Hi Canvanauts 
,
While putting together this highlights reel of Canva Create in the Canva Video Editor I found a few things I’d like to share with you as feedback.
Please see the following User Stories for your consideration.
Thank you 
As a Video Editor, I’d like my Edit History (Undo/Redo) persisted after a page Refresh, so that I don’t lose my History
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Design
- Add a Video element
- Edit the Video element
- Note: Undo/Redo buttons become active, and clicking on them will Undo/Redo my edit history
- Refresh your browser tab
Expected:
After a page refresh I had expected the Edit History to be persisted i.e. Undo/Redo buttons to still be active, allowing me to Undo/Redo edits within my current browser session.
Actual:
After a page refresh the Undo/Redo buttons are disabled, and my Edit History is gone.
Example:
Suggestion:
Consider persisting Edit History in either:
A) Backend:
Would accommodate for a page refresh… plus opens up the option to switch to another browser, or the Canva app, and “picking up where you last left off” in terms of Edit History. This could also add more value to the Canva Pro feature: “Version History”.
Downside is that this requires more data storage to persist a more granular history of edits.
B) Local Storage / Session Storage
Persists the history within the browser long term (or just for the browser session)… Persisted only within this browser (no extra backend storage needed).
Noting that a user could edit this design in another browser or the Canva app… so when loading the page you’d need to compare a timestamp of the “last edit” from the Server for this Design to the “last edit” within Local Storage… if the Server has modifications to the Design then you should wipe the Edit History (since the Server is ahead of the local version).
As a Video Editor, when Deleting a Page I’d like the Playback Position Indicator to always position it self at the beginning of the Next Page, so when I press Play it’s not part way through the Next Page
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Design
- Add a Video element
- Right click on the Video Thumbnail and choose “Split Page” (or use keyboard shortcut: S) to split the video into 2 Pages.
- Then within the 2nd Page add another Split Page (to make a 3rd Page), make this a fairly LONG clip
- Then within the 3rd Page add another Split Page (to make a 4th Page), make this a fairly SHORT clip
- You now have 4 pages: Page 1 (any length), Page 2 (long), Page 3 (short), Page 4 (any length)
- Click within the Video Thumbnail for Page 2, the Playback Progress Indicator will position itself where you clicked, now Delete the page
Expected:
After deleting Page 2 the Playback Progress Indicator should position itself at the BEGINING of Page 3…so when I press the PLAY button the Page 3 video starts at it’s beginning.
Actual:
When pressing Delete, if the Playback Progress Indicator in Page 2 is within the “length” of Page 3 then the Playback Progress Indicator will stay in position…this results in the Playback Progress Indicator being PART WAY THROUGH the Page 3 video…so when I press Play the Page 3 video starts “somewhere” within the length of Page 3 (this is unexpected).
However, when pressing Delete, if the Playback Progress Indicator in Page 2 is outside the “length” of Page 3 then the Playback Progress Indicator will move it’s position to the start of Page 3…this results in the Playback Progress Indicator being at the BEGINNING of the Page 3 video…so when I press Play the Page 3 video starts at the beginning of Page 3 (as I expected).
Example:
Suggestion:
After a Delete, make the Playback Progress Indicator position consistent by always positioning it at the BEGINNING of the Next Page.
This will be particularly helpful to users that are editing down a large video by cutting out a lot of clips within the video i.e. without snapping the Playback Progress Indicator to the start of the Next Page it’s very tedious to keep manually re-positioning the Playback Progress Indicator to continue watching the next part of the video.
As a Video Editor, when the Video is Playing I’d like the Playback Progress Indicator to ALWAYS stay within the Video Thumbnail view, so that I can see where I’m up to within the video and where I’m making an edit with keyboard commands (e.g. “S” for Split Page)
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Design
- Add a Video element
- Zoom Thumbnails to 500% (issue is more reproducible at higher zoom levels)
- Click Play
- Watch as the Playback Progress Indicator reaches the end of the Video Thumbnail container
Expected:
As the video plays, when the Playback Progress Indicator reaches the end of the Video Thumbnail container, it should auto-scroll the Video Thumbnail container so that the progress indicator is always within my view.
Auto Scroll
Auto Scroll (Paged)
Actual:
In some cases the auto-scrolling doesn’t happen. In these cases the Playback Progress Indicator continues out of the users view.
I can Pause the playback with SPACEBAR and then use a keyboard command like “S” to Split the video into 2 pages… all done outside of the Video Thumbnail visible area.
Example:
Suggestion:
Have the Playback Progress Indicator aware of it’s position, and if it’s outside of the visible area then trigger an event to scroll the Video Thumbnails to the indicators position.
As a Video Editor, when moving the Playback Progress Indicator with Keyboard commands LEFT ARROW / RIGHT ARROW the indicator should ALWAYS stay within the Video Thumbnail view, so that I can see where I’m up to within the video and where I’m making edits
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Design
- Add a Video element
- Select the video element
- Click inside the Video Thumbnail area to give it focus
- Using the LEFT ARROW / RIGHT ARROW buttons on your keyboard move the Playback Progress Indicator to the far LEFT or far RIGHT until it’s outside of the Video Thumbnail visible area.
Expected:
As the Playback Progress Indicator reaches the end of the Video Thumbnail container, it should auto-scroll the Video Thumbnail container so that the progress indicator is always within my view (i.e. auto-scroll the container)
Actual:
The Playback Progress Indicator goes outside of the user view…they can now make edits in an area of the video that isn’t obvious because it’s not within the Video Thumbnail view.
Example:
Suggestion:
Have the Playback Progress Indicator aware of it’s position when being moved via Keyboard shortcuts, and if it’s outside of the visible area then trigger an event to scroll the Video Thumbnails to the indicators position.
As a Video Editor, I’d like more precise Video Thumbnails (particularly at higher Zoom levels), so that I can more accurately see where I’m up to within the video and where I need to move the Playback Progress Indicator to make an Edit
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a Design
- Add a Video element
- Select the video element
- Zoom Thumbnails to 500%
- Observe the Video Thumbnail area, and try to navigate to a precise moment within the video
Expected:
At higher zoom levels increase the quantity of thumbnails for making more precise Edits (e.g. 1 thumbnail for every second)
Actual:
Regardless of zoom level, the thumbnails remain at 1 thumbnail every ~11 seconds.
This makes locating a specific moment where I’d like to make a Split Page more difficult as I need to play the full ~11 second clip to find the precise point in the clip… or I use the keyboard LEFT/RIGHT ARROWS to scrub back and forth through the clip.
Example:
Suggestion:
If more granular thumbnails were introduced at higher zoom levels I could more quickly click to the exact moment - saving me time while editing.
Canva currently showing fewer thumbnail images is likely due to performance & bandwidth concerns. So discuss with engineering if they could “lazy load” in more thumbnails when the zoom level increases (i.e. start lite on initial page load, but then enrich the editor with more detail only when needed).
Also discuss if this enrichment could be done based on detection of the users bandwidth e.g. Network Information API
Bug 
This might be an edge case… but in my scenario I edited a 58 minute video into 74 shorter clips (pages) taking it down to 20 minutes.
As I got into the higher number of pages I started to notice the playback struggling with accuracy.
Sometimes in the playback Video Preview, when it moved to the Next Page it would play that page from the incorrect position in the video clip (e.g. earlier or latter than where it was expected to start).
To resolve this I would manually click on the Previous Page (or the start of the Next Page) and then press play again - this would often resolve the issue and it played from where I expected it to.
This only impacted the Video Preview…when I downloaded the video it was perfect. 
I hope these suggestions are helpful to the Canva team, and thank you for taking the time to review them 
