Redesigning the Now Emmy Award Winning App, Scriptation
Summary
Scriptation is the go-to app for film and TV professionals to annotate, manage, and transfer notes on scripts. As its user base expanded, the app’s UI felt outdated, workflows were clunky, and branding was inconsistent.
I joined as the lead designer to evolve Scriptation into a cohesive, professional-grade tool, improving usability, visual design, and feature flow from the inside out.
My contributions
-
Led the full redesign of the app’s UI, iconography, and visual system
-
Designed dark mode and key features like recent projects and annotation transfer
-
Created a flexible branding system: new color palette, typography, logo variants
-
Designed a custom icon set tailored to scriptwriting workflows
-
Collaborated directly with the CEO, developers, and PM to guide implementation
-
Designed marketing assets to promote Pro features
Impact
The redesign launched in January 2022, achieving remarkable results:
-
+52.8% increase in downloads
-
+34.0% growth in daily active users
-
+58.4% rise in monthly active users
-
Won an Emmy® for Engineering Development
Process & approach
1 - Understanding the Users
I kicked off the project by learning from the CEO, a scriptwriter and coordinator, about how professionals really use the app. I followed up with informal usability tests and interviews with working pros to spot common pain points.
A competitive analysis of tools like Goodnotes, PDF Viewer, PDF Expert, and Notability helped identify gaps and set benchmarks.
2 - Heuristics-Based UX Audit
Scriptation had a strong feature set but lacked the polish expected by its professional user base. The interface felt a bit clunky and visually inconsistent, making the app harder to use than it needed to be.
I started with a full audit of the existing product, mapping user flows and identifying friction in core areas. This helped prioritize where the redesign could make the biggest impact.
Key issues:
-
Inconsistent UI and visual identity
-
Annotation tools were unintuitive and slowed down workflows
-
No dark mode which was painful for users working late into the night
These findings shaped my direction in the redesign.
3 - Building the Brand System
I developed a scalable visual identity, expanding the color palette, introducing new typography, and creating logo variants. These were captured in brand guidelines to future-proof the app.
4 - Enhancing Core Features
I redesigned several key parts of the app to streamline workflows and boost usability. Highlights include reworking the annotation transfer flow, introducing a new home screen for quick access to recent files, and designing marketing slides to support the Pro subscription funnel.
These updates helped improve both the everyday user experience and the app’s business goals.
Transfer Annotation flow prototype
5 - Designing for script pros
I crafted a custom icon set based on script-industry conventions, testing them directly with users. I also designed a dark mode that supported long working hours without eye strain.
A whole new set of icons.
Agile collaboration
With no producers or large design team, I worked directly with the CEO and developers, reviewing builds, implementing fast feedback, and managing the full design workload solo.
Reflections
Redesigning Scriptation was a labor of love. As part of a tiny team, I felt both the weight and the joy of being trusted to lead such a meaningful evolution. It’s rare to feel so connected to a product, but Scriptation holds a special place in my heart. Seeing it win an Emmy and fuel major user growth was the ultimate reward. It also taught me the value of planning and self-reliance when leading without a big team behind you. To this day, I still pitch in where I can because they mean so much to me.