“View Connections” in Content Manager System.
Problem
Because content from a single collection can be used across multiple site pages with different configurations, users find it difficult to understand how editing the content in the CMS table affects what appears on their live site.
Research
To better understand users’ mental models and pain points I combined several research methods:
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User interviews - to uncover how users currently manage and preview their content
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User feedback and support tickets - to identify recurring confusion and behavioral patterns.
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Competitive analysis - to explore how other CMS tools (like Webflow, Notion, Airtable, etc.) visualize content connections and previews.
From user interview:
Insight
Users need more transparency and feedback about where their content is used and how edits affect different site layouts.
Design Process & Iterations
Based on the research findings, I defined key use cases for both - builders (who structure and design dynamic pages) and content editors (who update data in the CMS).
I then explored several design directions - from quick fixes to more comprehensive solutions — to help users understand where their content appears on the site.
A quick fix suggested solution focused on reducing immediate confusion while editing CMS table:
A more comprehensive suggested approach aimed at improving long-term understanding of content relationships. From CMS table:
After presenting both directions to the management and product team, was decided to focus on the comprehensive system-level solution. As the quick fix addressed the surface-level need for visibility but didn’t solve the underlying problem: lack of understanding of how collections connect to different site pages; also creates additional visual noise and overwhelm content editors.
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The “Used on pages” solution, provided a scalable and educational approach. It not only clarified where content appeared but also helped users to build a more accurate mental model of the CMS structure.
Design: phase 1
Entry point in CMS table:
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List of pages where the collection content is displayed:
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Hovering reveals a CTA to open the related page in a new tab:
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If page is not published user will see a status indication:
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Covered all flows and edge cases:
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Impact & Learnings
We saw promising improvements across key metrics:
→ Premium conversion: +4.7% (insignificant)
→ Data Binding: +0.3% (insignificant)
→ Data Ready: +13.5% (significant)
The test results confirmed that improving content visibility and confidence had a measurable positive effect on user efficiency and readiness to work with connected data.
User feedback:
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Phase 2: New site Editor integration.
In the second phase the goal was decided to increase the visibility of this feature by integrating it directly into the Site Editor. It highlights the core value of the CMS - enabling users to reuse and connect collection content across different parts of the site, visualize how data flows through their pages and better understand the power of dynamic content.
Entry point from Items panel:
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The added functionality allows users not only to preview the published page but also to open it directly in edit mode:
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As part of Phase 2 the feature introduces an option to select which dynamic page to preview:
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Covered all possible states for all types of pages:
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Takeaways
“View Connections” wasn’t just a usability improvement - it was a step toward building system transparency. By giving users full visibility into how their collections power the site we bridged the gap between data and design. When people see how their work connects and comes alive on the site, they not only trust the system more, they enjoy working with it.