Simplifying the Most Frequent Action
How to reduce cognitive load and improve understanding of the outcome of creating a clip in Segno.
Summary:
Risultati ottenuti:
- A linear and predictable clip creation process, with clearer awareness of the outcome before confirmation.
- Reduced cognitive load during clip configuration, especially for BPMN elements.
- Improved readability of clip behavior once inserted into a flow.
- Measured reduction in task completion time for key actions (−19% for new users, −22% for experienced users).
Type of work:
UX analysis of the existing modal, observation of real usage, redefinition of creation flows, interaction design, and iterative prototyping.
Delivery:
Complete redesign of the clip creation modal, introduction of outcome‑oriented previews, progressive flows for different clip types, and prototypes validated through testing.
Team:
Giacomo Dalia, with ongoing collaboration with Segno’s internal stakeholders and development team.
My role:
Product Design Consultant — analysis of friction points in clip creation, definition of progressivity and outcome awareness principles, design of new interactions, and validation through qualitative and quantitative testing.
Note:
The modal redesign revealed significant differences between new and experienced users, showing how a more explicit interaction model requires a short adaptation period but delivers greater benefits over time.
Introduzione
As outlined in the project overview, Segno is a product in constant evolution. It grows rapidly, layering features and usage patterns over time. While this growth is natural in an exploratory and experimental phase, it eventually required a moment of consolidation and reflection on the structure of the interface.
Once the global navigation had been clarified, a new critical issue became evident: the most frequent and strategic action in Segno — creating a clip — was still heavy, fragmented, and poorly communicative in relation to its final outcome.
In Segno, clips are the fundamental working units. They are conceptual elements that translate ideas, decisions, logical steps, or external references into operational nodes within the grid. A clip is never an isolated object, but an active point in a broader system, designed to be connected, traversed, and reorganized within flows of meaning. Creating a clip therefore means shaping a concept and consciously placing it within a network of relationships that defines its role and behavior.
This second design intervention emerged from the need to make clip creation more fluid, more legible, and more clearly oriented toward outcomes.
Initial context
Before the formal start of the consultancy, the clip creation modal had already received an initial optimization based on feedback provided during beta testing. In its original form, the priorities of compilation were inverted:
- The first choice presented to users was icon selection, the least relevant element of the clip.
- Entering a title required an explicit click on the input field.
These issues were addressed early on, but the modal still appeared, at the start of the project, as a dense and cognitively demanding interface.
Pre‑redesign modal structure
The modal revolved around a primary decision: the clip type. Initially, this choice was made directly in the grid via a contextual menu. With the introduction of the action bar and rapid clip creation in the grid, clip type selection was moved into the modal, which became the dedicated space for conscious configuration.
Standard clip
For standard clips, the modal concentrated all configuration options in a single space. Users could define horizontal size (small, medium, large), enter a title and description, choose an icon, and add one or more links.
The icon selector — present only for this clip type — occupied a significant portion of the interface, contributing heavily to visual density despite being a secondary decision in most use cases.
BPMN elements
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) elements are standard constructs used to visually represent processes, decisions, and operational flows. In Segno, they are used to model logical sequences and structured behaviors within complex systems.
Given these premises, configuring BPMN elements proved even more complex. In the same view, all main BPMN families — Gateways, Events, and Activities — were displayed simultaneously, together with all their respective variants.
This approach made all options immediately available, but at the cost of significant vertical space usage and high visual clutter. Moreover, it was difficult to anticipate in advance what role an element would play once inserted into the grid and how it would behave within the flow: this understanding relied almost entirely on the element’s visual identity and label, without any visual or contextual support to preview its actual effect.
Project/scene link
Project or scene link clips create references to other working contexts. Inserting one establishes a logical connection between contexts while maintaining visual continuity within the flow.
Previously, options for this clip type were displayed as horizontal tabs, exposing all possibilities at once and contributing to overall choice overload.
Design intent
User observation during task‑based sessions revealed recurring issues:
- A high number of clicks required for simple actions.
- Difficulty in anticipating what would appear in the grid once the action was completed.
- Limited clarity, especially in the creation of BPMN elements.
