We are thrilled to announce that we have been nominated for the UX Design Award 2023! Our submission, "[Back-office system for the online media group,](https://autentika.com/projects/wp)" was chosen from a competitive pool of over 300 entries from 58 nations.

The expert jury recognized the hard work and dedication put into our project, and we are honoured to have been selected for this distinction.
As we look forward to the virtual UX Design Awards and winner exhibition, we are excited to see our project promoted alongside the other nominees.

This is an incredible opportunity for us to showcase our innovative solutions in the field of custom editorial software for the online media industry and to connect with other design leaders.

We want to thank the jury for recognizing our efforts and giving us this opportunity to shine. We are eager to see the outcome and celebrate the achievements of all the nominees.

Congratulations to our team at Autentika for this well-deserved nomination. We are excited about the journey ahead and can't wait to see where it takes us! 


The UX Design Awards foster the impact experience design has on shaping our lives. Originating in 2008 as a show for good usability, they established the Awards in 2015. Ever since, the UX Design Awards have been honouring exceptional experiences and presenting UX talent across the world. 

The UX Design Awards present great experiences and accomplished solutions – across all fields and industries worldwide.

More information [here](https://ux-design-awards.com/about ).



About UX Design Awards

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Autentika takes the UX design world by Storm: wins nomination for UX Design Awards!

"Know that something is going on." Using a medieval reference - it's like you sent a knight in beautiful shining armour to a battle but forgot to arm him with a sword, a shield, an axe, or a helmet. On the battlefield, he would be doomed. 

Every website has to undergo constant optimisation to remain attractive to its users. There are many popular tricks to do this, but I will focus on those less known. For a moment, forget about optimising images or reducing JS or CSS code. In this article, I will share some commonly omitted tricks to improve website speed, UX, SEO, and efficiency.

Mod_pagespeed takes over some of the work related to optimising your website. What does this mean in practice? Nothing other than that, it carries out automated analysis of the site. Aside from the analysis, the module implements modifications that significantly influence a website's performance. As a result, page speed compresses images, decreases the number of JavaScript files, and limits the number of HTTP queries. It is worthwhile to check how your site behaves after implementing the mod. As a result of the conversions carried out by it, the JavaScript code changes. In such a case, you should enable a proper filter or implement appropriate modifications to solve the problem. It's possible to disable every filter which modifies the code.

Sometimes it may be impossible to install the module. Use PageSpeed Insights, put it in your domain, and check what areas should be optimised. The best thing to do is to implement all modifications suggested by the test. 


1. Instal mod-pagespeed

Open Graph tags are a solution to increase the exposure of your service on social media. If you use Open Graph tags, the links to your site shared on Facebook are much more attractive and gain more advertising value. You should also test how your content is presented on Facebook. Most of all, the graphical elements should be of the proper size. The minimum image size which will show well on FB is 1200 x 630px. Read up about the good practices for passing images to Facebook. One curious fact is that Facebook will not generate a thumbnail image the first time the URL is shared. It will show it the second time it is shared. Another curiosity is that if you use the wrong image or want to change the content of the description – you don't have to wait a day to make those changes visible. All you have to do is refresh the page using a particular tool.

Suppose you're running a store based on an open-source engine (Prestashop, Magento) or a web service based on WordPress. In that case, you should look for free plugins that automatically implement Open Graph.


2. Use Open Graph

Bordering on a certainty that many web services don't use this form of optimisation. My gut tells me this results from a lack of knowledge and that we still leave how our site appears in search results to "chance." It means that Google only displays the information included within the title, link, and meta description attributes, while there's much more to be achieved in this field. Google allows for displaying contact details, a search engine, point-based reviews, the number of reviews, prices, etc. If you do, the links leading to your site will be much more attractive, and as a result, the traffic on your site will increase. 

Depending on the market sector in which you operate, you can adapt the elements that suit your business activity profile. If you want your logo, direct contact details or links to social media to appear in the search engine, add the proper code to your site. If running an online store, enrich your search results with prices, reviews, stars, and availability information. Breadcrumbs can also appear directly in Google. Keep in mind that each newly implemented feature should be tested. It's the same with microformats. You don't have to wait for Google bot to index the new information. You can try everything using the right tools.

3. Help the search engines - use microformats

If your site uses pagination for links "previous/next," it is crucial that you also provide this information to Google. For this purpose, you can use the rel=" prev" and rel=" next" attributes. So Google can use the "hidden" content when it uses the pagination mechanism because we indicate the logical relation between pages. You can also consider adding <link> elements within the head section of your site to indicate the URL of the next and previous page.

4. Provide Googlebot with paginated content

The legendary duplicate content, internet is filled with content about this phenomenon. One thing is sure; it's better to avoid it and eliminate any content duplication on your site. It is not very attractive to the user, nor is it to Google. One of the many things related to duplicate content is website redirection. Promoting the idea of "killing" the WWW in web addresses makes sense. Physically, it's just an additional subdomain that does nothing other than generate unnecessary DNS traffic. Eventually, your site will have two separate addresses (e.g., www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com), which include the same content. This kind of optimisation is an SEO optimisation that will positively impact your position within the results of a search engine.

5. Avoid content duplication at all costs

The rel=alternate and hreflang=x attributes help display your site correctly within the search results for global and regional searches. A good tip: if you want your site to the index for regions adequate for a particular language, a good practice is to publish different language versions using separate subdomains, e.g., es.domain.com, or domains, e.g., domain.es.


