Presto Next
A complete redesign of a complete CMS.
Gannett is the home of the USA TODAY Network, the combination of USA TODAY, a prominent national news outlet, and over 100 local news sites. The network is visited by more than 100 million readers per month, and its all powered by a custom content management called Presto. Enabling cooperation, coordination, and content adaptation across the organization, Presto is central.
When I was hired by Gannett, Presto was showing its age in usability and technical suitability. My task? Lead design for a complete redevelopment of the CMS. Everything in the extensive suite of tools that had been developed over the years was on the table and I'd be updating all of it, improving usability, visual consistency, and aesthetic appeal every step of the way.
Our product team called this redesign Presto Next.
I dedicated over six years of my career to comprehensively updating Presto and making it into a tool that everyone at Gannett could be proud of. Through foundational discovery, persona definition, prototyping, usability testing, constant iteration, and close collaboration with my product and engineering partners throughout, I designed a robust suite of tools that is both powerful and easy to use.
The story editor, fronts curation, asset search, account management, media editing, and more were all thoroughly reworked, and I didn't just redesign existing features. We also built essential new functionality such as an alerts builder, taxonomy management, and a cross-newsroom planning tool, further extending Presto’s capabilities with an eye toward the future.
The size of the USA TODAY Network provides a unique opportunity for Gannett. No other news organization can reframe reporting from in-house national journalists at USA TODAY for a local audience while also empowering a network of 100+ local news organizations to act as an internal wire service.
Hand-in-hand with the USA TODAY Network's opportunities comes massive complexity. Presto Next is the connective tissue between local newspapers and USA TODAY, and I worked to strengthen that connection with every project.
Presto Next is a huge step up from its predecessor, greatly increasing newsroom efficiency and user satisfaction.
