CheeseBusiness: Designing a CMS for Custom Cake Configuration
A CMS that helps bakeries manage custom cake options with ease.
Project Duration
3 week
Role
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma, Figjam
Introducing CheeseBusiness
Running a custom cake business felt exciting at first — customers could mix and match flavors, sizes, toppings, and special requests freely. But as CheeseBusiness grew, that flexibility started to create complexity behind the scenes.
What was once easy to manage became harder to structure and maintain.
This project focuses on solving that growth — by designing a CMS that keeps complexity organized instead of letting it accumulate.
Understanding the system
behind cake customization
I didn’t begin this project with a specific problem in mind. Instead, I started by understanding how the customization system actually worked behind the scenes.
As I broke down flavors, sizes, toppings, pricing, and the relationships between them, it became clear that the challenge wasn't the number of options available—it was how those options interacted with one another. What seemed like a straightforward customization experience on the surface was supported by a growing system that became increasingly difficult to organize, maintain, and scale.
Who uses the system and
how it’s used
I started by looking into the people who would interact with the system and how they would approach setting up and managing custom cakes in real situations.
To ground this understanding, I combined early user research with an analysis of existing workflows. This included speaking with people involved in managing customization processes and studying how similar systems are structured. The goal was to understand not just what users needed, but how they actually think when dealing with complex configurations.
Hnin Thiri
“I need to update things quickly, but I’m always afraid something else might break.”
Pain Points
Workarounds
Hard to understand how options and rules are connected
Double-checking changes across multiple screens
Changes in one area can affect other configurations
Testing configurations repeatedly before publishing
Adding new custom elements requires extra support or workarounds
Avoiding changes unless necessary due to risk of breaking something
Khin Su Wai
" I know what I want to add, but I can’t always do it myself inside the system "
Pain Points
Workarounds
Cannot add new custom shapes or visual elements independently
Requesting developers to manually implement new shapes
Existing structure is not flexible enough for new customization needs
Delaying updates until technical support is available
Requires external support for even small structural updates
Using existing shapes as substitutes even when they don’t fully match the requirement
The challenges of managing
cake customization
As I explored the workflow in more detail, three core challenges became clear.
Too many options to keep track of
As more flavors, sizes, and toppings were added, it became hard to see how everything connected, making updates confusing and easy to get wrong.
Small changes take too much effort
Even a simple update, like adding a new flavor, required changes in multiple places across the system, making the process slow and repetitive.
Limited flexibility for new elements
Custom shapes or new elements couldn’t be added beyond the predefined options, making it difficult to expand the system
Design Goals
The goal is to design a system that stays clear and scalable over time. As I worked through the problem, it became clear that the CMS needed to be something the team could actually rely on day-to-day, not a rigid system that slows them down, but one that lets them add new rules and options without breaking the core structure.
At the same time, the experience needed to feel consistent with the customer website, so that it doesn’t feel like a completely separate system. This way, admins can understand how things work without constantly relearning patterns as the product evolves.
Wireframing the System
After exploring different layout directions, I refined the strongest concepts into wireframes. This helped transform initial ideas into a more structured and usable experience, allowing me to focus on content hierarchy, navigation, and user flow before moving into high-fidelity designs.
Turning Admin Needs Into
CMS Workflows
The final screens translate admin requirements into clear workflows for managing products, customization options, rules, and content. Each interface was designed to simplify complex tasks while keeping the system flexible and scalable.
Home Screen
All customization categories are grouped in one place, making it easier for admins to understand and manage the product structure.
The CMS is designed to closely mirror the customer website, allowing admins to easily map customization options between the two. This helps them understand how products will appear to customers without having to learn a completely different system.
System Rules & Flexibility
While most categories are flexible, core elements like shape, size, and layers are fixed to preserve the structure of the product configuration. This prevents admins from accidentally breaking the customization flow while still allowing them to adapt other parts of the experience to different product needs.
Allowing to update new shape
To give admins more flexibility, they can upload their own images or choose from predefined presets. A live preview sits alongside the setup process, helping them quickly understand how the shape will appear on the customer website.
Rule Management
We keep the rules interface simple and focused so admins can define restrictions without being overwhelmed by too many options or technical details. This makes it easier for them to control how customization behaves
Safe Deletion &
Data Protection
Protect against accidental data loss by clearly showing the impact before anything is removed. Rather than permanently deleting a shape, admins can simply “hide” it—keeping it out of the customer view while safely preserving all data and history in the background.
Typography
We use Public Sans to keep the interface clean, neutral, and highly legible, ensuring the system feels consistent and easy to scan even when handling complex data.
Color
The color system is functional, focusing on clarity and usability rather than decoration. Neutral tones provide structure and hierarchy across the interface, while subtle accent colors highlight interactive elements and guide attention when needed. The palette was chosen to support readability, reduce visual noise, and help users quickly understand the interface without feeling overwhelmed.
Golden Yellow
#F9DA06
Cream Yellow
#FFFAD7
Black
#000000
White
#FFFFFF
What I've learned
Working on this system helped me think more deeply about how structured configuration actually works in real-world scenarios. Even though I understood the domain well, designing it for others made me realise how easily assumptions can create gaps in usability.
One of the biggest learnings was that clarity matters more than flexibility. When too many options exist without structure, it becomes harder—not easier—for users to make decisions. This pushed me to focus more on guiding the experience rather than just exposing all possibilities.
What I’d do differently
If I continued this project, I would spend more time testing how different users interpret complex rule setups early on. Some interactions that felt obvious in design turned out to need more explanation when viewed from a fresh perspective.
What comes next
The next version would focus on refining the rule-building experience even further and exploring smarter ways to guide users through complex configurations without overwhelming them. I’d also look into adding more real-world testing to validate how the system behaves in edge cases as it scales.