6. Show Google that your web service is multilingual

Do you have a dedicated service and use a Linux operating system? In this case, you can improve the performance of your service by placing temporary files in RAM. They can be accessed and stored much more quickly this way. For this to work, you must create a tmpfs (temporary file storage facility) partition and direct all file storage toward it. The files that migrate a lot don't take up much space, and if you lose them, it doesn't cause catastrophic results. Performance can be improved by as much as 30% if you use this method for temporary files on a MySQL server. It also makes sense to use it for PHP session files.

7. Improve performance by placing temporary files in RAM

The performance of a web service should be improved in any field possible. It may sound like a cliché, but it is a mistake to ignore this recommendation when we use a hard drive to store temporary files (cache). This is simply ineffective. In this case, it makes much more sense to use Memcached or some similar system. It would help if you commissioned a software developer to do this for you. Once done, the temporary files will be stored in RAM, making it much quicker. This type of optimisation particularly impacts the improvement of performance. 


8. Install Memcached and further improve performance

Set Apache > HostnameLookups to Off. This will make your server stop asking DNS servers for the hostname. This information is useless. Look at the format of Apache logs. You should find a %h variable that forces obtaining the hostname for storing it in log files. Consider if it is necessary. Perhaps you can change it to %, which will return the server's IP much more quicker.

9. Make your server stop asking DNS servers for the hostname

How many of us designed a favicon which looked like Logo Comenius? Favicon.ico is slowly going away. Today, favicon must adapt to every medium automatically. You can use http://www.favicomatic.com/ for that. All you have to do is put in a logo with 1024 x 1024. You will get all the necessary sizes so that the favicon appears in the best possible quality, optimised for the smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Just use the code you get in the head section of your site, and it's done. Icons will be used in favourite lists, home screens, and desktops of all devices right in the places where they are pinned. 


10. Create an attractive favicon

Do you want the browser to change colours to those which you have used on your website? All you have to do is add a tag in the head section of your site – <meta name=" theme-colour" content=" #16B777"/>. Just keep in mind to use your colour in the code. By implementing this tag, you improve the visual attractiveness of your service.

11. Show your good side

Although optimising websites is not the most fascinating job in the world, when running a web service or internet application, you should treat this area as necessary. You optimise – you win. Simple as that.

Optimise for the win!

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11 ways to optimise your website

This blog post will share the key insights and lessons we've learned from our work with media newsrooms over the past four years. We'll cover topics such as the importance of understanding the habits and needs of editorial teams, the significance of including all necessary parties in product demonstrations, and the value of thorough research and ongoing iteration in designing effective solutions. 

Suppose you are a media professional looking to understand this field's unique challenges and opportunities. In that case, we hope you'll find this post informative and valuable.

Usually, designers create innovative things. But, for apps that users use many hours a day, knowing the user's habits determines success. Innovation is not always the solution.
It's more like creating a Word or Excel than a website or startup panel used three times a month. 

It is, therefore, crucial to know the habits of users. For example, in one editorial office, we spent a couple of days physically sitting in the room with them. We watched how they work, chose topics, argued which article would be on the main page and which won't, and conducted interviews in the next room or on the phone. How they add content in the CMS, and what the process looks like further down the line. Professionally, this is called ethnographic research. It means data acquisition that involves observing and describing the behaviour of a given social group in its 'natural' environment. In this case, it's a workplace. Our task is to transfer these observations into the system to make the work as easy as possible. 

Another example was when the editors told us they would prefer to avoid having buttons to save article settings in the bottom right corner. They used Windows, where the notifications that are just as important to them at work pop up. And those modal notifications cover their buttons. We all worked on Macs, where the messages automatically pop up in the top left corner. So our intuition and habits didn't work for the newsroom members. 


1) Habits vs. innovation

A product demo presents how the system works for your customer. These meetings are essential because it is at these meetings that the newsroom should make a majority of decisions. 

If you send an email to such a large organisation, you can wait a few weeks for a response. Or never receive a reply. If you want dynamics, you create new things and versions week after week; then, you bring demos to the meeting. 

During a product demo, everyone in the room can speak up; there's a discussion, and each time you go back to your notes, draw a new version and revise. And so on every week. 

There should be people in the room who are needed to continue the process, such as developers. It used to happen to us that we agreed on something with the team, and we worked on it. Still, the developers disagreed with our idea because they were not at the meeting. 

If a company has multiple editorial teams, then there should be representatives from each newsroom on such a demo. It is essential because everyone may work slightly differently and need different functions. 

2) Product demo

Analysing large newsrooms' workflow (editors, journalists, reporters) and then translating the conclusions into concrete recommendations required meticulousness and precision. The smallest detail can have a measurable impact on saving time and the comfort of people's work. 

We introduce the principle of iteration to every project. It is natural in innovative digital projects to provide new information during development. The customer often reminds us of something and wants to add it. Or we find a feature we want to implement. Iteration should be written into the DNA of running such a project. 

Once, we designed the process of adding a piece of information with two clicks. Later, in a meeting with editors, it turned out that it couldn't be two clicks. It had to be one click because working on the homepage grid is very dynamic and requires a specific reaction at a given time. We organised the interface to accommodate the most important things in the first click. 

3) Detail matters

Every project of this scale requires interdisciplinary collaboration on the design and development line. Both front-end and back-end have their own perspective that designers should include in the solution.

We had a situation where we collaborated intensely with the front-end in the beginning. Then the collaboration between design and the front-end in the context of component development and design system was severely neglected (changing priorities). The team narrowed down the scope of work on the design system at the expense of other products. 