The core issue was not what users had to choose, but the effort required to reach the result and the lack of clarity around the final outcome.
The redesign was guided by three principles:
- Progressive disclosure — show only what is needed when it becomes relevant.
- Outcome centrality — make the result visible while the action is being performed.
- Click reduction — remove or defer steps that do not add immediate value.
New experience — standard clips
The modal now opens with the standard clip pre‑selected and the title field already focused, allowing users to start typing immediately. A basic clip can be created in seconds.
The title is embedded in a simplified clip preview, which communicates:
- Clip color (derived from row or level)
- Selected size
- Connection type
- Selection behavior
Icon selection has been moved to a secondary modal, accessible via a side button, reframing it as optional customization rather than a mandatory step.
The description field remains unchanged, preserving the flexibility users were already familiar with.
Link management
Anche l’inserimento dei link è stato semplificato. In precedenza, per aggiungere un link era necessario attivare esplicitamente il comando Aggiungi link, rilevando anche l'incertezza da parte degli utenti che si chiedevano se il campo label fosse obbligatorio da compilare.
Nel nuovo flusso:
- Il campo di inserimento del link è sempre visibile
- Nel momento in cui viene inserito un valore:
- Appare il comando per rimuovere il link
- Compare il campo Label, chiaramente opzionale
- Viene generato automaticamente un nuovo campo vuoto sottostante
Questa struttura consente un inserimento rapido e continuo delle risorse e abilita, implicitamente, l’inserimento di link multipli: incollando più URL vengono generate automaticamente più voci collegate alla clip.
New experience — BPMN elements
For BPMN elements, the redesign addressed both the excessive density of available options and the difficulty users experienced in understanding the behavioral outcome of their choices before placing an element in the grid.
A new intermediate selection layer was introduced: users first choose the element family (Gateway, Event, Activity), drastically reducing visible options.
Variants are arranged radially with a default selection, and the preview immediately communicates expected outcome — for example, the branching logic of an Exclusive Gateway.
New experience — project/scene links
Project or scene link clips serve a different purpose: creating a bridge toward an external context. For this reason, the modal was intentionally kept simpler.
Users can:
- Choose whether to link a project or a scene.
- Select the existing element.
- Optionally define an alternative title.
- Add a description.
The preview displays a dashed clip, visually communicating that the element does not fully belong to the current project, but instead points to an external context.
Results and validation
The redesign of the modal was evaluated through timed testing sessions and qualitative observation, involving both users already familiar with Segno and users approaching the platform for the first time. Both groups performed the same set of tasks using both the previous version of the modal and the redesigned one, in order to make the results directly comparable.
Participants were asked to:
- Create a standard clip.
- Create different BPMN elements starting from a desired outcome in the flow (for example, obtaining a branching through an Exclusive Gateway).
- Add an external resource via a link.
The results revealed several interesting dynamics:
- New users completed the tasks using the new modal in approximately 19% less time compared to the previous version, indicating higher effectiveness of the redesigned flow during first use.
- Experienced users completed the same tasks with the new modal in approximately 22% less time compared to experienced users using the old version.
- During the first interactions, experienced users were initially about 7% slower than new users using the new modal, highlighting a natural adjustment period related to previously established habits.
This last data point proved particularly relevant: the redesign introduced a clearer and more explicit interaction model, but required a short period of readjustment for users accustomed to the behaviors of the previous version. Once this phase was overcome, experienced users’ performance aligned with — and exceeded — their previous benchmarks.
Follow‑up questions confirmed the quantitative results, highlighting:
- Greater clarity about what the created element would do.
- Improved understanding of the impact of the clip within the flow.
- A perception of increased simplicity, despite operating within a complex domain.
Conclusion
The redesign transformed an interaction that had become dense, fragmented, and difficult to interpret into a more progressive and outcome‑oriented experience, where configuration choices are introduced gradually and their effects are easier to anticipate.
The goal was not to reduce system capabilities, but to make them understandable at the moment they become relevant.
This intervention completes the work initiated with the navigation redesign, closing a first design cycle focused on clarity, flow, and action awareness.
