CBSSI Website Redesign
Overview CBS, a leading international broadcasting television network known for hit shows like The Big Bang Theory, Survivor, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and MacGyver, approached SPINX Digital to redesign their CBSSI website. With a legacy of award-winning content, CBS needed a website that reflected their brand’s prestige while providing easy access for visitors to discover the shows that interest them. Working within CBS’s complex database, we designed a site that automatically associated news and press releases with relevant shows for a seamless user experience.
Discovery The discovery process began with a tour of CBS Studios, followed by in-depth meetings with CBS executives. We learned about their brand guidelines, complex internal systems, and secure database. CBS has a vast collection of images, videos, and copy, so the challenge was integrating our code with theirs while maintaining high security standards. Understanding that most visitors were seeking information on CBS’s vast library of TV shows, we focused on creating a simple, effective UX strategy.
UX Strategy The main goal was to streamline information gathering. CBS distributes over 150 shows, so we wanted to feature new and upcoming shows prominently on the homepage while allowing older shows to be easily accessible. To support this, the homepage hero section was made flexible, enabling CBS to manage content dynamically with different layouts, including images, logos, descriptions, and buttons linking to show detail pages. We also incorporated genre filters, making it easy for users to search or browse shows based on categories.
Build The design followed CBS’s brand guidelines, with a clean, minimalist style. The CBS "eye" logo was used creatively as a background element, and Helvetica Neue was chosen for its clean, modern lines. Due to CBS’s high-security needs, we chose to build the site on Umbraco, a secure CMS. This allowed us to create custom fields with restricted access, ensuring admins could add or edit content without compromising the design. Additionally, Umbraco’s customizable blog feature kept CBS's news and media in one place, maintaining consistency with the rest of the site.
After
Test & Launch The site underwent thorough testing to ensure the automatic content pulls from CBS’s database were working correctly, especially as new shows were added. Once everything was confirmed, we launched the site on a new server environment designed to meet CBS's security standards and handle high traffic from a global audience.
Closing Thoughts The redesigned CBSSI website now matches CBS’s stature, providing an informative, user-friendly experience across devices. By focusing on clear goals and a streamlined UX strategy, we helped elevate the CBSSI site, allowing CBS to showcase its impressive catalog of television shows in an intuitive, visually compelling way.