Suddenly, we needed more collaboration between the front-end and design. Everyone was doing their own thing, and these things started to diverge strongly structurally and in terms of performance. And that's the essential thing: front-end and design need to speak the same language and consult each other in every possible way.  

4)  Interdisciplinary collaboration

We often highlight trust in the context of project execution as an essential ingredient of collaboration, often decisive for success. 

Partners can build trust on two levels: 

- Business level – it is about time and money. A client has to trust an expert to work in a time and material (T&M) model. It means that we should be involved in setting the project schedule. The time and budget are not imposed in advance. 
- Project level – IT companies recommendations must be listened to carefully. In our case, if there were dissenting opinions, it was often left to us to decide what to do. It wasn't the organisation saying: OK, let's go right. Usually, the company was saying: let Autentika decide. They are experts. 

These two factors build responsibility and efficiency, and we simply want to work hard. When there is trust, you want to give your best quality to such a project. 

For example, at the beginning of our collaboration with one company, we used Atomic Design. After a while, it became clear that this was not a good solution, so we presented our point of view to the partner. Even though we spent time and money on it, the company trusted us and agreed to the changes. 

It means that we were fearless in admitting a mistake. Because at the same time, we came up with solutions that had arguments and that were acceptable.  It puts collaboration in a different light: it's not the company that comes to us after a while and says: we see a mistake; you've messed up the work. It's us coming in and saying: there's a mistake; let's stop. 

A project based on trust has a much better chance of success. 

5) Patience and trust

User research is super important. We must speak to people in the same language and use the correct words. We are entering into a partnership for a long term. We are not an ordinary company that will disappear after a short time. 

We once had a situation where we needed to figure out what the editors meant when they used the words 'category pool'. We called it differently in the system, and it took us some time to figure out the correct language. 

Working with many newsrooms, editors use different vocabulary when describing the same things. Each company has its slang, and user research needs to be passed in each company. 

Before you start creating or changing software, it is always worth checking how people use it and the other systems they use.

6) Language 

Prepare yourself for the unexpected. It is a stable condition in this type of project. It is often the case that after you have already agreed with all the decision-makers, you come in a week, and the decision will be completely different. It is a natural process, and you must be mentally prepared. The designer's mindset is essential. 

Designers should also prepare themselves technically for this. Suppose a company does not invest in design system development, components, automation, and auto-layouts. The idea of scaling should come from the beginning because it may not be possible to start the scaling process in the middle of a project. You would have to start from the beginning, then. It is called technology debt, and paying it back is expensive.

7) Scaling

Refactoring is needed when something goes wrong in the design or development process; something has to be changed, added or removed. Refactoring development means that if you were starting the process from scratch, you would do it differently, but not by doing it all over again. 

At one point, we had to move from Sketch to Figma. It might have seemed like we were taking a step backwards because moving the whole system takes a long time. However, it takes us much less time with Figma to design new applications. Thanks to the better features in Figma, we work faster, which means less expense for a client. The time spent migrating to Figma has already paid for itself a couple of times in just one year after the transition.

8) Refactoring 

A design system is a collection of tools and processes that facilitate designing, building, and developing digital products. Component libraries, principles, tools and processes are the best that could happen in web app design. 

Designers can never finish working on a design system because systems are evolving. With transformation, however, it is optional to design only new elements. You can use those already designed and possibly add or change parts. For one newsroom, it took us only 42h to design one of the applications, thanks to design system components. 

If you want to know more about Design Systems, [read our article.](https://autentika.com/blog/why-should-you-invest-in-a-design-system-when-planning-digital-transformation) 


9) Design System: a never-ending story 

Working with media newsrooms over the past four years has taught us valuable lessons about the importance of understanding the habits and needs of editorial teams and the significance of including all necessary parties in product demonstrations. 

If you are a media newsroom looking to improve your workflow and increase efficiency, consider partnering with an experienced team that has a proven track record in this field. [Check our case study](https://autentika.com/projects/wp) or [contact us](https://autentika.com/contact) to learn more about how we can help. 

Conclusion

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Nine lessons learned from working with newsrooms

The success of today's best online media companies is no longer only due to great journalists. Equally important is a tool that supports editorial processes using the capabilities of modern technology. See how good editorial software helps journalists. 

It's worth defining at the outset what quality means in an online newsroom. Good content is delivered quickly, rich in multimedia , and written in the correct language understandable to the audience. No less critical is arming the material with options to gain its reach . And finally, a good article is written by a journalist who is aware of the reader's context and the circumstances that will accompany the reader when they interact with the text.

One assumption - I know and follow the possibilities of modern AI tools that can create content on a given topic autonomously. However, in this article, I will focus on supporting human journalists in their, for the time being, irreplaceable work.


Accident, victory, premiere, attack, death - some events cannot wait, going through a tedious editorial process. A reader, Google, and social media want this information now, immediately. How to reduce the Time To Publish of breaking news?


#1 Your breaking news has to be delivered fast

To begin with, a journalist needs a "fast track" feature in their editorial system. The requirements for ordinary materials must be divided into two groups - the necessary minimum required for rapid publication and the rest, which the journalist will complete later. Maybe it's enough to set a title, and lead and the news is good to go? After all, the breaking news template can have a predefined photo, content (i.e. More information soon…), categories, and tags, which a reporter can update later anyway. Thanks to this, within several seconds, your news will be online as the first on the market.

