03 / UI/UX Case Study
Product Redesign · Roblox
Neura Studios
8M+ Monthly Users
Role
UI/UX Designer
Timeline
6 months · 2025
Team
Devs · PM · Designers
Tools
Figma · Miro · Discord
Monthly active users
Editor abandonment rate
Month project timeline
(Overview)
Clip-It is a popular social video experience on Roblox with 8M+ monthly active users, where players create, edit, and share short clips of their in-game avatars. I worked with Neura Studios, a small US-based Roblox studio, to improve their recording and editing interface.
The project focused on the usability issues causing users to drop off mid-creation — with the primary goal of increasing engagement by making the editor easier and more rewarding to use.
(The Audience)
Articulation difficulties
Young users often struggle to put their thoughts and feedback about an interface into words.
Research challenges
A hard demographic to reach for research, with real ethical considerations and access limits.
Cognitive development
Varying levels of development affect how well complex interfaces are understood.
Motor skills
Still-developing fine motor skills demand simpler, larger, more forgiving interactions.
(Project Goals)
Users would start creating videos but frequently abandon before publishing — a major friction point. Through weekly syncs with the client we narrowed focus to the recording and clip-editor page and set four goals.
01
Increase engagement
The primary goal — lift overall engagement with the platform.
02
Add animation support
Build a UI for creating and editing animation keyframes.
03
Age-appropriate design
An interface suited to the primary 9–12 year-old demographic.
04
Improve clip quality & creative depth
Raise technical clarity and the expressive potential of clips.
(Research & Discovery)
I combined several methods to gather both quantitative and qualitative data, while staying mindful of the challenges of researching with a young audience.
Heuristic evaluation
Think-aloud tests
Competitor analysis
Weekly client syncs
Low-fi prototyping
I ran a heuristic evaluation against Jakob’s 10 usability heuristics across 13 scenarios, then validated with think-aloud tests on the old UI. Reaching kids was hard — one child said “everything was good” while visibly struggling to finish a task — so I included a few adult participants too, whose insights still proved valuable. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I also studied TikTok, CapCut and InShot, and read research on designing for children: simple vocabulary, clear labels, fun colors, no clutter.
(Key Insights)
Non-contextual menus
Menus weren’t contextual, so young users couldn’t find relevant options when they needed them.
Missing animation UI
No interface existed for keyframed effects, making expressive clips impossible.
Inconsistent interface
Styling and behavior lacked consistency, making the tool hard to learn and predict.
Timeline alignment
Users struggled to align elements to exact timepoints without visual indicators.
Progress anxiety
Despite autosave, users feared losing progress — a clear lack of feedback.
Cumbersome editing
Small, tightly-packed controls and missing labels made editing difficult.
(Explorative Prototyping)
I explored a range of ideas and layouts, then reviewed them with the other designers to decide what made the most sense visually and against the data — how the contextual menu should look, how keyframing should work, what colors to use, and whether users could add audio while recording.
Rough exploration visuals — sizing and spacing were refined for the final version.
(Problems →︎ Solutions)
Problem
Aligning elements on the timeline was hard, risking early abandonment and lower clip quality.
Solution
A clear timeline marker showing exact time, plus a snap-to feature for precision.
Problem
It was unclear how to change an element’s length, causing frustration.
Solution
Larger handles and directional icons that signal how to resize an element.
Problem
Element-specific actions like delete and copy were hard to find.
Solution
A contextual menu surfaces relevant options at the bottom when an element is tapped.
Problem
Users feared losing progress and couldn’t tell if work was saved.
Solution
An exit menu with clear save/delete options and labeled draft buttons.
Problem
Music could only be added after recording, hurting clip quality and adding effort.
Solution
Music is now available inside the recorder, supporting creativity from the start.
Problem
Manual animation was common but slow and difficult.
Solution
Keyframing support, inspired by familiar patterns in TikTok and CapCut.
Problem
Pro limits (recording time, max elements) weren’t clearly communicated.
Solution
Clear visual indicators for max elements and recording time in the free version.
(Old vs New)
The Recorder
Old
New
The Editor
Old
New
The redesign replaced ambiguous icon buttons with clear labels, surfaced clip length and details, and smoothed the workflow — including adding music directly in the recorder.
(Results & Impact)
The new editor launched in August 2025 and has shown promising results in beta testing. Full metrics will be added once they’re in — you can try the live experience on Roblox.
Try Clip-It ↗︎
(Reflections)
What worked well
Symbiotic client relationship — regular meetings and clear communication kept us aligned.
Iterative approach — sketch, prototype, test, refine, repeat.
Focus on core issues — targeted fixes over a full overhaul made the impact sharper.
Challenges & learnings
Designing for young users — cognitive ability and motor skills shaped every decision.
Research limitations — reaching kids pushed me to be creative with methods.
Platform constraints — Roblox’s technical limits forced creative compromises.
My key takeaway: designing for children is fundamentally different from designing for adults — it demands simpler interfaces, clearer feedback, and more guidance. And small, targeted improvements, paired with a genuinely collaborative client relationship, can move the experience more than a full rebuild.
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