Effective asset management is essential for facilitating the ongoing growth and expansion of a company by ensuring the correct and efficient utilization of resources.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a software solution that’s used to efficiently and securely store, organize, manage, and share digital files and assets across teams in organizations of all sizes.

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In contemporary public media industries, digital assets hold significant value due to their potential for reuse and versatility. However, implementing a digital assets management system seamlessly can often face resistance and challenges. How might we develop a DAM system that matches an organization’s needs and increase user adoption successfully?

That’s when a UX specialist comes in! From a lens of UX, investigating the real workflows and user preferences plays a pivotal role in this endeavor. Here are my thorough reflections based on my recent project at KUT and KUTX public media.

Step1: Set the Right Mindset

Four Key Considerations Before You Start

Before you start, keep the elements of a successful DAMS in mind:

1. Data standardization should be one of the priorities where user experience experts design applicable and effective descriptive standards based on the respective field (Kaliszewska, 2021).
2. Understanding specific cooperation timelines and relationship specifications, especially for cross-media production workflow, is crucial for platform adaptability (Erdal, 2009).
3. The essence of archiving origin or editable audio files benefits the construction of collective memory (Galey, 2018) which needs documentation to identify the value for further purposes.
4. A key element to support all narration above is preserving continuity for functional design (Kaliszewska, 2021). DAM systems should be well-functioning in accepting more data with the proper cataloging philosophy.

Based on these case studies in existing DAM systems, it reveals the importance to investigate the specification in workflow and the value of digital assets to standardize its cataloging method for consistency, accessibility, and continuity.

The right mindset will help you scope your research and DAM mapping and understand how a industry works, empowering you to optimize your UX role in a DAM project.

Step2: Bring UX Research Skills Onboard

Mitigating Pushback through Informative Conversations

To increase user engagement, developing this DAM system requires all employees’ involvement to match their workflow and to improve their working behaviors. Oftentimes, when initiating the implementation plan, specialists receive pushback when investigating how folks are handling their digital files. People may feel being questioned and inspected and, therefore, reluctant to participate.

To eliminate that barrier, a conversational interview is important to bring out information. First, distribute pre-DAM surveys. Potential challenges and opportunities from the surveys will help you prepare for user interviews, leading to positive feedback.

Second, draft the interview scripts for each department/user. Write down specific questions to speak the user’s language and keep the conversation in the loop.

Third, keep the outline in mind but be flexible in modifying your questions. For example, a question like “What keywords do you use when you try to find an audio file?” makes users think about how they differentiate files. However, they may say “I just know where the files are.” Follow up with “Think about why you know a file is the one you need?” Sometimes, you can even give an example of “Is it because of the artists, or the performed song?” to dive into the details.

Step3: Turn HMW into Insights

What to Consider in Metadata?

Simply put, what information is important to distinguish each file is metadata. A UX specialist will need to know what attributes cataloging tools have, and how user behaviors look like when interacting with digital files. These two aspects form the design for metadata.

Attribute of cataloging tools

Cataloging tools typically offer attributes such as file type, creation date, author, version, and keywords. It’s important to identify which attributes are most relevant to the system’s needs. For example, in a public media organization, attributes like contributors (ie. producers, hosts, artists, bands, engineers), podcast season and episode relationship, broadcasting date, and content category by departments or projects are crucial.

User behaviors and interactions

Understanding how users search for, access, and utilize digital files is equally important. Do users rely on specific keywords? What is the touch points during user’s workflows? How do they navigate folder structures? What naming convention do they follow? Analyzing from user interviews generates significant insights to design the DAMS tree and enable a feasible implementation plans.

Designing effective metadata

Combining the knowledge of cataloging tool attributes and user behaviors can support the decision-making process to be effective and reasonable. You can design metadata that enhances consistency, accessibility, and continuity across the organization. The goal is to create a system where users can efficiently locate and manage digital assets, protecting digital assets and minimizing errors in file usage.

Step4: Deliver Findings like User Journey Mapping

Workflow Mapping to Present Final Proposals

Delivering your findings is the final step. You may hand over your work to a DAM specialist or admin. You may need to present what your metadata design or folder-structure design looks like in the documentation. Either way, using the same logic of user flow or user journey mapping can visually present what has changed and why. It can also present how users interact digitally. The details are in the case study below. Share your way of presenting UX research findings to the non-UX team!

In conclusion, incorporating user-centered approaches can ensure a robust, intuitive and user-friendly Digital Asset Management System, optimizing the workflows across an organization.

References

• Erdal, I. J. (2009). REPURPOSING OF CONTENT IN MULTI-PLATFORM NEWS PRODUCTION: Towards a typology of cross-media journalism. Journalism Practice, 3(2), 178–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512780802681223
• Galey, A. (2018). Looking for a Place to Happen: Collective Memory, Digital Music Archiving, and the Tragically Hip. Archivaria, 86(86), 6–43.
• Kaliszewska, J. (2021). Narration in digital archiving: Functional design in FINA’s media asset management digital catalogue. Journal of Digital Media Management (London), 9(3), 224–231.
• Mandowa, N. (2022). Risk management for digital assets: Questions companies should be asking about their systems and workflow for asset management. Journal of Digital Media Management (London), 10(3), 227–235.