Urgent events are often reported directly from the field. A journalist must be able to use basic content creation tools from a mobile device as well. News with a groundbreaking photo or video recorded with a phone should immediately hit the front page and directly compete with the dynamics of social media. Yes, it's a challenge, but isn't modern journalism an increasingly difficult discipline every year?

The best editorial software also speeds up work on ordinary content. Given that the average news story consists of dozens of pieces of descriptive, structural, administrative, reference, and legal metadata, a poorly designed tool leads to a bizarre situation in which a journalist spends more time filling them in than writing the actual content (yes, I’ve seen many such cases among large newsrooms). For clarity, by metadata, I mean, for example, a title, categories, tags, an author, SEO settings, sources and many more.

In practice, much of this information can be automatically obtained from existing places:

1. Even if you eliminated a requirement of unnecessary information, check whether the journalist doesn't have to complete the ones he has already provided once… 

2. The author may have his own preferences and settings to be imported, containing metadata describing his work area, specialisation, and favourite options.

3. The system can recommend article settings analysing the author's history and statistics. 

4. The system can suggest options based on current newsroom trends. 

5. Finally, modern tools automatically suggest metadata based on a live analysis of the content.

It's more than just completing metadata that reporters can do faster. While I don't believe robots will ultimately steal a journalist's job, we have been designing tools in which automated journalism plays a significant role. Based on the text, the AI-controlled robo-reporter recommends images, videos, whole new paragraphs, links and many more. Further, the journalist decides which elements will ultimately go into his material.

Read more: [Recommendations mechanisms used in Wirtualna Polska (case study)](https://autentika.com/projects/wp)

Text is no longer enough. At least not always. Attractive news also includes photos, videos, embedded social media posts, maps and other goodies that increase the power of the message and effectively compete for the reader's attention.


#2 There is more than only a text expected

A journalist needs to access multimedia from their primary work tool. Integration with popular photo agencies allows one to search the entire photo database simultaneously. It is a good idea to teach your technology to recognise human faces, multiplying the results' quality. It may also be a good idea to populate photo metadata with the text surrounding images in articles.

Photos

The selected photo doesn’t have to go into the text in its raw form. First of all, a journalist must be able to crop and rotate it without using external tools. It should definitely happen inside the main system.

Further, a gallery in the form of a slider, mosaic, or accordion? A comparison of two photos (e.g., before vs. after) as a moving slider? How about interactive hotspots that reveal additional content to the reader when clicked?


Editorial offices usually use their own video materials (again, a search is a challenge!) and public materials from the most popular platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and others. Adding has to be simplified to pasting a link and the software will do the rest. Otherwise, it's a waste of a journalist's time. It should be equally easy to use the wealth of social media. A post from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter could go to the article right after entering the URL.

Video

A reporter can also enhance the article in other ways. A meaningful quote, a table with essential data, a stock chart, a review summary in the form of a rate or pros and cons, and a survey are just a few examples of the arsenal that good editorial software makes available to a journalist.

However, the condition for using media and add-ons is a good user experience. In addition to the wealth of possibilities, journalists appreciate the simple, quick service and a live preview of the article. Creators want to see the exact photo, video or Instagram post they inserted, not a symbol in the form of a grey rectangle, placeholder text or other imitations.

Other embeds

Today, many journalists use third-party content editors or built-in features of web browsers that check text correctness and spelling. Still, only a few newsrooms have their editorial software integrated with a writing assistant API. 

Tools such as Grammarly or Readable (but there are more and in different languages) deal with readability comprehensively , evaluating the so-called FOG index. Grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, style and tone are analysed on an ongoing basis, and recommendations are ready-made solutions to make the text understandable and consistent with the author's intention.

#3 Technology helps write better

A writing assistant will show the journalist, for example, too long sentences, the use of words that are not very understandable, the need to use a synonym instead of repetition or excessive use of the passive voice.


Some of these tools assess plagiarism risk by comparing the created text to millions of existing articles. In the era of excessive citation of sources and the negative effect of this type of conduct on the Google robot, such safeguards become critical.

Gaining popularity, understood as page views of an article, starts with the journalist and his work in the content creation tool. The reporter can compete for the presence and clickthrough rate of the article on the website's main page, Google and social media. How can technology help here?

#4 A better start for your content

A visual highlight of the article, first of all, does not have to (although it can) be the same image as the main one in the article itself. Moreover, it doesn't have to be a photo but a video (remember autoplay: on, sound: off:). The important thing is that the featured frame should arouse interest and be technically compatible with the small size of the teaser and the title often placed on it. I’ve often encountered the need to prepare multiple frames for different slots and devices. An image cropper that manages various frames is a must, then. A journalist will also appreciate the option to set an Open Graph image that appears when you publish content on your social accounts.

Image

Its length and how it appears on different devices is easy to check even before publishing. A character counter will compare the title with Google's recommendations , and a preview of a teaser will ensure a good presentation on the homepage. Let's also mention the option to set a special version for SEO and slug (part of the URL after the last backslash).

Title

It's a pity to be limited to one set of titles and images. Technology makes it possible to quickly test several variants proposed by the journalist and, in the end, use the one with the highest CTR.

A/B testing 

A reader naturally directs attention to the keywords "Live", "Breaking", Top Story", and "Watch", so a broad palette of such labels must be available in the CMS of a modern editorial office.


