Wedsembly

Building a responsive web app platform to streamline the connection and collaboration between wedding video production companies and editors

Background

I served as the lead product designer for this startup. The founder has a background in the wedding video industry and approached me about the concept in the spring of 2023. We worked on it together as a side project for the rest of 2023 and are aiming to launch soon.

My Role

• UX research
• User flows
• Wireframing
• UI design
• Usability testing

timeframe

March 2023 - Present

Problem

For production companies, finding good quality wedding video editors is difficult, and managing the editing workflow can be challenging.

Many production companies face substantial backlogs of videos to edit after a full season of filming weddings. They often lack the bandwidth to handle all edits internally, necessitating the hiring of editors. However, finding reliable, high-quality editors poses a challenge. Freelancer platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are too broad, and editing Facebook groups often yield spam responses. Once hired, there's uncertainty about providing raw footage and directions, as well as turnaround time and revision policies. Thus, we developed a platform for production companies to efficiently search for editors and manage editing jobs seamlessly.

Surveyed editors

A crucial part of this platform’s success hinged upon enough editors being interested in creating accounts and offering their services through it, so one of our early steps was to run a survey of editors to gauge their level of interest.

We received 45 editor responses to the survey, and over 120 editors signed up to be notified when we started beta testing.

KEY FINDINGS

80%

Were very likely or somewhat likely to join the platform

56%

Were willing to pay a 10% platform fee on each editing job they did through the site

72%

Were willing to offer a free 60 second trial edit to a prospective client

Affinity mapping the editors’ responses

I also affinity mapped their open-ended responses to the survey, to see what themes and trends emerged. The key findings that stood out were the editors’ strong desire to find more work that is consistent and with solid, verified clients. They want to be paid fair rates for their editing work and want transparency in terms of any fees for using a platform to find editing work.

Affinity map of editors survey responses

1:1 Interview with a production company

Next, it was important to hear from the other side, so I conducted an interview with the owner of a medium-sized wedding video production company in the SF Bay Area. He started outsourcing his edits a couple years ago and recognizes the time it saves him overall, but acknowledges the challenges associated with it.

Key takeaways:

He feels it's important to make sure the editor will accurately capture his style of editing
Wants to feel confident that the editor will continue to deliver high-quality edits on subsequent projects

Feature prioritization

Mapping out the potential features helped us hone in on the most important ones to include in the MVP version of this platform. Insights from the interview with the production company helped inform which features we included, such as the ability to leave ratings and reviews since that can help motivate editors to continue delivering high-quality edits.

Diagramming the flow of a job through the platform

In thinking through the possibilities that could arise during various jobs, it was important to account for the option of a production company requesting trial edits, as well as making sure editors upload on time.

Wireframing the process of production companies browsing for editors

This is one of the core parts of the platform, so these were the first pages that I started to wireframe, based on time constraints. I laid out a gallery grid page of editors, with search, sorting and filtering options. Then when the production company clicks on one of the editors, it would show the editor's full profile page, showcasing previous work, their editing rates and additional details to help the production company gauge whether the editor would be a good fit for them.

UX/UI Design

Production companies searching for editors

Mobile responsive, so production companies can manage their projects on the go

Communicate safely & directly on the platform

Empowering editors to tailor their applications and easily keep track of their earnings through the platform

conclusion

The end is just the beginning

As of now, we have onboarded almost 70 editors and have a few production companies that are beginning to beta test the platform and run jobs through it. Early feedback has been positive and we're excited to continue iterating and growing the platform once we launch it more widely.