Custom CMS
Lead Developer & Co-Creator
Tech: JavaScript, Polymer, Java, Play Framework, MySQL, HTML/CSS
Primer Studio was a full-service CMS, created from scratch to power the Google Primer iOS, Android & Web ecosystem. It enabled authoring and real-time publishing of Primer educational content to over 35 million users worldwide, and offered a rich myriad of features, including numerous access levels & roles, in-place translation of Primer lessons into 13 different languages such as Thai, Portuguese & Hindi, and on-the-fly remote configuration & in-app messaging for the Primer iOS & Android apps. Primer Studio was used 24 hours a day by hundreds of people across the globe to keep Primer running smoothly.
Primer Studio was designed to be fast, easy-to-learn and fun to use. It was also made to be forgiving: advanced features were only enabled depending on a user's designated role, and great care was taken to ensure it was near impossible to "break things". A fine-grained version-history of all authored content meant lesson creators and translators could always revisit or recover prior work if necessary.
As mentioned, Primer Studio supported 13 different languages, and its advanced translation features allowed translators to perform their work "in-place". It also provided real-time content previews, including simulations of complex in-app activities and animations. Its integrated testing suite helped make verifying pending app updates seamless, and its collection of content visualization and export options helped writers, reviewers and translators evaluate and share pending work. In addition to a host of features too numerous to detail, the CMS also supported high level content management tasks related to searching, tagging, filtering, and batch editing. Additionally, content publishing and remote configuration of the mobile apps could be targeted at a granular level based on user segmentation, language and/or country.