Reduct.Video ↗ leverages video transcripts to enable easy searching, highlighting, and compilation of recordings into shareable, compelling summaries. I designed, built, and user tested on a variety of high-impact projects — some urgent, some long-term — in preparation to launch Reduct into the world.
Read the case study on a new feature I introduced, tag management, or scroll down to view miscellaneous noteworthy projects.
Role/Context
Internship, 10-person startup
Time Frame
June 2020 - Dec 2020 (6 months)
Disciplines
Web Product Design
React + Material UI
Tag Management
Status: deployed, iterating on user feedback
Tagging helps users structure the videos that they upload and highlight on Reduct. However, it can become a disorganized affair, both for individuals and interdisciplinary teams. I designed, implemented, and iterated on tag management interfaces designed to facilitate a unified and coherent tagging language within a team's project.
Onboarding
When I joined Reduct, there was little to no chance for a first-time user to properly learn how to use Reduct — there was't even a way for a user to purchase a plan. As a result, we had to onboard interested users through an hour-long call, with meager success and low conversions.
I designed and tested experiences for a user's first time in app to ensure that the Reduct product could onboard and convert new users without our intervention. Our ongoing work has already increased user conversion rates fivefold.
Design Standards
Eventually, I needed to understand how onboarding and tag management should look and feel at higher fidelities. However, Reduct's design language had not been well-defined, with new components often introduced with urgency and without visual care. In response, I began to compile design standards for visual appearance and interaction semantics that would serve as important guidelines for the product team.
In the short term, I was able to ensure that key standards were enforced directly in the codebase, creating more pleasing forms of common components in the process.
In the long term, among the designers and the growth PM, I championed the introduction of a component-based design system for tighter design-engineer handoff. My efforts sparked important conversation and helped us reach consensus about systematizing our dramatically redesigned UI, which would begin to roll out in the coming months.
Reflections
Remote work at a place as unstructured as Reduct, where I juggled multiple projects and played the role of "designer who can code," required self-discipline, a firm grasp of my priorities, and a resistance of nitpicking and over-theorizing rather than placing something scrappy but practical in users' hands. In a distant world, I cherished moments to take personal space and hear the voices of those around me, whether it was calls with critical users, masked office visits, or solitary afternoon walks.
Reduct has blossomed in the past 6 months, and I am humbled to have been able to take part in multiple key features in an ambitious product with such a quirky and diverse team.
Next: