CONTENDA
A VC-backed Generative AI startup that transforms technical content into ready-to-publish blogs, tutorials, and more.
NOTE - this project is active and protected under NDA
TIMEFRAME
Jan 2022 - Present
MY ROLE
Principle UX and UI Designer
Branding & Visual Identity
PROBLEM
We needed to ship Contenda’s very first user-facing, Generative AI platform.
Contenda needed an entire brand identity overhaul and a platform that felt new and novel, instead of feeling like another text editing platform.
WHERE WE STARTED
Contenda’s first product was geared for Twitch streamers... and the original branding reflected that.
Dark mode was my friend.
Our very first platform shipped in 3 weeks.
It was geared toward repurposing tweet to tweets, blog to threads... lots of quick actions, low cognitive load, get stuff out and posted.
...but it didn’t work out.
USER TESTING METHODS
Qualitative - Interviews
Quantitative - Usability Testing
FINDINGS
Home Dashboard
Clustering all of the cards together confused users
Users didn’t have enough uploads, nor did they want to start their workflow from uploads, frequently enough to use the space
Users often clicked out of the editing workflow and wanted to see their drafts
Enhancements
Divided out posts by original type
Started the default viewed tabs on “Blogs” because users immediately wanted to transform blogs to threads
Added in drafts functionality to the immediate dashboard
Editing Workflow (Blog to Thread)
Users loved the drawer pull-out because it made it feel quicker to use, but wanted to see the corresponding blog post
Users wanted a character counter and ability to upload net-new images, not just attach images from their blog post
Enhancements
Added the original blog post side by side!
Added a Tweet counter (to add the 1/x text to the end of the tweet) - users LOVED this feature for threads
Rolled the image selection and upload into one image button
Streamlined the add new / delete new tweets
Added a character counter
BUT OVERALL…
this platform wasn’t meeting our user’s needs.
They could only do so much transforming tweet to tweet or blog to tweet - they wanted to be able to create blogs, which was a MUCH harder technical challenge to tackle.
we went back to the drawing board and spent a looong time redefining our core features.
RESEARCH
and we landed on a few key takeaways to guide the next iteration of the design.
WHICH LED US TO OUR NEW PLATFORM
Upload Form
Beta users are able to submit their YouTube video, along with their API access key, to transform the video into one of the three options.
The Editor
Once the video has finished processing, the user’s emailed a link to edit their blog!
THE NEW BRAND
A text editor needed to be easy to read, lots of negative space, and enough contrast to make it interesting.
Meet the new design system:
And of course, we had to update the landing page to match.
Currently under construction.