Simplifying the Most Frequent Action
How to reduce cognitive load and improve understanding of the outcome of creating a clip in Segno.
Summary:
Risultati ottenuti:
- A linear and predictable clip creation process, with clearer awareness of the outcome before confirmation.
- Reduced cognitive load during clip configuration, especially for BPMN elements.
- Improved readability of clip behavior once inserted into a flow.
- Measured reduction in task completion time for key actions (−19% for new users, −22% for experienced users).
Type of work:
UX analysis of the existing modal, observation of real usage, redefinition of creation flows, interaction design, and iterative prototyping.
Delivery:
Complete redesign of the clip creation modal, introduction of outcome‑oriented previews, progressive flows for different clip types, and prototypes validated through testing.
Team:
Giacomo Dalia, with ongoing collaboration with Segno’s internal stakeholders and development team.
My role:
Product Design Consultant — analysis of friction points in clip creation, definition of progressivity and outcome awareness principles, design of new interactions, and validation through qualitative and quantitative testing.
Note:
The modal redesign revealed significant differences between new and experienced users, showing how a more explicit interaction model requires a short adaptation period but delivers greater benefits over time.
Introduzione
As outlined in the project overview, Segno is a product in constant evolution. It grows rapidly, layering features and usage patterns over time. While this growth is natural in an exploratory and experimental phase, it eventually required a moment of consolidation and reflection on the structure of the interface.
Once the global navigation had been clarified, a new critical issue became evident: the most frequent and strategic action in Segno — creating a clip — was still heavy, fragmented, and poorly communicative in relation to its final outcome.
In Segno, clips are the fundamental working units. They are conceptual elements that translate ideas, decisions, logical steps, or external references into operational nodes within the grid. A clip is never an isolated object, but an active point in a broader system, designed to be connected, traversed, and reorganized within flows of meaning. Creating a clip therefore means shaping a concept and consciously placing it within a network of relationships that defines its role and behavior.
This second design intervention emerged from the need to make clip creation more fluid, more legible, and more clearly oriented toward outcomes.
Initial context
Before the formal start of the consultancy, the clip creation modal had already received an initial optimization based on feedback provided during beta testing. In its original form, the priorities of compilation were inverted:
- The first choice presented to users was icon selection, the least relevant element of the clip.
- Entering a title required an explicit click on the input field.
These issues were addressed early on, but the modal still appeared, at the start of the project, as a dense and cognitively demanding interface.
Pre‑redesign modal structure
The modal revolved around a primary decision: the clip type. Initially, this choice was made directly in the grid via a contextual menu. With the introduction of the action bar and rapid clip creation in the grid, clip type selection was moved into the modal, which became the dedicated space for conscious configuration.
Standard clip
For standard clips, the modal concentrated all configuration options in a single space. Users could define horizontal size (small, medium, large), enter a title and description, choose an icon, and add one or more links.
The icon selector — present only for this clip type — occupied a significant portion of the interface, contributing heavily to visual density despite being a secondary decision in most use cases.
BPMN elements
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) elements are standard constructs used to visually represent processes, decisions, and operational flows. In Segno, they are used to model logical sequences and structured behaviors within complex systems.
Given these premises, configuring BPMN elements proved even more complex. In the same view, all main BPMN families — Gateways, Events, and Activities — were displayed simultaneously, together with all their respective variants.
This approach made all options immediately available, but at the cost of significant vertical space usage and high visual clutter. Moreover, it was difficult to anticipate in advance what role an element would play once inserted into the grid and how it would behave within the flow: this understanding relied almost entirely on the element’s visual identity and label, without any visual or contextual support to preview its actual effect.
Project/scene link
Project or scene link clips create references to other working contexts. Inserting one establishes a logical connection between contexts while maintaining visual continuity within the flow.
Previously, options for this clip type were displayed as horizontal tabs, exposing all possibilities at once and contributing to overall choice overload.
Design intent
User observation during task‑based sessions revealed recurring issues:
- A high number of clicks required for simple actions.
- Difficulty in anticipating what would appear in the grid once the action was completed.
