Featured case study

Increasing contributor submission velocity by 23% and driving 27% library growth

Executive summary

Shutterstock’s contributor platform powers the supply side of its marketplace, but years of declining engagement and a disruptive editing workflow were slowing high-volume submissions. Contributors spent too much time moving between assets and completing repetitive metadata.

As the sole designer, I led a six-month redesign that restored side-by-side editing, simplified bulk workflows, and introduced AI-assisted metadata autofill. Submission velocity increased by 23%, contributing to 27% library growth in the measured timeframe after launch.

Timeline

6 months

My role

Sole senior product designer

Partners

Product · Engineering · Contributor Operations · AI and Data

Workflow impact

+23% submission velocity

Contributors moved through upload, metadata, and submission more efficiently.

Marketplace impact

+27% library growth

The increase in submission velocity contributed to library growth in the measured timeframe.

Product shift

AI-assisted metadata

Autofill changed repetitive entry into a review-and-submit workflow.

01

The Marketplace
Bottleneck

Supply growth depended on reducing contributor interruption

Contributors upload the images and videos that support customer search, licensing, and emerging AI data products. Engagement and submission activity had been declining for years, and internal strategy work identified the upload-and-submit workflow as a major barrier to reaching contributors’ full content potential.

Workflow problem

Modal editing added interactions and made it difficult to move quickly between assets.

Effort problem

Descriptions and keywords created repetitive cognitive work during high-volume submissions.

Marketplace problem

Submission friction constrained content volume across the supply side of the business.

02

Ownership &
Leadership

Leading workflow strategy, interaction design, validation, and delivery

I was the sole designer responsible for the contributor experience. I coordinated across teams whose goals extended beyond interface usability to include contributor growth, moderation requirements, marketplace quality, and legacy-system feasibility.

  • Led workflow analysis and end-to-end redesign
  • Facilitated alignment across Product, Engineering, and Operations
  • Spearheaded the AI-assisted metadata workflow
  • Balanced submission speed with review and metadata requirements
  • Delivered testing and implementation handoff
03

Workflow
Evidence

A visually simpler modal created a slower high-volume workflow

The previous redesign had replaced direct grid editing with a modal. That approach narrowed focus, but it forced contributors through more interactions and made switching between assets harder. Competitor products such as Adobe Stock and Getty Images used the side-by-side pattern contributors already understood.

Adobe Stock portfolio with side-by-side grid editing
Expected pattern: select assets in the grid and edit metadata in a persistent side panel.
Shutterstock modal-based contributor editing
Existing experience: modal editing interrupted scanning and made asset-to-asset movement slower.
04

Product
Strategy

Protect metadata quality while removing avoidable effort

Stakeholders needed to maintain metadata standards, so the first release could not simply remove required fields. I focused the strategy on workflow continuity, faster bulk review, and automation that preserved contributor control.

Restore side-by-side editing

Keep the asset grid and metadata panel visible together to support scanning, comparison, and rapid navigation.

Simplify the information hierarchy

Make essential asset status and metadata easier to review without opening secondary surfaces.

Automate repetitive entry

Generate descriptions and keywords so contributors can review instead of starting from blank fields.

Focus the release

Prioritize the highest-friction submission behaviors instead of redesigning every contributor-management workflow at once.

05

Scope &
Tradeoffs

Required metadata remained

Operational dependencies prevented major field reduction, so the design reduced interaction cost around the requirements instead.

Progressive disclosure was limited

The long-term vision included revealing fewer fields upfront, but initial release constraints required a more direct adaptation.

Management features were deferred

Collection organization and detailed metadata management were deprioritized.

Submission completion came first

The team focused on the workflow behaviors most directly connected to content-volume velocity.

06

AI-assisted
Metadata

Changing metadata from creation to review

Contributors were already using external AI keywording tools to reduce manual work. I advocated for bringing that behavior into the platform. After upload, Shutterstock scanned selected assets and generated descriptions and keywords for contributors to review, edit, and submit.

The experience accelerated the workflow without removing contributor control over metadata quality or the final submission decision.

Contributor portfolio grid and redesigned metadata panel
Glanceable asset information and a reorganized side panel reduced scanning effort.
AI autofill contributor metadata workflow
AI Autofill generated descriptions and keywords for review rather than requiring manual entry from scratch.
07

Validation

Testing whether continuity and automation improved the real workflow

Usability testing showed that contributors could complete metadata and submission tasks more efficiently with less interruption. Participants responded positively to side-by-side editing, and AI Autofill resonated as a meaningful way to accelerate repetitive work.

Usability results for the updated contributor editing experience
The updated editing experience received strong usability ratings.
Usability results for AI autofill
Participants identified AI Autofill as valuable for speeding up submissions.
08

Cross-team
Direction

Aligning user speed with marketplace quality and operational needs

The workflow affected contributor growth, moderation, and content quality at the same time. I worked with Product on growth measures, Engineering on legacy feasibility, Operations on review dependencies, and AI and Data teams on metadata automation.

That shared direction kept the project focused on business impact without turning contributor efficiency into a quality tradeoff.

09

Final
Experience

The final workflow reconnected the asset grid and editing panel, improved visibility across high-volume submissions, and added AI-assisted descriptions and keywords. Contributors could move from upload to review and submission with fewer interruptions.

Final contributor portfolio screen
Final AI autofill contributor screen
10

Outcomes &
Retrospective

Faster submission behavior translated into marketplace growth

After launch, submission velocity increased by 23%. That acceleration contributed to a 27% increase in total library growth during the measured timeframe.

+23%increase in submission velocity
+27%increase in total library growth in the measured timeframe
AI Autofillimplemented as part of the contributor submission workflow

The most important lesson was that reducing friction did not require removing contributor control. Restoring workflow continuity and shifting repetitive work from creation to review improved speed while preserving the decisions contributors and operations teams still needed to make.

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