LEGO: Movie Maker iPhone app
Quick & dirty research informs fun feature enhancements
The LEGO Movie Maker iPhone app allows kids of all ages to bring their LEGO creations to life in their own custom stop-motion movie. While LEGO fans have always made short films with their sets and mini figures, there was a barrier for younger kids who didn't have the requisite equipment or skills. The Movie Maker app removed those barriers with simple tools to capture, edit, score and share stop-motion animations. Designed against a linear flow with recognizable iconography and large tap areas the UI is kid-friendly, but also useful to adults (who are often part of the film crew).
PROBLEM:
The award-winning LEGO Movie Maker stop-motion animation app was beloved by both kids and parents. LEGO wanted to keep their existing user audience engaged by
adding new features to the app that would enable move-makers to tell richer stories, but needed to keep the app’s UI simple and kid-friendly.MY ROLE:
Interaction & visual designerWorking as a design team of one, I was responsible for identifying new feature opportunities and then integrating those features (like user-created audio and adjustable frame duration) into the latest release of the app, working within an established visual design system and app architecture.
IMPACT:
By 2013, the LEGO Movie Maker iPhone app was downloaded more than 1.5 million times and 53,000 LEGO Movie Maker films were uploaded to YouTube.How might we give young movie-makers the ability to tell richer stories using stop-motion video?
PROCESS:
I began by getting familiar with the existing app, recording my own stop motion movie & making note of where the pain points were (it was pretty hard to make a dramatic pause in my story line without being able to change the frame duration!).After that, I started sketching ideas about how to change the duration of a frame and also how to allow kids to record their own sound—I came up with interaction options to achieve these effects that represented several levels of technical complexity as possibilities. I shared the early sketches with the dev team for technical vetting and then made adjustments based on their feedback.
These sketches show some exploration I did around how to approach the editing of a movie's title card.
Because the enhancements didn’t involve a major rework of any screens, I moved straight to high fidelity wireframes representing the various levels of complexity & presented them to the client as options:
Wireframes: t-shirt sized options for adding audio to a project.
When the client selected the desired direction, I coordinated the visual design & production of all the affected screens. During this time period I also iterated on the wireframes to include additional features like editable title & sound effect/dialogue cards.
Final visual design for the new features (adjustable frame duration & user-created audio).
Agency:
Uncorked Studios (iPhone app development & ongoing feature design and development)
Pereira & O'Dell (original concept, art direction)
Awards:
2013 Communication Arts Interactive Annual 19-Mobile
Winner, Entertainment (Handheld Device), The Webby Awards 2013
2013 One Show Merit Award/ Branded Content
Nominee, Best Use of Mobile Video, The Webby Awards 2013
Finalist, SXSW Interactive Awards, 2013
Gold, Branded Entertainment, A-List Awards 2013
Best Mobile Video Advertising, Digiday VA Awards 2012
Shortlist, ADC Tomorrow Awards 2012
Bronze, Digital/Mobile Apps. London International Awards 2012
Bronze, Digital/Recreational. London International Awards 2012
The FWA Mobile App of the Day