Cards against Cogniwerk: the heart of the labyrinth

As a startup, it's essential for us to confront our challenges head-on, to stumble and rise again, stronger each time. To accelerate our growth, we’ve chosen to embrace our fears by inviting professionals from the creative industry to critique our service and share their insights on how we can improve. Your feedback helps us grow, and we sincerely appreciate your contribution. Thank you for participating, and we hope you find value in reading this series. If you'd like to be involved, please send your thoughts to cardsagainst@cogniwerk.ai

The heart of the labyrinth

by David, creative technologist at Cogniwerk

When I started working part-time at Cogniwerk, I soon had a discussion with our founder Peter about why we put so much energy into building a library for AI tools when we were actually developing our own AI interface.

At the time, I was still a Motion Designer at thjnk and had unofficially become an AI specialist there giving internal lectures on model fine-tuning. But the wheels at agencies sometimes grind slower than my need for advancement, and by the time I was offered the position of Creative Technologist, I had already made my decision to leave.

To be honest, I wasn't initially convinced by Cogniwerk. The user experience wasn't clear enough to me, and when friends asked what we were doing, my explanation began with "Well, actually..."

But the speed of development impressed me. Every three weeks, a new version with new updates, following the motto "fast pace over perfection." I love that, and that's why I won't hold back in my feedback. It’s for the good, I’m sorry. 

So here is a user experience that unfolded exactly as it happened:

I'm sitting at my desk; it's Saturday evening. There will be no Schlager-Move-Party for me tonight. I have more important things to do and open my browser www.cogniwerk.ai

A page opens that does everything except communicate a great interactive interface for creative generative AI. Damn. First task failed right away. What's on my to-do list again? Oh yeah, animations that communicate better... a second damn.

Maybe I should stop writing before I shoot myself in the foot.

At the top of the header, it says, "The ultimate Creative Co-Pilot," but nothing feels particularly "ultimate" to me. My brain starts working before I've even opened the interface. Maybe an animation that picks up this claim?

push - THE

push - ULTIMATE

push - CREATIVE

push - CO-PILOT.

A super cool slideshow that explains everything the user needs to know.

I should note that down right away. I log in and and after far too many clicks, finally get to the page that really matters. The user interface. Our gem trying to hide in a labyrinth. But I found you, my friend. You won't escape me.

In the top left, I can select the different preset models. Stable Diffusion 3 was on our shelf shortly after its release. Free to try. We were so afraid that we'd be swamped with requests because of this model. But the doorknobs in our maze-like bunker remained dusty. So, cards on the table. We hide our best features behind too many hurdles.

So I go back, log out, and count. Six clicks from landing on the page to reaching our best model. And that's only if I know exactly where it is. What follows is a pop-up saying I've used up my 10 generations for this model. Damn... do we communicate that anywhere? Is there a sentence that says early on that we can't offer Stable Diffusion 3 unlimited like all other models?

How hard do we make it for the user to understand that they can still use SD3 if they give us feedback? Should we even tie it to that condition?

It's such a shame. The tool is too good and withers behind all the hurdles and question marks. Even before I've generated a single image, I've come to a conclusion. We need to rethink our approach.

Fewer hurdles, less text, but clear statements and easy access. Plus maybe a learning page dedicated to using Cogniwerk. In a few days, I won't be part-time anymore but full-time part of the team. My to-do list has just gotten a lot longer, and I'm looking forward to checking its boxes.

Best regards,

David

Creative Technologist at Cogniwerk