How Loom makes you feel like a youtuber? ~ Product deconstruct
Simple software is built in layers
Loom is simple, just like a white t-shirt. What sets a simple white tee apart is the texture, maybe thickness, or maybe the feeeeel (sprinkle more abstraction). When people praise simple white tees, they're not just talking about the apparel but appreciating that special x-factor – Likewise, Loom is a simple screen recording tool with a “special something”.
In this note, I will deconstruct Loom’s attempt to make its users feel like they are in control of everything, just like a movie producer who is at their “own” movie set.
Loom's top use case is skipping meetings. Yes, the meeting that occupies 40-50% of our day. No one likes a time-wasting meeting. Just shoot a Loom to your colleagues, and bam, no more meetings. If you haven't tried Loom, it's like recording your screen and talking in front of a camera. Afterward, you send the recording to your colleagues, and they can react or comment.
The importance of a meeting is based on 4 factors —
Who all are attending it?
How many people are attending it?
What things are being discussed?
And most importantly, who is the hero of the meeting?
Loom aims to make “you” the hero of your narrative, ensuring you feel confident and in control.
Layers of Loom
Just like our world-famous white t-shirt, with 3-4 different layers of specialty that people love. Loom has got its fair share.
Functionality layer — Screen recording as a function was never lightweight and speedy on any device, especially Windows. Loom is the first tool that did not affect your device's performance when recording. It’s quick and snappy. Most of the time, quick is delightful!
Cosmetics layer — This is where things get interesting. People say that makeup brings out confidence in you. Same here, Loom did everything it could to make you feel confident. The cosmetics layer hides all your flaws while presenting enabling people to create more videos on Loom.
Time-saving layer — Meetings are messy, and Loom makes it efficient. You aren’t entitled to block your time for someone else to blabber. Sounds arrogant, but people value time, and Loom values it more than anything. Every interface element talks about how much time you save with Loom.
Let’s talk insights, we designers love insights. For Loom, it’s the amount of time people spend discussing things in a meeting, and not executing. After a point, you just keep on moving your mouth instead of moving your hands. Loom minimizes delays associated with scheduling meetings or waiting for unclear responses, eventually speeding up decision-making & execution.
Loom helps you practice the bias for action.
Fears into features — Cosmetics layer
I have always believed that products driven by specific fears of the users are successful. For example, products like "Kesh King" which targets hair loss, or "Pet Safaa” which focuses on relieving constipation in the Indian market.
Loom is based on the fear of messing up an important presentation done live.
Many times, we are asked to present our ideas, and sometimes we mess up. In those moments, we often think to ourselves, “What if I could start over again? This presentation was so important!”
Loom is just that wish, as a product.
They simply transformed all these fears into features.
Fear 1 - Background noise and filler words during the call.
Fear 2 - Feeling that a huge chunk of the presentation doesn’t make sense.
Fear 3 - People will stop listening to me midway.
Fear 4 - The biggest one, I am wasting time by talking too much.
I’ll save you time, a lot of time
While the core use-case of Loom is a mere screen recording tool, the value lies in how much emphasis it has on saving time. We’ve all been in meetings that are more of a mess than a message. Latecomers, audio not working, presenters lost in circles, and a Steve Jobs wannabe who's got the style but not the substance. [500 “Am I audible” per day. it’s not even a question now.]
Zooming out a bit, meetings are often fast-paced, where chilling isn't an option – you need to be in the zone. Zoom or GMeet meetings are active, demanding your focus.
Loom took a different route, making it more laid-back & passive. Because most meetings are status updates rather than discussions nowadays. In the case of Loom, it is all about making your communication simple and tack sharp, also not wasting the time of others.
Loom’s Spotify-wrapped alternative
The confidence Loom has in its insight is insane. The way every feature is wrapped around one insight which is “Loom saves time.”
Loom sends a monthly review of how many meetings you’ve eliminated, videos created vs watched, and the time you save with Loom. Obviously, your most watched video is for you to feel like a YouTuber.
