Context
Shorthand started with a vision: make it easy for anyone to create beautiful, immersive web content without coding. Inspired by groundbreaking longform pieces like Snowfall by the New York Times and Firestorm by The Guardian. The insight was that editorial teams wanted to produce stories like these but didn't have the budget or expertise that the NYT had. As the founding designer, I joined to transform this vision into a real product.
How might we create a content creation tool that produces genuinely beautiful, immersive web experiences while remaining accessible to non-technical users?
Process
- Explored the landscape of existing content tools and their limitations
- Prototyped various interaction models for scroll-based storytelling
- Designed the core editing experience and section-based content model
- Created the initial brand identity and visual language
- Iterated rapidly based on early user feedback from beta customers
Solution
A revolutionary approach to content creation centered on scroll-based storytelling. The editor used a section-based model that made it intuitive to create immersive experiences, while the output was indistinguishable from custom-built websites.
Outcomes
- Launched product that attracted major media organizations as early customers
- Established design patterns still in use today
- Set the foundation for a platform now used by thousands of organizations