- Limited clarity, especially in the creation of BPMN elements.
The core issue was not what users had to choose, but the effort required to reach the result and the lack of clarity around the final outcome.
The redesign was guided by three principles:
- Progressive disclosure — show only what is needed when it becomes relevant.
- Outcome centrality — make the result visible while the action is being performed.
- Click reduction — remove or defer steps that do not add immediate value.
New experience — standard clips
The modal now opens with the standard clip pre‑selected and the title field already focused, allowing users to start typing immediately. A basic clip can be created in seconds.
The title is embedded in a simplified clip preview, which communicates:
- Clip color (derived from row or level)
- Selected size
- Connection type
- Selection behavior
Icon selection has been moved to a secondary modal, accessible via a side button, reframing it as optional customization rather than a mandatory step.
The description field remains unchanged, preserving the flexibility users were already familiar with.
Link management
Anche l’inserimento dei link è stato semplificato. In precedenza, per aggiungere un link era necessario attivare esplicitamente il comando Aggiungi link, rilevando anche l'incertezza da parte degli utenti che si chiedevano se il campo label fosse obbligatorio da compilare.
Nel nuovo flusso:
- Il campo di inserimento del link è sempre visibile
- Nel momento in cui viene inserito un valore:
- Appare il comando per rimuovere il link
- Compare il campo Label, chiaramente opzionale
- Viene generato automaticamente un nuovo campo vuoto sottostante
Questa struttura consente un inserimento rapido e continuo delle risorse e abilita, implicitamente, l’inserimento di link multipli: incollando più URL vengono generate automaticamente più voci collegate alla clip.
New experience — BPMN elements
For BPMN elements, the redesign addressed both the excessive density of available options and the difficulty users experienced in understanding the behavioral outcome of their choices before placing an element in the grid.
A new intermediate selection layer was introduced: users first choose the element family (Gateway, Event, Activity), drastically reducing visible options.
Variants are arranged radially with a default selection, and the preview immediately communicates expected outcome — for example, the branching logic of an Exclusive Gateway.
New experience — project/scene links
Project or scene link clips serve a different purpose: creating a bridge toward an external context. For this reason, the modal was intentionally kept simpler.
Users can:
- Choose whether to link a project or a scene.
- Select the existing element.
- Optionally define an alternative title.
- Add a description.
The preview displays a dashed clip, visually communicating that the element does not fully belong to the current project, but instead points to an external context.
Results and validation
The redesign of the modal was evaluated through timed testing sessions and qualitative observation, involving both users already familiar with Segno and users approaching the platform for the first time. Both groups performed the same set of tasks using both the previous version of the modal and the redesigned one, in order to make the results directly comparable.
Participants were asked to:
- Create a standard clip.
- Create different BPMN elements starting from a desired outcome in the flow (for example, obtaining a branching through an Exclusive Gateway).
- Add an external resource via a link.
The results revealed several interesting dynamics:
- New users completed the tasks using the new modal in approximately 19% less time compared to the previous version, indicating higher effectiveness of the redesigned flow during first use.
- Experienced users completed the same tasks with the new modal in approximately 22% less time compared to experienced users using the old version.
- During the first interactions, experienced users were initially about 7% slower than new users using the new modal, highlighting a natural adjustment period related to previously established habits.
This last data point proved particularly relevant: the redesign introduced a clearer and more explicit interaction model, but required a short period of readjustment for users accustomed to the behaviors of the previous version. Once this phase was overcome, experienced users’ performance aligned with — and exceeded — their previous benchmarks.
Follow‑up questions confirmed the quantitative results, highlighting:
- Greater clarity about what the created element would do.
- Improved understanding of the impact of the clip within the flow.
- A perception of increased simplicity, despite operating within a complex domain.
Conclusion
The redesign transformed an interaction that had become dense, fragmented, and difficult to interpret into a more progressive and outcome‑oriented experience, where configuration choices are introduced gradually and their effects are easier to anticipate.
The goal was not to reduce system capabilities, but to make them understandable at the moment they become relevant.
This intervention completes the work initiated with the navigation redesign, closing a first design cycle focused on clarity, flow, and action awareness.
