Story Studio

Story Studio was designed as the first app to operate outside of the Snap ecosystem. Built for mobile video editing, its goal was to generate high-quality, trend-setting content on the Snap platform, driving engagement.

The Alpha release was riddled with bugs, and the app launched without any user testing. I advocated for user testing early — to align teams and identify priorities through data rather than assumption.

The original interface felt cluttered — too many controls competing for attention at once. Three issues stood out immediately: no clear indication of clip or trim lengths, inconsistent timeline visibility that made layer timing difficult, and play/pause controls that were unclear with missing icons.

The core problem was visual noise. Users couldn't focus on what mattered because everything was fighting for the same space.

Controls were repositioned to the bottom, showing only relevant tools per context. Labels were added to icons, and the workspace area was expanded with permanent timeline visibility — so users always knew where they were in the edit.

Play and pause buttons were made clearer by using prominent icons that stayed on screen at all times. Small changes, but they made the core editing loop significantly less frustrating.

Beyond the quick wins, I proposed a longer-term roadmap: visual timeline thumbnails so editors could scan clips at a glance, a movable toolbar to accommodate different editing styles, undo/redo functionality, timestamps, and colour-coded layers for complex timelines.

The project validated key usability improvements and reduced cognitive load — giving the team a clear foundation to build from.