Creative Gallery
Simplifying ad format selection in Amazon DSP
The Creative Gallery unifies ad creation into a single, visual entry point. It helps advertisers find the right format faster, preview requirements upfront, and start campaigns with clarity and confidence.
Project Snapshot
As the Lead UX Designer for Amazon DSP’s Creative Gallery, I led the end-to-end design process — from defining the problem and synthesizing research insights to designing the new experience and collaborating closely with product, engineering, and UX partners. The goal was to make ad format selection faster, clearer, and more intuitive for advertisers worldwide.
About the product
Amazon DSP is a self-service advertising platform that enables brands to buy programmatic ads across Amazon and third-party websites. The Creative Gallery is the first step in campaign creation — where advertisers discover, compare, and select ad formats before building their ads.
The Challenge
Advertisers began campaign creation by choosing from 15+ creative formats listed under technical names with little context. The entry point was difficult to navigate, offered no visual previews, and made it hard to pick the right format with confidence — resulting in confusion, rework, and slower setup times across Amazon DSP.
User & Business Pain
Research, VOC, and support tickets revealed four recurring pain points:
- Advertisers couldn’t map campaign goals to the right format due to unclear naming.
- No preview or specs during selection, causing trial and error.
- Slow discovery across 15+ disconnected options.
- Account teams spent extra time clarifying and fixing misconfigurations.
Constraints & Requirements
- Scale with new ad types without redesigning the entry point.
- Align taxonomy and copy with the Amazon Ads design system.
- Ensure accessibility (WCAG AA) across components.
- Work within API-first templates and engineering milestones.
Research & Insights
To validate the challenge and uncover root causes of confusion, I led a focused research sprint combining unmoderated tasks, heuristic reviews, a competitive audit, and internal audits of the legacy DSP taxonomy and templates. We examined how advertisers decide, where they hesitate, and what information they need to choose with confidence.
Audience & participants
Advertisers & agency traders (self-service)
Recruited users familiar with DSP workflows to evaluate discoverability, comprehension, and task completion at the entry step of creative selection.
Research methods
Unmoderated tasks · Heuristics · Competitive audit
Task flows (find → compare → choose → complete), competitive audit of other ad platforms, and internal reviews of legacy taxonomy/templates. Captured time-on-task, selection confidence, points of hesitation, and common failure paths.
Behavioral patterns
How advertisers think & where they struggle
Users first categorize by media type (Display, Video, Audio, Component-based), then look for specs & constraints (dimensions, assets, placements) to validate fit. Technical naming increases guesswork; absence of previews or side-by-side cues leads to backtracking, restarts, and delayed setup.
Opportunity areas
Where clarity matters most
Improve recognition at-a-glance (names + examples), align taxonomy with goals, and surface key specs early to increase selection confidence and reduce misselection.
Voice of Customer (VOCs)
Direct quotes from advertisers reinforced the same patterns observed in testing — a need for clarity, comparability, and confidence at the very first step.
“I don’t always know which template fits my goal — a quick preview with specs would save me time.”
“Formats are named differently across platforms. Grouping by Display/Video/Audio makes more sense to me.”
“I need dimensions, assets, and where it runs — before I choose — so I don’t have to redo work.”
“If I pick the wrong one, it’s a lot of back-and-forth. I want confidence at step one.”
Key takeaways
- Advertisers think in media types, not product names.
- Naming & specs were the largest sources of confusion.
- Early visual clarity and spec visibility drive confident selection.
Design strategy
Vision
Replace the legacy drop-down with a visual gallery that acts as both a decision tool (fast path to the right template) and a showroom (showcasing new ad experiences). Keep the mental model simple, align terminology with the Amazon Ads design system and APIs, and make the system future-proof for new formats and experiences.
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Clarity firstOrganize by media type (Display, Video, Audio, Component-based) to match how advertisers think.
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Show, don’t tellCards with short value props, visuals, and clear “Create” CTAs reduce time-to-decision.
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ConsistencyShared patterns, strings, and components across DSP using the Amazon Ads design system.
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ScaleTaxonomy and UI ready for Carousel, Quad, Interstitial, Pause Ads, and new formats.
