Project Overview
Storyverse is an innovative intelligent animation creation tool, enabling creators to generate animations simply by writing sentences.
I was responsible for the UX design of the 0-1 project, pioneering a new low-threshold approach to animation creation.
Main Contributions
Led a 0-1 project, exploring opportunities in the field of animation creation within the video ecosystem.
Defined an innovative low-threshold animation creation approach.
Earned widespread positive feedback from users and media.
Market Analysis
Short video platforms currently face ecosystem challenges such as an over-concentration of top creators and repetitive content themes. While the UGC and PGC live-action storytelling market is already highly competitive, the UGC virtual performance sector remains untapped. Animation video creation presents a differentiated opportunity for breakthroughs in the online video industry.
User Analysis
At the early stage of the project, we conducted user analysis, including desk research and field studies. The desk research revealed that video, as a content format, provides a stronger sense of immersion and interactivity, making it more engaging for audiences. In contrast, text, as a lower-dimensional format, has a certain comprehension barrier and is harder to receive, but it is much easier to create and express.
Through field research, we mapped out the process of animation enthusiasts creating animation videos. We further found that UGC animation creators have a strong desire to create animations. While they are generally more skilled in scriptwriting and conceptualization, they struggle with animation production tasks due to a lack of specialized skills.
From our research on animation creation tools, we gained a clearer insight that traditional desktop animation creation tools are highly complex, making animation production challenging.
How might we bridge the gap between ease of creation and audience engagement by leveraging script to generate animation videos?
We envisioned a new-generation animation creation tool that significantly lowers the barriers to animation production by leveraging technology. This will bring animation creation back to its storytelling essence, empowering a broader community of creators with ideas and creativity.
Target Users
Our primary target users are novice animation creators, who are the majority of the creator group. Additionally, we observed that some advanced creators with professional skills have higher demands for video quality. Moreover, since novice users may gradually grow into advanced creators over time, we included the advanced animation creators as a supplementary target group.
Design Goals
Define a new, low-barrier approach to animation video creation.
Focus on improving the animation script editing experience for ordinary creators, enhancing the ease of use.
Build and refine the video editing experience for advanced creators, expanding creative possibilities.
Design Strategy & Implementation
Design Strategy 1:
To enhance usability and lower the animation production barrier—one of the biggest challenges for creators—the product and research team conducted a technical study and proposed intelligent solutions such as TTS (text-to-speech), automatic facial expressions for images, and automatic skeletal binding for images. These technologies enable creators to create animation videos simply by inputting script text and selecting actions.
With advancements in animation production efficiency, the focus of animation video creation can now shift to the more critical aspect of creative ideation. In traditional animation creation, storyboards serve as a key method for visualizing scripts, bridging language with imagery. We placed the script editing task at the forefront, designing the page layout based on traditional storyboards—organizing the video structure through scenes and enhancing, each composed of corresponding visuals and dialogue. This makes the animation's structure and content clear and intuitive, facilitating both ideation and editing.
Design Strategy 2:
To help novice users quickly get started, we designed the Script Input Pop-up based on the Chat Input Pop-up structure of the widely-used app, WeChat. Building on this familiar framework, we integrated subtle innovations and added new features to better meet the needs of animation creation.
Design Strategy 3:
To elevate the creative potential for advanced creators and balance the needs of both novice and advanced users, we added an Advanced Editing Mode. To help advanced animation quickly get started, on the Advanced Animation Editing Page, we adopt the timeline mode which is commonly seen in competitive editing products. Building on this structure, we added and iterated advanced editing features tailored to the needs of animation creation.
P.S. To learn more about the UX design of advanced video editing tools, please check the Kuaiying project.
Product Demonstration & User Feedback
The product was developed and released for internal beta testing. Positive feedback was received from both the seed user group and various media channels. It was recognized by users for its product value and ease of use.
