Designing Entri’s AI Video Assistant: From Concept to Reality

Introduction

As AI continues to revolutionize the world, we at Entri wondered how we could use it to make a real difference in people’s lives and create smarter, more effective learning experiences. Instead of adding AI features just for the sake of staying trendy, we took a thoughtful approach.

We started by talking to our users, listening to their challenges, and understanding their needs.

Identifying the Problem

We conducted interviews with over 30 users and uncovered three key issues:

1. Time Constraints: Many users struggle to find time to watch long videos.
2. Information Overload: Long videos make it hard to remember the key points.
3. Unanswered Questions: Learners frequently have doubts while watching videos but lack instant tools to get answers.

These insights set the foundation for brainstorming meaningful solutions. From here, we brainstormed ideas to develop meaningful solutions that genuinely address these pain points.

Insights from User Research

From our research, we learned:

• Learners often skim videos, missing critical information.
• Many use fast playback but still feel lost trying to retain concepts.
• Doubts arise mid-video, and switching to other resources disrupts their focus.

Building a Vision

As we brainstormed solutions, two questions kept guiding us:

• The majority of our user base consists of homemakers and working professionals who are looking to switch careers, upskill themselves, and land new job opportunities. We reflected on how we can make learning easier and more effective for them, given their limited time.
• How can we support learners when the content becomes harder to grasp?

After extensive discussions, we concluded that introducing an AI Assistant to help users summarize videos, extract key points, and address doubts related to the topics discussed would be highly beneficial. Our user research strongly indicated that videos are the primary medium consumed by our users in their learning journey. Therefore, we decided to experiment with this feature as video-specific and scalable in the future if it proves successful.

Building the Foundation

With the idea in place, the real work began. I began wireframing and shaping the user flows and UI. The goal wasn’t to create a flawless design in one go but to establish a solid foundation for how the system would function and guide the user journey. Our trio collaborated closely on this project, holding brief meetings every other day to review and refine the wireframes and flows together.

Trio : A trio is a group consisting of a designer, engineer, and a product Manager

Designing the Entri AI video assistant

We envisioned a chat interface allowing users to interact seamlessly while watching videos. To achieve this, we decided to integrate the chat directly snapping with the video timeline scrubber, aligning playback, the timeline, and AI chat perfectly beneath the video. This design ensures that all options are conveniently positioned within the user’s peripheral vision, reducing the need to shift focus too much.

Recognizing that this is a relatively new feature and considering our user base, we prioritized simplicity and user-friendliness. To help users get started, we included suggestion chips to guide them and showcase the AI Assistant’s capabilities.

Entri caters to a diverse audience, with many users interacting in regional languages or a mix of English and native tongues. The assistant needed to work seamlessly across languages.

• We collaborated with engineers to integrate multilingual LLP models.
• Make sure the interfaces could handle text inputs in multiple languages efficiently.

The Testing Stage

After designing the screens, I created a fully functional prototype to get an initial impression of how users would interact with it. To achieve this, I identified a group of users within the office who do not regularly use our app. This allowed me to observe their live interactions and understand their behavioral patterns. The prototype was tested with over 10 users, and I was pleased with the insights and positive outcomes of the testing.

I shared these findings with the team, and our next step was to release the feature to a small group of users. The goal was to identify power users and conduct interviews to understand the feature’s impact. Some key insights from these interviews were:

• 42% of users found the feature easy to use and helpful.
• 28% of users didn’t understand what the feature was or what it could do.
• 15% of users were working professionals who found it very useful, saying it saved them a lot of time.
• 10% of users tried it out of curiosity but didn’t know how it worked.
• 5% of users thought it was related to an AI course.

Afterward, we rolled the feature out to 100% of users. However, adoption rates were lower than expected. We conducted more user interviews to identify the main issues, and here’s what we found:

1. Visibility Issues: Users were not noticing the feature because it was too subtle.
2. Lack of Clarity: Some users struggled to understand how to use the feature and its full potential.

These insights helped us plan further iterations to increase adoption and usability.

Iterating for Success: From Low Adoption to Clear Impact

Small Tweaks, Big Wins

Sometimes, even the smallest changes can lead to big results. As part of our first iteration, we made a simple tweak: we changed the call-to-action (CTA) text from “Ask Entri AI” to “Clear Your Doubts.” It may not seem like much, but this small change created a huge boost in adoption.

After implementing it, we reached out to some users, and their feedback was surprising and insightful. They shared how helpful the AI feature had been in resolving their doubts. This positive response motivated us to take the next step.

Our next iteration focused on improving visibility and making the feature’s purpose instantly clear. To do this, we reorganized the section into a dedicated “Entri AI” space, with separate entry points for summaries, doubts, and notes, while still keeping them connected under one umbrella.

These changes made a massive difference. Adoption rates jumped from 13.12% to an impressive 24.90% — an incredible 89.79% increase.

This experience proved that small tweaks and clear presentation can create significant impact, driving user engagement and satisfaction.

Final Design

A Story That Touched Our Hearts

One of our users, Anson Sunny, shared how the AI Assistant changed his learning journey. Anson, a visually impaired student, had always relied on others for note-taking. With the AI Assistant, he became more independent, summarizing videos and managing his studies with ease.

Hello Team Entri, My name is Anson Sunny, and I’m a Gold Batch student of Entri IAS. I’ve been utilizing the app for the past five months and have found the integrated AI feature extremely useful. As a visually impaired individual, I previously relied on teachers and scribes for note-making, but the AI feature has simplified this process. Additionally, I use it to summarize video content. I suggest enhancing the AI feature to include audio playback of the provided content, which would greatly benefit visually impaired users like myself. Compared to other online platforms I’ve used, Entri’s AI feature stands out. Thank you, Entri!

Anson’s story reminds us why we do what we do, to empower learners like him and to continuously innovate for inclusivity. His suggestion to integrate audio playback is invaluable, and we are thrilled to explore this improvement to further enhance accessibility.

Lessons Learned

Creating the AI Video Assistant was a journey full of lessons:

1. Start with the User: Real insights come from listening to people, not assumptions.
2. Simplify the Experience: Hide complexity behind a simple, intuitive interface.
3. Iterate Relentlessly: Perfection doesn’t happen in one go. Test, learn, and adapt.
4. Visibility Matters: Even the best features need clear CTAs and dedicated spaces.
5. Educate Users: Guided instructions and examples can make all the difference.
6. Small Tweaks Work Wonders: Sometimes, a tiny change is all it takes to spark success.