Labels

Google's robot, when assessing the value of content, also takes into account many factors, including text length, paragraph and subheadings architecture and other metadata: type of content (news, seasonal, evergreen), tags & categories, adult flag, canonical tag. Management, live communication of errors and warnings, but most importantly, auto-completion and suggestion of the best solutions are features desired by the editorial staff today.

Content

The SEO department loves links in the content, but journalists prefer to avoid inserting them manually at all. However, there is nothing to prevent a machine from recommending the linking of specific words and only informing the author.

An editorial software that blocks the article with technical errors affecting the chance of getting coverage is really not rocket science in 2022.

Read more: [News pieces management in Polish media giant (case study)](https://autentika.com/projects/wp)


Links

The content and metadata are checked and optimised according to best practices. Is the article ready? Is the journalist sure what kind of experience the reader will have after interacting with the material? No? Yet he could! 

A preview in the viewer's environment proves helpful, yet in the process of writing an article. The option to view content in a template of your website is a great chance to see how:

- the content fits in the page layout and how it interacts with other surrounding elements. Maybe an automatically added video interrupts the story you are telling at an inappropriate moment, and you want to change that? 
- ads affect the perception of content. Maybe too short paragraphs create an unpleasant effect of accumulation of ads, and you can still do something about it?
- a smaller screen on a mobile device creates a different reader experience. Maybe the embedded infographic needs to be more readable, and you should add a link to its full size?

#5 Reader Experience

I believe that especially ignoring the mobile device context is a huge journalists mistake. Of course, most editorial workflow systems don’t support reporters in any way. How can you write, check and publish news on a desktop on Friday at 9pm, when the usage of mobile devices often reaches 90% or even more?

And yet, there's nothing to prevent the editorial team from analysing traffic statistics and building awareness on an ongoing basis. During the dominance of mobile traffic at many stages of article creation, the system can effectively remind a journalist of the specifics of the small screen. Decisions about content, settings, or pinning a news story on the homepage must consider the nature of the device.

Only a handful of newsrooms, even in the largest media holdings, work on cutting-edge tools built according to their needs, taking advantage of the potential of modern technology. Most editorial offices use crude, built in-house tools, without designers, and a thoughtful process.

The options I listed are a quick sprint on the surface of the most important aspects of a sound editorial system. But the truth is yet different. The entire path of creating a tool for an editorial office must take into account the goals and requirements of the modern online media industry and your organisation from start to finish. With this assumption, at the end of the day, your satisfied journalists will create better-quality content.

Almost no journalist loves their content management system

Are you planning to modernise your online media business?[ Read our award winning case study of Wirtualna Polska. ](https://autentika.com/projects/wp)


6. FOG.png

How can modern editorial software be your journalists' superpower?

With a design system, work on IT projects is **cheaper, quicker, and more cohesive, providing a better user experience.** 

Too many promises for one article? We don't think so. 

To prove a point, we have gathered information on the design systems, examples of companies that use them and their opinions. Let's dive in! 


A design system is a collection of tools and processes that facilitate designing, building, and developing digital products… Yes, it isn't straightforward.

Let us give you an example. 

Imagine you need a single button for your app. Preparing this simple element relates to making a few decisions: shape, fill, size, shadow, typeface to be used, margins, on-mouse-over, on-click effects, iconography, or the final code which will place it within the system. Let's add that such a button has to be coherent with other elements of the application, of which there are tens or even hundreds.

What is a design system?

Here's where a story begins, one which everyone, who has anything to do with software development, knows:

- The UX Designer doesn’t deal with most of the above characteristics of the button,
- The UI Designer designs a new look for every button for each of the created projects separately,
- The Front-end Developer writes code in a way that multiplies discrepancies by making further decisions of their own.

And this is just the beginning of all problems to come. Let's multiply those issues by the number of projects at the company and the number of people that work there, considering staff and team rotation, time, and budgetary pressures. Result?

The example above leads to unpleasant consequences: 

- **A waste of time and energy –** software development is limited by lengthy design and development procedures.

- **Weak UX** – users who use many different apps from the same company don’t feel they are dealing with a single ecosystem.

- **Lack of coherence** – every system of the same company works and looks different, even if it has similar elements at first sight. 

- High cost of development – the company bears the cost of creating the same elements repeatedly for different purposes.

What are the lack of a design system consequences? 

In practice, a design system is a library of components that combine design, code, and knowledge of how to use them. It is based on the simple idea – create once, use many times. 

 And no, a component library itself is not yet a design system. Design or code on their own does not comprise a design system. Knowledge itself is not a design system either. All those elements must be properly combined and created together as a process and the final source of truth for designers and developers alike.

Design system in practice 

Signals that you should develop a design system within your organisation can be combined into a few common characteristics: 

- If your company already has an extensive ecosystem of IT systems, which it intends to develop, you may need a design system.

- You may need a design system if your company plans to develop new IT systems.

- If teams of designers and developers at your company are facing communication issues and struggling to obtain coherent results, you may need a design system.

We use the word "may" deliberately because the discussion on design systems is much more complex. In our initial conversations with our clients, we closely examine their project portfolio, platforms, and the technologies used to build those platforms. We define the expected level of coherence between those platforms and systems and analyse the structure and competencies of their implementation teams.

 There is no single, universal way to build a design system. The plan depends on the ecosystem of IT projects within your company and the goals you want to achieve.

Who is a design system for?

