seerealbox
Reducing upload friction to improve posting completion
MY ROLE
Founding Product Designer
TEAM
1 Product Designer
2 Engineers (1 CTO)
DISCIPLINE
Product Design
Product Thinking
UX Research
TIMELINE
Feb 2024 - May 2024
Context
Built on a high-stakes constraint: authenticity.
Users could only post photos taken in-app with no gallery uploads, no filters. That constraint defined the product's identity, but it also raised the emotional stakes of every post.
IMAGE
In-app camera and gallery constraint
Problem
The upload flow wasn't designed for unfiltered, high-stakes posting.
Seerealbox asked users for raw, authentic moments, but paired that vulnerable ask with a burdensome, high-friction upload experience.
As a result, 70% of users who opened the camera abandoned the flow before publishing.
VISUAL
Image upload drop-off rate
Solution
A redesigned upload flow
for clarity and speed.
INTERACTIVE
Upload flow before & after
Edit Page
A green room before you go live
A dedicated Edit Page between photo selection and upload addressed two audit failures: users could now verify their photos at full size before committing, and any edits could be made in place without backtracking.
IMAGE
New Edit Page
VIDEO LOOP
Modify multi-photo posts
Customization
Personalize your images
The exit survey showed 18.5% of drop-offs were driven by unfiltered posting feeling burdensome.
Customization gave users a sense of authorship over their post without touching the authenticity constraint.
VIDEO LOOP
Rotate & zoom images
IMAGE
Image customization features
Seamless Upload
Removing last- mile friction
Redesigned the upload button and introduced a clearer caption modal to reduce hesitation and decision friction at the final step.
Heuristic Audit
Where and why were we losing them?
Restructuring the Flow
Adding a step to remove friction.
The old Post Details page was simultaneously the editing surface, the preview, and the upload trigger with no clear moment to verify before committing.
Before
After
INTERACTIVE
User flow before & after
Architecture Decision
Separating features for clarity and scalability.
VIDEO LOOP
RealAsk
Adding the Edit Page created a structural question:
where does RealAsk belong?
OPTION A
Nest RealAsk Inside Customize
Centralizes all visual tools in one place
Blurs distinction between image-level and post- level actions
Buries a defining product feature inside a submenu
IMAGE
RealAsk on Customize Page
OPTION B
RealAsk on the Post Details Page
Highly visible and discoverable
Clearly separates image-level edits from post- level overlays
IMAGE
RealAsk on Post Details Page
Elevations of Customization
Putting RealAsk on the Post Detail Page separated actions and defined a two-layer content model. This removed user ambiguity and made the system scalable as features grew.
This directly addresses the ambiguous action problem we identified in the audit.
IMAGE
Content elevation model
Trade-off: Engineering Constraint
Not every good decision is the most delightful one.
For multi-photo reordering, I explored two approaches:
OPTION A
Drag and Drop Interaction
Intuitive and more delightful
Longer engineering build time
OPTION B
Tap-Based Controls
Quick engineering build
Preserves core user need
I chose tap-based controls for v1 to maximize time-to-value while preserving the core user need: managing multiple photos without losing progress.
Drag-and-drop remained a valid future enhancement, but it was not required to de-risk the posting flow.