Building AI Creation Tools Around User Goals, Not Model Selection

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A developer building SceneFlare, an AI image and video creation platform, argues that connecting a model API and adding a prompt box is sufficient for a demo but falls short of a real product. Users typically arrive with creative goals — such as animating an image or producing a campaign asset — rather than knowledge of which AI model or API configuration to use. The author advocates for task-oriented navigation that presents model selection as one step within a broader workflow, rather than the starting point. A product-owned vocabulary covering modes, source assets, fields, outputs, and credits is proposed to keep the interface consistent across models with differing capabilities. The piece concludes that uploaded files should be treated as typed inputs to specific creative operations, with validation enforced both on the form and server side to prevent invalid submissions.

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