The stakes are high indeed. A correctly implemented, used, and developed design system translates into tangible advantages for your business: 

1. You can use it to create new projects faster by increasing the productivity of your design and development teams.
2. You can save money on developing existing products because your code will be reusable, and prototyping will become simpler.
3. You can make your applications more coherent regarding how they look and feel, and work and turn them into a single ecosystem.
4. You can provide your users with a proper level of comfort by promoting good UX and reusable UX templates.

Benefits of a design system for your organisation

We asked Basilissa Albers, design system Product Owner @Adverity, what are the three most important benefits of implementing a design system in her organisation:

Take a look at the flagship solutions of IT giants. They have been providing proof for quite some time that a design system is a meaningful improvement of their development process:

- Shopify's Polaris design system: https://polaris.shopify.com/
- Salesforce's Lightning design system: https://www.lightningdesignsystem.com/
- IBM's Carbon design system: https://www.carbondesignsystem.com/
- Adobe's Spectrum design system: https://spectrum.adobe.com/ 
- Google's Material design system: https://material.io/design/ 


Design system examples 

We have been working together with [Wirtualna Polska Group](https://holding.wp.pl/en) for more than four years. They are one of the biggest media holdings in Central Europe and reach 22.1 million users every month. Over the 25 years, they have accumulated many different digital tools ( advertising, IT, and editorial, among others). Our job was to create a coherent back-office system (including a design system) . Set of solutions that support the growth of existing and development of new tools. If you want to learn more, check out our case study. 

Here’s what Aleksandra Rabenda, Head of Delivery Team @ WP says about design system:

Design System for online media industry

A design system is a collection of tools and processes that simplify digital product development, construction and design.
The decision to develop your design system must be preceded by a thorough analysis based on solid business grounds. It is the kind of conversation we would like to encourage. Are you ready to join it?

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Why should you invest in a design system when planning digital transformation?

There are many things to consider when designing an app that uses a map. How will the user interact with the map? What information should be displayed on the map? This blog post will discuss essential factors in designing a successful map for your app.

A mapplication, or map-based application, is a tool that uses maps and geographic information to help users achieve a specific goal. Mapplications are becoming increasingly popular as people rely more on GPS to get around. 

Mapplications are especially useful when used with other data sources, such as weather reports or real-time traffic information. By combining different data types, mapplications can provide a more comprehensive picture of an area and help users make more informed decisions. Mapplications are also constantly evolving, with new features and capabilities being added all the time.

1. What is a mapplication, and why are they useful?

When it comes to a map-based app design, there are a few key factors to keep in mind to create an effective and user-friendly experience:

- Mapplication design is all about creating an effective and user-friendly interface that helps users navigate their way around. It should be interactive, allowing users to zoom in and out as needed. The map should be clear and concise, with labels that are easy to read.
- The map should be integrated with other advanced app features, such as directions and search. This will allow users to find the information they need quickly.
- The app should have clear and concise icons and labels that users can easily identify. Use different colours to distinguish between different types of information. For example, using light blue for water bodies and green for land masses.
- Considering a base map layer is covered by several other pieces of data, a user would benefit from having a show/hide feature. These customisation options let him make his own set of visible layers according to his needs.
- The map should be regularly updated with new data and content to keep users engaged.
- Last but not least, you need to make sure that your mapplication provides significant value to users. That is, it should offer users something that they can't find anywhere else. This could be in the form of exclusive deals, customised content, or unique features.

2. How do you design a mapplication that is effective and user-friendly?

One of the most common mistakes made in mapplication design is making the interface too complicated. A mapplication should be easy to use and understand, with a simple interface. Users should be able to navigate their way around the map without any difficulty.

Another common mistake is not keeping the map up-to-date. It's important to regularly update the map with new data and content to ensure that users have the most accurate information possible.

Some mapplications fail to provide enough value to users.  As mentioned earlier, a mapplication needs to offer users something that they can't find anywhere else. Without this, users will quickly become bored and move on to another app.

It is important to test the mapplication on different devices to ensure that it works well on all of them. Some users prefer mobile apps, and some prefer desktop or web apps. It also depends on the type of work employees do. 

3. What are some common mistakes made in mapplication design?

In addition to the points mentioned above, there are a few other things to keep in mind when designing a maps-based app. First, it's important to think about how users will interact with the map itself. Will they need to zoom in and out often? What types of features will they need to be able to see? 


4. Are there any other things to consider when designing a maps-based app?

Second, it's also worth considering how the map will fit into the overall design of the app. 


Will it be the main focus, or will it be one element among many? Finally, it's important to keep in mind that mapplication development is a complex process, and several factors can impact the end result. As such, it's important to work with an experienced development team to ensure that your app meets your specific needs and expectations. Sometimes you have only one chance.

Mapplications are becoming increasingly popular as businesses look to create interactive and engaging experiences for their users. However, designing a map-based application can be a challenge. Mapplication design is a complex and ever-evolving field, and there are several things to consider when designing a maps-based app.

When it comes to design, the most important thing is to keep the user in mind. What features will they need? What type of device will they be using? It's important to think about how users will interact with the map and how the map will fit into the overall design of the app. In addition, it's important to keep in mind the latest trends in mapplication design to ensure that your app remains up-to-date and relevant. 

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Mapping Your Way to App Success: What You Need to Know About Mapplication Design

This year we were awarded first prize in the Develop & Deliver and People’s Choice categories at [DesignWays 2022](https://www.designways.io), one of Poland’s largest UX/UI designers conferences.  Winning the contest was the crowning achievement of the hard work we put into the [Wirtualna Polska](https://holding.wp.pl/en) project and validation of the values that guide us at Autentika.  