Before June 2024
After launch in 2024
Information architecture
Top-level media type
Primary entry point aligned to how advertisers think and browse.
Examples: Display, Video, Audio, Component-based
Rendered presentation
The visual outcome a format can produce for end users.
Examples: Carousel, Quad, Interstitial, Pause Ads
Where the ad serves
Channel and surface constraints that determine delivery context.
Examples: Desktop, Mobile, Fire TV
Design exploration
Multiple design directions were tested to replace the legacy drop-down with a visual gallery — improving clarity, scalability, and alignment with the Amazon Ads design system.
Layout evolution
Replaced the drop-down list with tabbed navigation per format and introduced cards for each ad experience with clear icons, short descriptions, and a “Create” CTA.
Content clarity
Partnered with UX Writing to deliver benefit-driven microcopy — making creative formats self-explanatory and value-focused for advertisers.
Design consistency
Adopted the Amazon Ads design system components and unified the naming taxonomy across UI and API. Consolidated templates surfaced on top; legacy ones collapsed in a “Legacy creatives” section.
Accessibility & scalability
Built consistent rules for icons, deprecation badges, and beta indicators while ensuring WCAG AA compliance and future-proofing for new ad formats.
Launch Outcome
The Creative Gallery consolidates all creative types into a clear, visual entry point—organized by format with descriptive cards and a streamlined creation flow. These are the key moments of the shipped experience.
- Unified gallery across Display · Video · Audio · Component-based creatives
- Visual cards with concise value propositions and clear CTAs
- Future-ready structure for new formats like Carousel, Quad, and Pause Ads
Impact
The Creative Gallery launch simplified campaign creation and made new ad experiences easier to discover across Amazon DSP. It reduced setup time by 92%, tripled adoption of consolidated templates, and established a scalable, API-first foundation for future creative workflows across Amazon Ads.
92%
Reduction in time to find the right creative template
Advertisers located the correct ad format in seconds instead of minutes.
100%
Task completion rate across Display and Video
All participants successfully created a creative without external guidance.
3×
Increase in adoption of consolidated templates
Advertisers preferred new API-first templates over legacy ones, accelerating deprecation goals.
60+
Internal NPS (Designer & PM feedback)
Teams described the new gallery as “clear, intuitive, and future-proof.”
4
Formats unified under one interface
Display, Video, Audio, and Component-Based Creative now share a single UX framework.
June 2024
Global Launch
Rolled out across all self-service accounts in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Business & Impact Layer
Creative Gallery wasn’t only a UX upgrade — it was a business lever. The experience reduces time-to-first-creative, accelerates adoption of new formats, and standardizes workflows so Amazon Ads can ship future ad experiences faster and at lower operational cost.
Business objectives
- Reduce time-to-first-creative (remove friction during campaign setup).
- Increase adoption of consolidated/API-first templates.
- Lower support & help-center exits via clearer wayfinding and copy.
- Enable faster format launches through a scalable gallery framework.
- Deprecate legacy paths to reduce maintenance costs and inconsistencies.
Measurable outcomes
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92%
faster setup to select the right creative template
-
3×
increase in adoption of consolidated/API-first templates
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60+
internal NPS from Designers/PMs (clarity & future-proofing)
-
↓
drop in help-center exits from create-creative flow*
*Directional; exact figures are internal.
Revenue enablement
Clear entry points and value-prop cards surface modern formats (e.g., Carousel, Quad, Pause Ads), improving discoverability and campaign fit.
Operational efficiency
One gallery + shared strings reduces upkeep, speeds deprecations, and aligns UI with APIs for faster engineering delivery.
Quality & governance
Consistent taxonomy and guardrails reduce mis-configurations and improve policy compliance across surfaces.
Risks
- Legacy-path dependence could fragment adoption.
- String/terminology drift between UI and API.
- New formats outpacing UI discoverability.
Mitigations
- Gate legacy options behind a clearly marked “Legacy creatives.”
- Centralize naming in the Amazon Ads design system; shared copy source.
- Format tabs + value-prop cards + “New” indicators for launches.