2021-2023
Teleportal
Background
Creating animated videos typically requires specialized technical skills and software, placing a high barrier between everyday creators and expressive animated storytelling.
Core Problem
Educators, marketers, students, and aspiring creators need accessible tools to easily craft engaging, humorous animated content—without the traditional complexity or steep learning curves.
The Approach
As Lead Product Designer for MovieBot, I designed an intuitive, AI-driven animation app that enabled users of any skill level to quickly transform their ideas into playful, laughter-filled videos using simple text prompts. To power this creative pipeline, we integrated Unity with advanced AI technologies like GPT-3 for dynamic content generation, Azure and ElevenLabs for natural-sounding text-to-speech, Avaturn for personalized avatar creation, and Blockade Labs for immersive generative backgrounds.
Throughout development, we conducted rigorous UX testing sessions with teenagers in high school, gathering real-time feedback to refine the product's ease of use and creative appeal. This process helped us pinpoint exactly how young users wanted to interact with animation tools, resulting in delightful interactions and frictionless creativity. Additionally, I designed MovieBot’s visual identity, creating our logo, branding, and marketing website, ensuring a cohesive and inviting brand experience across all touchpoints. To continuously optimize user experience and engagement, I utilized Mixpanel analytics extensively, enabling data-driven decisions that informed 28 shipped product updates.
Results and Impact
MovieBot quickly scaled to over 800,000 downloads and maintained over 120,000 monthly active users, resulting in more than 1.7 million exported animated videos. By dramatically simplifying animation creation, MovieBot empowered thousands of young creators, students, educators, and marketers to engage their audiences through joyful, humorous content, sparking creativity, laughter, and meaningful connections worldwide.