Unified VMS: From Legacy Systems to a Cohesive, Scalable Publishing Experience
ROLE: Lead product Designer
CLIENT: Minute Media / STN Video
INDUSTRY: Digital Media & Video Technology
Following Minute Media’s acquisition of STN Video, I led UX design efforts for integrating core publishing workflows into Voltax, Minute Media’s enterprise video management platform.
The project required balancing user familiarity with platform consistency, preserving critical publisher workflows while aligning new functionality with an established design system and technical framework.
KEY SKILLS DEMONSTRATED: Enterprise SaaS • Workflow Optimization • Information Architecture • Design Systems • Platform Migration • Stakeholder Alignment • Cross-Functional Leadership
SCOPE:
Led UX design for the STN-to-Voltax migration
Defined workflows and information architecture
Designed integrated publishing experiences within the Voltax ecosystem
Partnered with Product and Engineering throughout discovery and delivery
The Challenge: Integrating Legacy Workflows into a Modern Platform
The acquisition of STN Video introduced a significant product challenge: migrating established publishing workflows into Voltax without disrupting the daily operations of existing users.
Publishers relied on STN’s tools to manage video content, playlists, distribution, and monetization. At the same time, Voltax had its own architecture, workflows, design patterns, and technical constraints.
The goal was not simply to recreate existing screens. It was to determine how familiar STN functionality could be thoughtfully integrated into a modern platform while supporting long-term scalability.
Additional complexity came from:
Multiple stakeholder groups across Canada, the US, Europe, and IS
Evolving technical constraints throughout development
Competing business priorities
Legacy workflows deeply embedded in user behaviour
The requirement that new functionality align with Voltax’s existing design system and component library
Key Challenges:
Redesign interconnected workflows within a complex enterprise publishing platform
Preserve critical publishing workflows
Minimize disruption for existing users
Align new experiences with the Voltax design system
Work within platform and engineering constraints
Create a foundation for future platform growth
Defining Success
Before exploring solutions, the team aligned on what a successful migration would achieve.
Success Criteria:
Maintain continuity for existing STN users
Consolidate workflows within a single platform experience
Reduce reliance on legacy systems
Align new functionality with established Voltax patterns
Create scalable foundations for future enhancements
Discovery & Workflow Analysis
The migration required a deep understanding of how publishers interacted with STN’s existing tools and how those workflows could fit within Voltax.
Analysis revealed that publishers relied on highly established content-management workflows that would need to remain familiar throughout the migration process. The team identified workflow dependencies, user expectations, and system constraints that would influence how functionality could be integrated into Voltax.
Activities:
Workflow mapping
Creating Personas
Feature inventory analysis
Competitive review
Design system assessment
Functional requirement analysis
Designing Within Constraints
One of the most important challenges was balancing user familiarity with platform consistency.
Rather than introducing entirely new patterns, solutions needed to work within Voltax’s established design system and technical architecture. This required careful evaluation of which STN workflows could be adapted directly and where redesign opportunities existed.
Many design decisions involved navigating trade-offs between user expectations, engineering feasibility, and long-term maintainability.
Activities:
Existing Voltax interaction patterns
Component library limitations
Technical implementation constraints
Workflow continuity for users
Future scalability requirements
Reimagining the Browse Videos Experience
Areas of Focus:
Improved content discoverability
Enhanced filtering and organization
Consistent platform patterns
Scalable interaction models
Responsive layouts
Design Exploration
I evaluated several approaches, including:
Gallery and list view options
Enhanced video previews
Improved search and filtering
Content management workflows
Embed generation experiences
One of the key workflows we examined was how publishers browsed and managed large video libraries.
Through interviews with existing STN users, we discovered that while the platform’s list view was familiar and efficient for scanning metadata, some users found the experience limiting when evaluating visual content. Small thumbnail previews often made it difficult to quickly assess videos, resulting in additional clicks and workflow friction.
Rather than forcing users into a single workflow, I explored multiple approaches that balanced familiarity with improved usability.
Outcome
The final solution introduced both gallery and list view options, allowing users to choose the experience that best supported their workflow.
Existing users could continue working within a familiar list-based environment, while users who preferred richer visual context could switch to a gallery view for faster content evaluation and discovery.
This approach improved usability without disrupting established workflows while creating a more flexible foundation for future enhancements.
