Waffle, professional video editors in your pocket.
An app store for templated video productions. Customers film, a professional editor finishes the video.
What if a small video project didn't have to wait for a big budget?
Our customers needed video. Big productions went to Qbrick's own production team, but smaller projects, like company presentations and employer branding clips, were often filmed in-house at lower quality, or put off until there was a bigger budget. That also hurt our video platform, which needs a steady flow of content to stay valuable.
Waffle's idea: businesses film the footage themselves by following a template, and a professional editor finishes the video. The customer films, the editor edits, and the video lands in the platform.
"...making the experience of buying a digital service as easy as shopping on Amazon."The idea that inspired the service.
Guided.
Our users were marketers, HR staff and communicators, often filming for the first time. Every screen had to tell them what to do next and what would happen after, like having a producer by their side.
Start with the outcome, not the tools
People think about the video they need, not about templates. The app opens with a simple question, what do you want to make, plus categories and popular templates. Filming takes time, so unfinished projects come first, with progress shown as shots completed.
Set expectations before anyone pays
An editor can only do so much with phone footage, so users need to know the realistic result before they commit. Every template page shows a preview, the final length, the number of shots and people needed, the full shot list and any requirements.
A guided experience all the way through
Production can feel intimidating, so the app teaches, guides and encourages. Ordering is a checklist built on the shot list: every shot has a title, a description and a target length, and the next one is marked Up next with filming tips. A labelled stepper shows progress, and progress saves automatically.
Keep the conversation with the editor in one place
New ideas and extra files often come up halfway through a project. The delivery page shows the order status, a dated stepper, the latest version with a note from the editor, messages and earlier versions. Users approve the video or ask for changes, and every file and piece of feedback goes through the chat.
What we left out
Card payments. Our customers were businesses that already paid by invoice, so version 1 sent an invoice to the company's billing address. In-app payments were planned for a later version.
From wireframe to finished design.
App · Desktop
Design for the business as well as the user.
Waffle's strongest argument was keeping customers active on the platform, and that case had to be made all over again when priorities changed. Write down and measure both the user value and the business value from the start, so a project can defend itself when the direction shifts.