Wirtualna Polska is an online media giant.  Every month they reach 22,1 million real users. For the past twenty-five years, WP has been developing its own back-office systems (including IT, advertising, and editorial). As their ecosystem grew, they started to have issues with managing the software applications they acquired through other businesses. This made maintenance complicated and in some cases prevented further development.

Our task was to create a coherent ecosystem (including a design system). Set of solutions that support the growth of existing and development of new tools. We also dealt with building a positive user experience, i.e. editing dozens of portals.We questioned existing solutions, proposing a revolution. 

And it worked! Today WP owns one of the best editorial apps in the online media industry. 

About our project 

We were at a company meeting a week before the results were announced. Since we work online, we all gather once a year together to spend time and get to know each other better. It was nice to see those smiling faces, the excitement. We have to admit that we have quite a sense of humour! 

Sitting around the campfire, we talked about the contest, and many of us believed that the jury would appreciate our work. After all, we have been creating this project for four years!


What happened the week before the results were announced

Finally, Monday came, and the results were announced. Our intuition was not wrong. Ania, our HR lady, went to Cracow for the conference to represent us. We waited patiently online. Finally, we got a message from Ania: 

- Two first places!!! Not only in the Develop & Deliver category but also in People's Choice!

What was our joy!!! We felt like a soccer team that won the European championship! Winning in the Develop & Deliver category meant we were awarded among 25 other great projects at a really high level.

Announcement of results

The victory in both categories has shown us that the values we follow can bring tangible results. We are a diverse team of people in different age groups: from twenty-year-olds to programmers over 40. We have one thing in common: a passion for being authentic. 

It is worth mentioning here the story of Michal, the founder of our company. Authenticity and honesty flow in his blood. This reflects the name of our company- Autentika. He started the company 17 years ago as a self-taught freelancer. 

There was no UX / UI division back then, so he did both. He got many clients over a couple of years, and they were happy with the result. And so there was a need to hire people, have a company and a brand. People have always emphasised that working with him is concrete, reliable, timely, and honest. 

So when looking for a name, he focused on such values. And since these values are his authentic behaviour, nothing rehearsed or exaggerated; he has chosen Autentika. 


Our values 

The story above explains why the company has been attracting interesting characters from the very beginning. Personalities who can be sincere in giving feedback and also sometimes admit to being wrong. 

Being authentic works in every situation. When we talk to a client, we ensure that the entire process (into which large budgets are often put) is transparent. It allows the client to have peace of mind that the time and money invested will yield the expected results. 

Thanks to clear communication between team members, we can quickly locate potential problems and solve them. Besides, things are never boring on Slack. Honest conversations on various topics (from politics to hobbies) are a fantastic refresher during work. And fun! 

And all this happened in the Wirtualna Polska project. 

Therefore, we would like to thank the organisers, the jury of DesignWays and everyone involved in our success. We can't wait for the following challenging projects :)


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DesignWays - winning the UX/UI conference proved our team's values right

_The idea is a concept conceived by Autentika. We are UX-Driven Design & Development team that for 17 years has been building design systems and high-quality web, e-commerce, and mobile apps.  Feel free to use its elements in your own projects._

***

While more and more businesses can thrive no matter where they are located with the help of the Internet and courier delivery services, for many industries the three most important elements of their business are: **location, location, and once again, location.** The choice of location for your cafe, convenience store, or point of service is the critical element of planning the future of your business.

You have probably seen places where someone opens a third grocery store or sushi bar right in the same place. It happens all the time. We observed it in the vicinity of our office. Every time this happens we wonder - how is this even possible? Has the new owner not verified such basic information? How did they choose the location which did not save the previous entrepreneur’s business from failing?


Based on this information we are provided with a city plan, with colors to inform us about the best location for our business. We can further specify our expectations. The price range for our drinks? Our rent budget?



Using the cursor we can display detailed parameters of each location. We take into consideration tens of different factors, including customer affluence, the number of competing businesses in the area, footfall, and traffic, most frequented routes, rent levels, and even staff availability based on required qualifications.


The service gathers information from ad portals and presents locations available for rent. Perhaps this is the offer which suits us best? It also lists the pros and cons for the given area, so that we can make the right decision.

By zooming into the greener areas of the map we can find a location that suits our needs. 

This should be our “GoodPlace”.

Fantasy you say? Today, maybe it is. But the data is already widely available, what’s missing is the online system that would gather it all together in one place and apply artificial intelligence to analyze it thoroughly.

Large businesses have their consulting companies and specialized experts. GoodPlace would be the place to visit for all smaller cafes and convenience stores to gather crucial information for their business. Sooner or later, someone will make this connection. Perhaps they will even use our help to do it.

At Autentika we call ourselves a UX UI design & custom development team.  For nearly 17 years we have delivered web applications, online services, mobile applications, and e-commerce systems.

If you’re planning on creating a project for your company, learn about our competencies, or simply get in touch. 

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GoodPlace - we’ll find the best location for your business

You may have heard the saying, "necessity is the mother of invention." This couldn't be more true than when it comes to the digital media industry. In today's rapidly changing technology environment, media organizations are stretched to do more with less. Publishing companies, in particular, need specialized software that can help them publish and broadcast their content in a more streamlined and efficient manner.