Streamlining Video Uploads
Areas of Focus:
Simplified metadata entry
Improved category management
Streamlined scheduling workflows
Reduced cognitive load
Scalable taxonomy support
Uploading content was one of the most frequently used workflows within the platform, yet the experience required users to manage multiple publishing decisions simultaneously.
Publishers needed to upload content, assign metadata, categorize videos, apply restrictions, and schedule publication—all while maintaining speed and accuracy.
The challenge was creating a workflow that supported complex publishing requirements without overwhelming users.
Designing for Complex Categorization
One of the most significant challenges involved category selection.
Publishers often worked within large, deeply nested category structures that became increasingly difficult to navigate as content libraries expanded.
To improve efficiency, I explored multiple approaches including hierarchical browsing, searchable category selection, and category chips that provided immediate visibility into selected values.
The final solution allowed users to quickly locate categories through search while maintaining visibility into category hierarchy and selected classifications.
Supporting Flexible Publishing Workflows
Users needed the flexibility to either publish content immediately or schedule content for future release.
The redesigned workflow adapted dynamically based on user inputs, providing clear feedback and helping users understand the impact of their publishing decisions before submission.
By organizing related tasks into a more structured workflow, the experience reduced friction while supporting a wide range of publishing scenarios.
Outcome
The redesigned upload experience consolidated multiple publishing tasks into a more intuitive workflow, helping users move from content upload to publication with greater confidence and efficiency.
The solution balanced advanced publishing requirements with a streamlined user experience that aligned with the broader Voltax ecosystem.
Modernizing Playlist Creation
Areas of Focus:
Improved content discoverability
Enhanced playlist creation workflows
Better visual context for content selection
Streamlined video management
Faster content curation
Playlists played a critical role in how publishers organized, curated, and distributed content across their properties.
The legacy playlist experience prioritized metadata management but offered limited visual context when evaluating content. This often required additional navigation and made content curation more time-consuming than necessary.
The opportunity was to create a workflow that better supported both administrative management and editorial decision-making.
Balancing Data and Visual Context
Discovery revealed that playlist creation involved two competing needs.
Users required access to metadata and management controls, but they also needed sufficient visual context to confidently evaluate content and build playlists efficiently.
The redesigned experience introduced richer content previews and more flexible content selection workflows while preserving access to critical metadata.
Supporting Faster Content Selection
To reduce context switching, users could search, preview, and evaluate videos directly within the playlist creation workflow.
This allowed publishers to make curation decisions without leaving the task at hand, improving efficiency while supporting more confident content selection.
The workflow also supported embed generation and content distribution activities, enabling publishers to move seamlessly from content curation to deployment.
Outcome
The redesigned playlist experience transformed a largely administrative workflow into a more intuitive content curation experience.
By improving content visibility, streamlining selection workflows, and reducing unnecessary navigation, the solution better supported publishers managing large video libraries while aligning with broader platform standards.
Collaboration & Decision Making
Driving Alignment Across Teams
Successfully integrating STN workflows required close collaboration across Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders.
Product priorities, engineering constraints, and existing platform patterns occasionally pointed toward different solutions. My role involved helping the team evaluate trade-offs and identify approaches that balanced user needs with long-term platform consistency.
This collaborative process helped ensure that design decisions supported both immediate migration goals and broader platform objectives.
Cross-Functional Partners:
Product Management
Engineering
Business Stakeholders
Design Leadership
The Outcome
Creating a Unified Publishing Experience
The project successfully integrated key STN publishing workflows into Minute Media’s Voltax platform, establishing a more unified experience for publishers while supporting broader platform goals.
Rather than recreating the legacy system, the solution focused on preserving critical user workflows while aligning them with modern product patterns and infrastructure.
Results:
Core video management workflows were successfully integrated into Voltax
Upload, playlist, and content discovery experiences were modernized within a unified platform
Existing user workflows remained central throughout the migration process
New functionality aligned with platform standards and design system requirements
Legacy experiences were consolidated within a scalable ecosystem
The project established a foundation for future platform enhancements
Reflection
Lessons from Designing at Platform Scale
project reinforced the importance of designing beyond individual screens.
The most complex challenges were not visual—they involved balancing user expectations, business objectives, technical realities, and long-term platform strategy.
Working within an established ecosystem required thoughtful compromise, strong cross-functional collaboration, and a deep understanding of how design decisions affect both immediate user needs and future product growth.
The experience strengthened my ability to navigate ambiguity, align stakeholders, and design solutions that scale within complex enterprise environments.