Designing a Unified Platform for In-Store Media

To unify Mood Media’s fragmented media tools, I led the UX and UI design and strategy for Harmony, a global SaaS content management platform serving over 250,000 client locations across the retail, hospitality, QSR and automotive industries. We consolidated legacy systems for music, digital signage and messaging into a single, cohesive interface, anchored by a new mobile-first music application modeled after consumer streaming platforms. By rethinking both the music experience and the CMS UI, we transformed a complex ecosystem into an intuitive, scalable product that enables clients to seamlessly manage all in-store media from one unified platform.

My Role

  • Led creative direction and product vision for the new music app and CMS ecosystem

  • Defined UX and UI strategy across mobile and desktop experiences

  • Partnered with product and engineering to align user needs with technical architecture

  • Directed design team through concept, prototyping and final UI execution

  • Acted as subject matter expert for sales, client demos and internal training

Approach

  • Evaluated limitations of the legacy CMS and identified opportunities to unify media controls

  • Benchmarked consumer music apps to establish familiar and intuitive interaction patterns

  • Mapped real-world user scenarios across retail environments and user types

  • Designed a mobile-first experience that scales seamlessly to desktop

  • Iterated through wireframes, prototypes and high-fidelity UI aligned to product constraints

Impact

  • Consolidated music and digital signage into a single CMS platform

  • Simplified complex workflows into a unified, user-friendly interface

  • Improved usability for both internal teams and global clients

  • Strengthened product positioning through a more modern, cohesive UX

  • Enabled scalable media management across thousands of locations

My Responsibilities

  • Creative/Design Direction

  • UX/UI Design

  • Information Architecture

  • Team Leadership

  • Project Management

Solutions Provided

  • UX/UI Design & Development

  • Information Architecture

  • Mobile and Desktop Web App

  • Modernized CMS UI

Team Members

  • Corinne Miller - UX/UI Design

  • Christopher Neal - Project Manager

  • Mood Media Music Design Team

  • Mood Media CMS Development Team

Benchmarking of Consumer Music Experiences

To create an intuitive music platform, we looked beyond enterprise software and studied leading consumer music apps, analyzing interaction models and identifying familiar patterns for browsing, playlists and control states. These insights allowed us to translate consumer-grade simplicity into enterprise-level functionality, while balancing flexibility with ease of use for non-technical users.

Mapping User Scenarios & Feature Requirements

We grounded the product in real-world usage across retail environments by defining key user types, including store managers, corporate teams and marketers, and mapping core scenarios such as scheduling music, adjusting store mood and managing multiple locations. From these insights, we identified essential feature sets like playlist control, scheduling and zoning, then prioritized workflows that enable fast, in-the-moment decision-making within the store environment.

From Wireframes to Product Reality

The product evolved through iterative design and close collaboration with engineering, beginning with low-fidelity wireframes to validate structure and navigation. We then transitioned to high-fidelity UI aligned with brand and system constraints, supported by interactive prototypes to test usability and refine key user flows. Throughout the process, we partnered closely with development to ensure a smooth implementation and rigorous QA.

Mobile-First, Scaled to Desktop

The music app was designed for flexibility across environments, prioritizing mobile for on-the-go control within store settings while ensuring full desktop parity for corporate and administrative users. We established a consistent design system across devices, balancing simplicity for everyday tasks with the depth required by more advanced users.

Unifying the Harmony CMS Experience

The final phase focused on integrating the music app into the broader CMS ecosystem, consolidating music, digital signage and messaging applications into a single platform. We redesigned the CMS home screen for clearer navigation and access, modernized the UI across both music and visual content workflows and created a cohesive system where all media services work together seamlessly.

“Our new Harmony CMS platform alleviates major pain points that many retailers deal with due to having multiple vendors and systems. With our new end-to-end offering, brands gain the ability to manage all of their tech-powered in-store experiences in one place, via an easy-to-use dashboard.”

— David Hoodis, CEO, Mood Media

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