We're a UX-driven design and development team that specializes in the creation of the back-office software ecosystems to derive revenue and increase media industry performance. We created this kind of set of solutions for one of the biggest internet publishers in Central Europe- [Wirtualna Polska Group.](https://holding.wp.pl) Every month they reach 22,1 million internet users! In this article, we'll outline the benefits of having custom software and the features it can contain. Enjoy your reading!

More time optimization, more revenue

Custom internet publishing and broadcasting software is software that is specifically designed for a particular media company with a specific interest. It allows for more detailed and customized editing of content than off-the-shelf software and can make the publishing and broadcasting process more efficient and streamlined. This industry does not include internet service providers or publishers of offline content. Major companies include AOL, Associated Press, HuffPost, Cable News Network (CNN) and other web sites.

What is internet publishing and broadcasting software, and why do you need it?

Internet publishing and broadcasting software help media companies improve the lives of many groups of people: 

Why do digital media companies need custom internet publishing and broadcasting software?

The dream of every IT director, innovation director, head of product, or project manager is to have a coherent software ecosystem. Companies using custom software are better able to optimize costs, and increase performance. Thanks to their rapid rise they become industry key players. Internet publishing and broadcasting software allow for better collection of industry data. 

Management staff

Custom internet publishing and broadcasting software can make the publishing process faster and easier for employees. Journalists, editors, and publishers will find all the necessary tools in one place, allowing them to focus on what matters most - the art of writing. 

Employees

Users use a significant portion of their time spent online reading the news, often on mobile devices.  When a company has a better handle on its content, it can provide a better experience for its online users. Custom internet publishing and broadcasting software can help media companies publish articles and video content more quickly and efficiently, providing a better experience for users. Additionally, this software can help media companies collect data about their industry that can be used to improve the experience for users.


Internet users

The features of custom internet publishing and broadcasting software

These days, content editing software has become an essential tool for every media organization. That's because journalists use this technology to create their articles. You may associate it with the popular CMS (Content Management System). But that's not what we have in mind. An innovative content editor supports the process of creating multimedia-rich content following all SEO best practices and making it accessible to the intended audience.

1. Content Editor

With this tool, editors can count the time from opening a page with a blank article until that article appears on the web sites.

2. TTP (Time to Publish)

Journalists love our tool because they can choose templates that adapt to the planned content from the very beginning and speed up the creative process.

3. Ready-to-go templates

With this feature, journalists can save draft versions of their work. The safety of data is enhanced by the use of local storage because it eliminates the danger of losing any work done.

4. Autosave feature

A rich multimedia component library is used to write an article. Editors can add pictures, video content, dynamic galleries, social media postings, citations, specification tables, stock and currency exchange quotations, e-commerce components, event timelines, pros and cons sections, reviews, industry data in pdf format, and many more. These are success factors that allow for the production of genuinely interesting content for today's readers!

5. Content Parts Library

The text may also be formatted more comfortably by utilizing the panel for formatting content.

6. Text formatting Panel

The text in the article is analyzed by the system (AI + Machine Learning) to suggest related images, links, tags, and categories. It all helps to boost visibility in the web search portals such as Google search engine and make the piece more appealing to the reader. 

7. Recommendations mechanisms

The content is evaluated to match the target audience's needs (sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and so on). It eliminates long sentences and phrases that no one understands which is a key driver affecting readability. You can read more [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning_fog_index).

8. Readability score

We use validations to reveal errors and help users adopt best practices, as well as how to address any issues. We're performing the editors' function of testing the technical side of news for publication.

9. Smart validation

The design of the portal in which it will be published (including mockup views for mobile devices and advertising grid) includes a preview section that allows journalists to view the information as seen by the reader on the internet and mobile devices.

10. Article preview

Complete article content is just the beginning of the journey to capture the reader's attention.

Editorial process

The article on the home page and other web sites is shown by a news preview (news story). The seemingly basic and unimportant element, in reality, has a crucial function! Article popularity is determined by several parameters, including the title, picture, search engine requirements, and other settings.

11. News piece

Editors verify every news or broadcasting content item before it goes online. It may go through several rounds of editing on a kanban table until one of its versions is approved.

12. Selection

A news article is most read a few hours after publication. During that time, Big Data mechanisms examine the clickability findings. The editor can improve the results by pinning the preview in the desired location on the homepage. In Wirtualna Polska, we call it the Attention Command Center. 

13. Publishing

With 4 million articles, you'll need a solid understanding of how to review, create an easily searchable format, and filter content. The search engine offers a built-in command list, allowing to use of any applicable filters of general or specific interest.

14. Article list

The selection of photos has long been one of the most important problems in editing material. Every news story requires at least one image. Finding, selecting, and inserting pictures into articles was time-consuming.

A centralized repository that combines the resources of numerous organizations, categorizes metadata and manages multiple licenses has become a critical tool for journalists in their professional lives. Also, don't overlook the sophisticated cropping functionality, which eliminates the need to retouch photos with third-party software.

15. Photo Repository

A design system is a set of regulations, tools, and processes that streamline the creation of digital goods. You can read more about it [here](https://designsystem.pl/en).

The team we've assembled is in charge of developing a React.js component library as well as producing useful documentation. We save time by being able to reuse components, ensuring a coherent experience for our users.

Today, thanks to the Design System, we can develop new apps four times faster than before. DS also enhances the coherence between other ecosystem components.


16. Design system

Such a wide range of applications necessitates the use of a control unit that collects data and displays a "helicopter view" of the outcomes of our efforts. The Dashboard shows statistics and allows for data processing, examination of growth rates, and key sensitivities.

Design and technology insights for enterprise & startups