SaaS product case study
Redefining how creators, brands, and growth teams manage content operations through intelligent automation.
Overview
How Could We Cut Hours of Repetitive Posting?
Anthem Engine OS is a 0-to-1 AI-powered campaign platform designed to help creators, marketers, and enterprise teams turn raw video content into campaign strategy, clips, captions, hashtags, scheduling recommendations, and performance insights.
I worked on the product as an Applied AI UI/UX Designer, shaping the experience from early ideation to high-fidelity interface design. My work included product research, information architecture, user flows, AI-assisted workflow exploration, design system development, prototyping, and frontend exploration using tools like Figma, Framer, Builder.io, Lovable, ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Stitch.
Client:
Tyi Moncrieffe (CEO of Anthem Nation)
Duration:
6 months
Category:
SaaS Internal tool
/
Web App
Team
Founder, 2 Back-end Engineers, 2 UX Designers
Tools
Figma, Framer, Builder.io, Lovable, ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Stitch.
The problem
Seven tools open.
Zero operational clarity.
During discovery, one pattern came up repeatedly: Users were not struggling because AI lacked output. They were struggling because the output lacked direction. Users described the experience in simple but revealing ways:
“I don’t know where to start.”
“AI gives me output, not direction.”
“I don’t trust the results.”
At the same time, creators were already juggling 5–7 disconnected tools across the content workflow. That meant the opportunity was not just to add AI, but to design an experience that reduced cognitive overhead instead of increasing it
Platform fragmentation
No approval visibility
Consistency breakdown
Tool overload
Design Challenge
The platform needed to work for three different user groups:
Creators needed speed, clarity, and simple guidance.
Marketing teams needed campaign structure, collaboration, and performance visibility.
Enterprise users needed control, consistency, and scalable workflows.
The main challenge was creating one flexible product system that could support all three personas without making the experience feel overwhelming.
Research & Discovery
I studied how music artists distribute content and what competitors were getting wrong.
User interviews and competitive analysis revealed a consistent pattern: existing tools optimized for one dimension (analytics, scheduling, or AI editing) but none solved the end-to-end workflow. The gap wasn't features, it was integration and simplicity at the point of publishing.
Music Artist · Creator
Before → After
Spent 2+ hours editing content for each individual platform. Cross-posting was manual, inconsistent, and exhausting.
"Before I would spend 2 hours editing for each platform. Now I post once. I actually have time to make more music."
Product Manager · Stakeholder
Before → After
No visibility into what content was going out or when. Brand drift happened because approvals were ad hoc.
"The approval workflow means I can control what goes out without being a bottleneck. The team ships faster and stays on brand."
Key Research Finding
No existing tool closed the loop from creation → editing → approval → multi-platform publish in a single, intuitive flow. Every competitor required users to exit and re-enter a different tool, the exact friction Anthem Engine OS was built to eliminate.
User Flow & Pain Point Analysis
Mapping the current content creation workflow across three user types revealed where friction compounded and where a unified system could intervene.
04 — AI-POWERED DESIGN PROCESS
I used AI as a design partner, not a shortcut.
Every stage of this 0→1 product was designed with AI as a collaborator. The value wasn’t automation, it was moving faster, exploring wider, and making stronger decisions.
ChatGpt
Ideation
Claude
Strategy & IA
Google Stitch
UI Exploration
Figma
Design System
Framer
Landing Page
Design Goals & Principles
Not a dashboard.
An operating layer.
The strategic reframe was critical. Anthem Engine OS wasn't positioned as another monitoring tool, it was designed to be the connective tissue of creative operations, with AI as the active ingredient, not a feature bolted on.
Clarity first
Reduce cognitive load through clean, intuitive layouts and clear information hierarchy.
Universal access
Follow WCAG 2.1 guidelines for color contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility.
Workflow efficiency
Streamline user workflows to minimize time and reduce operational complexity at every step.
Exploration & Iteration
The pivot that made it work.
I started by sketching multiple design paths to test what kind of workflow users preferred. Direction 1 was a full-featured Social Manager platform. User testing surfaced a critical insight that changed everything.