Bringing out the YouTuber in “you”
Loom wants every user to create videos on their platform. But let's face it, people freak out about recording themselves. How did Loom make it so easy? Here, we look at the typical experience of a loom user.
A loomer starts looming - Basically, a user creates a video
They share it with their colleagues
People start reacting to it & commenting
If the person reacting to it is a
New user - Asked to sign in
Existing user - Asked to shoot a video reply [Video creation] or type in their reply.
A new user is nudged to create their first loom and start their journey to communicate async for work.
It has to nail its video creation experience because that is what fuels the loop.
Video creation experience
We will closely look at the recording of a video & the sharing of a video flow for a user. I’ll suggest a few improvements or good to have additions.
Prime time feeling for a user
A lot of functional elements like a checklist before you start, are paired up with a copy that evokes a feeling of “initiating” something. It’s intentional.
On YouTube, the question is - How many views? and how are people reacting to it? On Loom, the question is who viewed it? & what did they take away from it?
The spotlight for you
This is my favorite screen of Loom, I have never expected this. Never. It’s thoughtful, it helps me calm down before recording something. I have used the flow several times and I never expect this screen. It’s always a delight.
It executes the metaphor of a “prime time” exactly the way it should be. The countdown brings the attention back to you.
Improvement - Adding some pixie dust to this screen → Some tips that help the creator calm down and reduce the cost of failure. “Talk as if you’re presenting live!” • “Breathe in & breathe out” • “Don’t forget to sip water in between” • “It doesn’t matter if you mess up, you can always restart.”
Keyboard shortcuts to the rescue
I've seen people constantly moving their eyes a lot while using Loom. It's because there are many extra things to do while recording, like adding notes, changing tabs, and scrolling on the screen as you talk. It's like you're the actor, director, and producer of your movie.
This distracts the viewer, but the argument is never that a loom should be perfect. It’s meant to be raw, that’s the specialty of Loom.
Improvement - Assigning custom keyboard shortcuts for each such task is a must to keep the eyeballs focused on the camera while you talk. It makes the whole experience personal.
Currently, jumping from one section of a figma file to another section takes approx 7-8 seconds of scrolling and zooming in/out. The section of the page can be mapped spatially and could take you there in seconds with a keyboard shortcut.
Crisp videos are designed for the lowest attention span. To make that happen, one should minimize all distractions and focus on the narrative which is the only goal of recording a video.
We talk about AI
Currently, loom transcribes the whole recording into a speech with timestamps, + suggests a title automatically, which is fine. I mean okay.
After you've created your video, the goal is to make sure you can share it flawlessly. You’ve got the cosmetics layer to handle any imperfections. But what about the first part of the goal – "Sharing videos"?
Improvement - What I’d like to see is where AI helps in sharing ideas with others. Ideas need something easy to spread, like a vessel that floats. A catchy description message on Slack or a super cool Picasso-style thumbnail for your video can be fantastic starting points for these vessels. All of this is to buy the attention (expensive) of a user.
In the end, it will make you feel like a YouTuber...
Alex Cornell is the CEO of great narrative videos. I just love him! ^Goosebumps worthy video^, please watch. it’s the best video you will watch today.
“Loom”ing as a soft skill
A litmus to identify a great productivity and communication tool is that it’s always a soft skill in demand. Cause, it helps you stand out.
For a very long time, making presentations was a skill, and now it has been coined as the most important word of the century “storytelling”
Invisible products are magical
Loom turns the scary act of presenting into something magical and simple. Noticed on Twitter: after the first 2-3 videos, people spend way less time perfecting. It becomes easy – just you, the camera, and your story. The product fades away, and it's all about sharing your narrative.
Loom is one of my favorite software products, it was recently acquired by Atlassian.
If I were to ever build, it would be something like Loom. It’s simple, useful, and magical at the same time, and what else do you need out of a product?
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