Simplifying the Most Frequent Action
How to reduce cognitive load and improve understanding of the outcome of creating a clip in Segno.
Summary:
Results:
- A linear and predictable clip creation process, with clearer awareness of the outcome before confirmation.
- Reduced cognitive load during clip configuration, especially for BPMN elements.
- Improved readability of clip behavior once inserted into a flow.
- Measured reduction in task completion time for key actions (−19% for new users, −22% for experienced users).
Type of work:
UX analysis of the existing modal, observation of real usage, redefinition of creation flows, interaction design, and iterative prototyping.
Delivery:
Complete redesign of the clip creation modal, introduction of outcome‑oriented previews, progressive flows for different clip types, and prototypes validated through testing.
Team:
Giacomo Dalia, with ongoing collaboration with Segno’s internal stakeholders and development team.
My role:
Product Design Consultant — analysis of friction points in clip creation, definition of progressivity and outcome awareness principles, design of new interactions, and validation through qualitative and quantitative testing.
Note:
The modal redesign revealed significant differences between new and experienced users, showing how a more explicit interaction model requires a short adaptation period but delivers greater benefits over time.
Introduction
As outlined in the project overview, Segno is a product in constant evolution. It grows rapidly, layering features and usage patterns over time. While this growth is natural in an exploratory and experimental phase, it eventually required a moment of consolidation and reflection on the structure of the interface.
Once the global navigation had been clarified, a new critical issue became evident: the most frequent and strategic action in Segno — creating a clip — was still heavy, fragmented, and poorly communicative in relation to its final outcome.
In Segno, clips are the fundamental working units. They are conceptual elements that translate ideas, decisions, logical steps, or external references into operational nodes within the grid. A clip is never an isolated object, but an active point in a broader system, designed to be connected, traversed, and reorganized within flows of meaning. Creating a clip therefore means shaping a concept and consciously placing it within a network of relationships that defines its role and behavior.
This second design intervention emerged from the need to make clip creation more fluid, more legible, and more clearly oriented toward outcomes.
Initial context
Before the formal start of the consultancy, the clip creation modal had already received an initial optimization based on feedback provided during beta testing. In its original form, the priorities of compilation were inverted:
- The first choice presented to users was icon selection, the least relevant element of the clip.
- Entering a title required an explicit click on the input field.
These issues were addressed early on, but the modal still appeared, at the start of the project, as a dense and cognitively demanding interface.
Pre‑redesign modal structure
The modal revolved around a primary decision: the clip type. Initially, this choice was made directly in the grid via a contextual menu. With the introduction of the action bar and rapid clip creation in the grid, clip type selection was moved into the modal, which became the dedicated space for conscious configuration.
Standard clip
For standard clips, the modal concentrated all configuration options in a single space. Users could define horizontal size (small, medium, large), enter a title and description, choose an icon, and add one or more links.
The icon selector — present only for this clip type — occupied a significant portion of the interface, contributing heavily to visual density despite being a secondary decision in most use cases.
BPMN elements
BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) elements are standard constructs used to visually represent processes, decisions, and operational flows. In Segno, they are used to model logical sequences and structured behaviors within complex systems.
Given these premises, configuring BPMN elements proved even more complex. In the same view, all main BPMN families — Gateways, Events, and Activities — were displayed simultaneously, together with all their respective variants.
This approach made all options immediately available, but at the cost of significant vertical space usage and high visual clutter. Moreover, it was difficult to anticipate in advance what role an element would play once inserted into the grid and how it would behave within the flow: this understanding relied almost entirely on the element’s visual identity and label, without any visual or contextual support to preview its actual effect.
Project/scene link
Project or scene link clips create references to other working contexts. Inserting one establishes a logical connection between contexts while maintaining visual continuity within the flow.
Previously, options for this clip type were displayed as horizontal tabs, exposing all possibilities at once and contributing to overall choice overload.
Design intent
User observation during task‑based sessions revealed recurring issues:
- A high number of clicks required for simple actions.
- Difficulty in anticipating what would appear in the grid once the action was completed.
- Limited clarity, especially in the creation of BPMN elements.