Direction 1- Rejected
Full-Featured Social Manager
Included analytics, team management, scheduling, content library, and advanced reporting. Everything stakeholders asked for.
"This feels like too much at once. I'd need training just to learn the tool."
Direction 2 - Chosen
Lightweight Anthem Engine OS
Focused on editing + syndication as the core MVP. Removed non-essential features. Streamlined for speed and simplicity.
Result: 85% task completion. Users preferred simplicity over features. "This is exactly what I need, quick, simple, and flexible."
Key Insight
Research findings showed users valued clarity and speed over comprehensive features. This led to removing heavy analytics, team management, and learning curves in favor of a focused, intuitive workflow for content creation and distribution.
Iteration Cycles
Each iteration cut unnecessary complexity while doubling down on clarity and speed.
Upload flow
Simplified the upload flow from 5 steps to 2 after users dropped off mid-task in testing.
Templates
Introduced drag-and-drop templates after users said creating posts from scratch felt repetitive and slow.
Content tagging
Added content tagging so teams could quickly filter by campaign or channel without building a full CMS.
Information Architecture
One layer.
Every system.
The IA was designed around a hub model, a central intelligence layer connecting uploads, AI generation, approval workflows, and multi-platform output without creating a new silo in the process.
Final Solution
Fewer inputs.
Sharper outputs.
The final design prioritizes intuitive workflows, scalable features, and seamless multiplatform publishing. The interface used templates and platform-specific presets so users could adapt content to each platform without thinking. Drag-and-drop uploads. One button to publish everywhere. Teams could assign approval workflows so brand managers could control what went out.
Visual Language
Dark. Dense.
Deliberately minimal.
A premium dark-mode aesthetic was chosen not for trend, but for function: it reduces visual noise in content-heavy environments and focuses attention on what matters, the creative work, not the chrome around it. Every UI decision traced back to cognitive economy under creative pressure.
Type
Readable at density
Clean variable-weight typography with deliberate tracking. Hierarchy enforced through weight, not size alone, critical when content metadata competes for attention.
Color
Signal-first palette
Near-black base with an AI-indigo accent. Color is reserved for states and actions, never decoration. Platform badges use distinct hues to make routing decisions scannable instantly.
Motion
Purposeful micro-interactions
Transitions confirm state changes and publishing actions. Animation exists to orient, never to entertain a user who's trying to ship content fast.
Access
WCAG 2.1 from day one
Color contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility were built into the design system, not added at the end as a compliance pass.
Impact & Outcomes
What this changes
at creative scale.
The product is currently in high-fidelity development with engineers. While not launched yet, the design has been validated through user research and stakeholder feedback, setting the foundation for a successful launch.
5→ 1
Tool consolidation
Replacing 5 disconnected apps with one unified operational layer
↓ 60%
Time saved
Expected reduction in time from ideation to multiplatform publication
85%
Task completion
Validated task completion rate across usability testing with real creator users
Reflection & Next Steps
The hardest thing
wasn't the AI.
This project taught me that AI product design is not about adding AI features everywhere. It is about deciding where AI should assist, where users need control, and how to make complex systems feel simple.
If I continued the project, I would focus on deeper usability testing, stronger onboarding education, and clearer analytics feedback loops so users can understand not only what the AI generated, but why it made those recommendations.
Key Learnings
Simplicity creates more value- Focus on core features rather than overwhelming users with comprehensive functionality. The 85% task completion rate was only possible because we cut 60% of the original feature set.
Competitive analysis revealed the real opportunity- Strategic gaps in the market that no competitor filled effectively, the end-to-end creative-to-publish workflow, became our core value proposition.
Accessibility integration belongs at day one- Building WCAG considerations into the design process from the start saved significant rework and produced a better product for all users.
Next Steps
Expanded usability testing- Test with a wider pool of users once the high-fidelity prototype is ready for broader validation.
Phase 2 analytics features- Explore deeper analytics capabilities as an add-on for power users, keeping the core experience simple for new users.
AI feature refinement- Continue improving AI features with focus on usability and transparency, users should understand what AI is doing and why.
