Designing a Dynamic Calculator for Live Transcoding Costs
Overview
Live transcoding pricing was too technical and confusing. Even the sales team struggled to explain LTC (Live Transcoding Core) concepts to our potential clients I designed an interactive calculator that automatically recommends the correct LTC core while letting users manually override it.
Challenge
The challenge required simplifying a highly technical pricing model for everyday users. The primary issues were
Users are confused by the 12 LTC core options
Difficult for sales to explain
No dynamic estimate available
Objective & Goal
To make live transcoding pricing understandable and sales-friendly.
Process
I broke down the complex pricing model into understandable user input like resolutions, minutes, and LTC cores. Then, I designed a dynamic interface that automatically recommends the correct core while allowing manual selection with contextual warnings. The calculator updates pricing instantly to help users and sales teams understand costs clearly.
Process Steps
Competitor pricing analysis
Internal user data review (engagement + drop-off patterns)
Wireframing the new calculator (improving on the old flow)
Designing interactive UI with real-time cost updates
Automatic LTC recommendation
Optional manual LTC selection with warnings
Instant pricing calculation
Support for two pricing models: pay-per-minute & monthly
User testing to validate clarity and speed
Result
Redesigned the onboarding experience for a global CDN SaaS platform to improve user activation and retention. By simplifying the flow, refining plan categorization, and integrating customer segmentation, the redesign achieved 84% more direct purchases, 33% fewer inactive users, and a 78% boost in monthly revenue — proving the power of data-driven UX design in SaaS environments.
Learnings
Guided decision-making and UX nudges proved powerful in simplifying technical pricing. Auto-recommendations reduced decision fatigue, while contextual warnings ensured transparency and prevented poor choices.
Additional Learnings:
Smart defaults reduce cognitive effort.
Transparency builds trust in pricing-heavy products.
Interactive calculators help bridge knowledge gaps.
Tools That Shaped This Project
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