forbes.com.
Product Design
UX Research
Role
Lead, UX Research & Design (Bertie assistant)
Timeline
8 weeks (Summer 2022)
team
Product Designer (me), Product Owner, Product manager and Software Engineers
platform
Desktop Web
Tools
Sketch, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Miro
About: Developing Forbes' CMS
The goal was to research and develop UX upgrades to Forbes' CMS ("Bertie") specifically its Bertie assistant, which helps authors by surfacing streamlined stats and insights about their articles and newsletters. The project aimed to make the assistant more user-friendly, expose all of its features while writers edit, and add or remove functionality based on real needs.
My role: I led the research and design of the Bertie assistant to meet current user needs, gathering feedback from my Design Director, the Director of Data Products, and the Associate Product Owner to shape the best outcome.
Background
The assistant helps writers create for Forbes.com more effectively, powered by machine learning. It has its strongest presence in the Story Editor "drawer," accessed via the Hat icon in the top navigation, and focuses on SEO and Forbes' editorial standards. The most-used tool is Headline Strength- it suggests keywords, an optimal headline length, and corrects editorial style issues.
Bertie: Forbes' ML-driven writing assistant, embedded in the Story Editor.
Design Process
A five-step process from research through validation to build.
Initial Audit & Research
I audited the current Bertie assistant and summarized user interviews aimed at understanding: whether users grasp the assistant, which features matter most and how they'd prioritize them, how to educate users on existing features, and their favorite feature.
Insights: some assistant features were unknown to users (who loved discovering useful ones); users prioritized headline SEO and image recommendations over other features; and they wanted the word count visible on screen without opening the assistant tab.
Design Directions & Solutions
From the audit and team feedback, I narrowed to a few directions:
Fixing misformatted H2 suggestions under SEO
Developing story stats and notifications
Designed solutions to improve overall usability
Notification blobs so writers can spot new assistant suggestions at a glance.
Categorized the checklist and suggestions for easier differentiation and navigation.
Developing on-screen story stats: overall article strength, headline, imagery, keyword trends, and links surfaced directly in the editor.
Word-count toggle: A quick word-count toggle so authors can check length without opening the assistant tab.
Forbes Front-End Design
Alongside the Bertie work, I took on front-end mini-projects- creating icons and aligning parts of Forbes.com with the design system. These included Forbes Digital Assets, Forbes Newsletters, design-system alignment, and Bertie.
Platform: Desktop Web & Mobile
Tools: Sketch, Figma, Illustrator, Miro
Created the design-system alignment for the SAP BrandVoice page on Forbes.com.
Designed icons for the Forbes Digital Assets web and mobile pages.
Extensions of these projects were in the deployment process to go live on the site