Guide App
Optimizing Video Editing for Byte-Size Post Therapy Care
Overview
Guide App set out to make training videos more engaging by turning long onboarding sessions into short, trackable clips. But complex editing workflows frustrated employers and overwhelmed employees.
Midway through, an unexpected pivot shifted our focus from corporate training to mental healthcare. Navigating this ambiguity, we redesigned the platform for therapists assigning post therapy videos to patients, while tackling the core challenge of simplifying video creation, assignment, and progress tracking.
Goal
Streamline video workflows to reduce editing time, make assigning videos effortless, and enable clear progress tracking, first for HR teams, and later, for therapists and patients navigating mental healthcare.
Role
Multiple roles across different sprints
Tools
Figma, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, Useberry, Trello, Slack
Team
3 UX Designers, 2 UX Researchers, 1 Product Manager
Timeline
Aug 2024 - May 2025
Agile Sprint Approach
We followed an agile approach, breaking the project into sprints that allowed space for iteration and adaptation. The first two sprints focused on solving challenges in the corporate training space, but by Sprint 3 we pivoted toward a new direction in mental healthcare.
Sprints 3–5 were dedicated to refining this shift, shaping the final product around therapists and their patients while still addressing the core problem of simplifying video editing and engagement.
Skip to Solution
SPRINT 1
Asking the Bigger WHY?
Before diving into development, we asked: “Why build a video editor when so many already exist?”
Looking at Instagram’s in-app editing gave us clarity, editing within the platform wasn’t about advanced features, but about convenience, speed, and seamless publishing.
For Guide, this meant reducing context-switching, enabling easy collaboration, and offering professional-quality videos without extra tools or watermarks. These insights validated the need for a lightweight, integrated editor.
Secondary Research
COMPETITVE ANALYSIS
Too Shallow or Too Complex
We studied how LMS platforms, video editors, and content creation tools approached video workflows. A pattern emerged: LMS platforms didn’t offer meaningful editing, and editors were too advanced for casual users. This gap highlighted an opportunity for a simple, focused editor built directly into the learning experience.
Competitive Analysis
USER INTERVIEWS
Simplicity over Features
Interviews with content creators, HR teams, and employees confirmed the need. Breaking down long videos was tedious and time-consuming, and existing workflows left employees disengaged. What users valued most wasn’t more functionality, but a faster, simpler process to create manageable, engaging content.
User Interviews
USER JOURNEY
Mapping the Gaps
To build on our insights, we mapped the end-to-end user journey, capturing emotions, frustrations, and challenges along the way. This revealed clear pain points and surfaced opportunities to simplify workflows and improve the Guide experience.
Journey Map
Pain Points
Opportunities
PROBLEM
Overwhelming Workflows, Disengaged Users
Employees and employers struggled with long, un-engaging training videos and tedious editing workflows that made creating short, effective clips a frustrating process. After the pivot, therapists faced similar obstacles: they wanted to create and assign personalized, bite-sized therapy videos but found existing tools complex and time-consuming.
Current and Proposed User Journey
How might we simplify video editing and assignment so users can quickly create engaging short-form content and track progress ?
SPRINT 2
From Ideas to Structure
We translated our research insights into quick sketches, exploring multiple directions before narrowing down through feedback. These sketches evolved into mid-fidelity wireframes that captured the core workflows — trimming long videos, creating clips, and organizing them into sessions.
Sketches and Lo-Fi Wireframes
EARLY USABILITY TESTS
Key Navigation and Language Gaps
We ran usability tests with four participants to validate core tasks like uploading, editing, and publishing. These findings shaped our next round of refinements.
Usability Test Overview
KEY PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED
Crowded Navigation Menu
75% of users reported difficulty remembering and locating options due to an overcrowded menu.
Unclear Terminology
50% of users found the wording for features like "mark," "chapter," and "snip" unclear.
Friction in Task Grouping
25% of users struggled to differentiate between audio and media since they were grouped together.
"I wasn’t sure what ‘snip’ meant, does it cut the video or just mark a section?” — Tester, 3
THE CHANGE IN PRODUCT DIRECTION
SPRINT 3
Adapting to a New Direction and lots of Ambiguity
After internal restructuring, the project pivoted from an LMS video-editing tool to a post-therapy care app for mental health professionals. The new focus was on helping therapists create, edit, assign, and track personalized video content for patients. To realign, we revisited research, clarified the client’s vision, and spoke with providers to understand their needs.
Competitive analysis showed that therapist tools often stop at worksheets, while patient-facing platforms provide videos and articles but lack therapist-driven personalization. These insights guided us into card sorting to shape a solution tailored to this new context.
Current and Proposed User Journey
CARD SORTING
Redesigning Navigation Through User Logic
To adapt the app for a new audience, we ran a closed card sort with 20+ participants using Useberry. The activity revealed how users naturally grouped tasks and highlighted mismatches in our existing structure. These insights guided us in reorganizing features and refining navigation to better match user expectations.
Navigation menu iteraton
Improving Usability Through Iteration
Streamlined Navigation – Reordered menu items by frequency of use and removed redundant categories to reduce cognitive load.
Clear Terminology – Updated feature names (e.g., Markers → Chapters, Caption → Text) to align with user expectations and industry standards.
Stronger Visual Cues – Added persistent labels on timeline elements to help users quickly identify videos, audio, and other assets.
Visible UI changes
SPRINT 4
Designing for Users on the Go
After refining the desktop design, we shifted focus to mobile. Therapists and patients needed flexibility beyond a desktop setup, so we reimagined the core flows of editing, assigning, and tracking for smaller screens. The goal was to preserve functionality while ensuring a lightweight, intuitive experience optimized for on-the-go use.
Mobile wireframes
Optimizing Mobile Flow
SPRINT 5
Validating the Refined Design
We ran a second round of usability testing with 6 participants to evaluate the updated flows. The core editing journey — creating chapters and adjusting video speed, felt effortless and intuitive for most participants. However, challenges remained around terminology, with unclear labels, confusing tag creation, and uncertainty about the purpose of chapters. These insights highlighted areas for refinement while confirming that the overall direction was working well.
Mobile user testing
Post- testing changes
FINAL DESIGN SOLUTION
THERAPIST DASHBOARD
UPLOAD VIDEO
VIDEO EDITOR
PUBLISH SCREENS
CLIENT SIDE DASHBOARD
DESIGN COMPONENTS
Creating a Unified Language
To ensure consistency and scalability, we created a lightweight design system tailored to Guide’s evolving needs. It included reusable components, clear visual hierarchy, and defined interaction patterns, allowing us to maintain coherence across desktop and mobile while accelerating collaboration with developers.
Design Components
150% increace in session duration;
25% increase in adoption rate
Learnings
This project taught me to ground every design decision in user needs, to question whether a feature truly adds value and how it can be simplified.
I learned to conduct usability testing early, collaborate effectively across teams, and build flexible design systems that adapt to changing requirements.
Navigating the product pivot also strengthened my ability to handle ambiguity, advocate for users, and design practical workarounds when faced with technical constraints.
Next Steps
Future improvements for Guide include refining the onboarding experience, enhancing video organization through smart tagging, and expanding accessibility features for therapists and patients.
As the product evolves, continuous feedback from real-world use will guide iterative updates to ensure the platform remains intuitive and impactful.
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