The core issue was not what users had to choose, but the effort required to reach the result and the lack of clarity around the final outcome.
The redesign was guided by three principles:
- Progressive disclosure — show only what is needed when it becomes relevant.
- Outcome centrality — make the result visible while the action is being performed.
- Click reduction — remove or defer steps that do not add immediate value.
New experience — standard clips
The modal now opens with the standard clip pre‑selected and the title field already focused, allowing users to start typing immediately. A basic clip can be created in seconds.
The title is embedded in a simplified clip preview, which communicates:
- Clip color (derived from row or level)
- Selected size
- Connection type
- Selection behavior
Icon selection has been moved to a secondary modal, accessible via a side button, reframing it as optional customization rather than a mandatory step.
The description field remains unchanged, preserving the flexibility users were already familiar with.
Link management
Anche l’inserimento dei link è stato semplificato. In precedenza, per aggiungere un link era necessario attivare esplicitamente il comando Aggiungi link, rilevando anche l'incertezza da parte degli utenti che si chiedevano se il campo label fosse obbligatorio da compilare.
Nel nuovo flusso:
- Il campo di inserimento del link è sempre visibile
- Nel momento in cui viene inserito un valore:
- Appare il comando per rimuovere il link
- Compare il campo Label, chiaramente opzionale
- Viene generato automaticamente un nuovo campo vuoto sottostante
Questa struttura consente un inserimento rapido e continuo delle risorse e abilita, implicitamente, l’inserimento di link multipli: incollando più URL vengono generate automaticamente più voci collegate alla clip.
New experience — BPMN elements
For BPMN elements, the redesign addressed both the excessive density of available options and the difficulty users experienced in understanding the behavioral outcome of their choices before placing an element in the grid.
A new intermediate selection layer was introduced: users first choose the element family (Gateway, Event, Activity), drastically reducing visible options.
Variants are arranged radially with a default selection, and the preview immediately communicates expected outcome — for example, the branching logic of an Exclusive Gateway.
New experience — project/scene links
Project or scene link clips serve a different purpose: creating a bridge toward an external context. For this reason, the modal was intentionally kept simpler.
Users can:
- Choose whether to link a project or a scene.
- Select the existing element.
- Optionally define an alternative title.
- Add a description.
The preview displays a dashed clip, visually communicating that the element does not fully belong to the current project, but instead points to an external context.
Results and validation
The redesign of the modal was evaluated through timed testing sessions and qualitative observation, involving both users already familiar with Segno and users approaching the platform for the first time. Both groups performed the same set of tasks using both the previous version of the modal and the redesigned one, in order to make the results directly comparable.
Participants were asked to:
- Create a standard clip.
- Create different BPMN elements starting from a desired outcome in the flow (for example, obtaining a branching through an Exclusive Gateway).
- Add an external resource via a link.
The results revealed several interesting dynamics:
- New users completed the tasks using the new modal in approximately 19% less time compared to the previous version, indicating higher effectiveness of the redesigned flow during first use.
- Experienced users completed the same tasks with the new modal in approximately 22% less time compared to experienced users using the old version.
- During the first interactions, experienced users were initially about 7% slower than new users using the new modal, highlighting a natural adjustment period related to previously established habits.
This last data point proved particularly relevant: the redesign introduced a clearer and more explicit interaction model, but required a short period of readjustment for users accustomed to the behaviors of the previous version. Once this phase was overcome, experienced users’ performance aligned with — and exceeded — their previous benchmarks.
Follow‑up questions confirmed the quantitative results, highlighting:
- Greater clarity about what the created element would do.
- Improved understanding of the impact of the clip within the flow.
- A perception of increased simplicity, despite operating within a complex domain.
Conclusion
The redesign transformed an interaction that had become dense, fragmented, and difficult to interpret into a more progressive and outcome‑oriented experience, where configuration choices are introduced gradually and their effects are easier to anticipate.
The goal was not to reduce system capabilities, but to make them understandable at the moment they become relevant.
This intervention completes the work initiated with the navigation redesign, closing a first design cycle focused on clarity, flow, and action awareness.