Chroncile

Engineering better tools for more dynamic and on-brand presentations

Product Design

Design Engineering

AI Intergration

Chroncile

Engineering better tools for more dynamic and on-brand presentations

Product Design

Design Engineering

AI Intergration

Chroncile

Engineering better tools for more dynamic and on-brand presentations

Product Design

Design Engineering

AI Intergration

Chroncile

Engineering better tools for more dynamic and on-brand presentations

Product Design

Design Engineering

AI Intergration

An animation I created showcasing the power of Brand Kit and the widgets working in unison

Challenges

At Chronicle, widgets are the core building blocks of every deck, the way users bring data, media, and narrative together on a slide. Widgets are the visual storytelling tools that make a presentation worth looking at, an image, a chart, a table, a metric, the components users reach for when they want to say something with more than words. The range of widgets available, however, had not continued to grow with the product. The ones that existed had evolved independently of each other, resulting in fragmented patterns and inconsistent UX behaviour.

Users had some tools for theming their decks and customising it to their brand, but not many. There was no system for defining custom typography, or establishing a consistent visual identity that could carry across multiple decks in a team's workspace. Teams were left to recreate their brand by hand every time, which made producing on-brand presentations slow and inconsistent.

KEY CHALLENGES

01

The widget library had stagnated, limiting the kinds of stories users could tell in their decks

02

Configuration menus and interaction patterns were inconsistent across widget types

03

Users had no way to apply their brand consistently across multiple decks

04

The limited widget set constrained Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, reducing what it could generate

05

Widgets need to work seamlessly across a wide range of contexts, interactions, and sizes

Challenges

At Chronicle, widgets are the core building blocks of every deck, the way users bring data, media, and narrative together on a slide. Widgets are the visual storytelling tools that make a presentation worth looking at, an image, a chart, a table, a metric, the components users reach for when they want to say something with more than words. The range of widgets available, however, had not continued to grow with the product. The ones that existed had evolved independently of each other, resulting in fragmented patterns and inconsistent UX behaviour.

Users had some tools for theming their decks and customising it to their brand, but not many. There was no system for defining custom typography, or establishing a consistent visual identity that could carry across multiple decks in a team's workspace. Teams were left to recreate their brand by hand every time, which made producing on-brand presentations slow and inconsistent.

KEY CHALLENGES

01

The widget library had stagnated, limiting the kinds of stories users could tell in their decks

02

Configuration menus and interaction patterns were inconsistent across widget types

03

Users had no way to apply their brand consistently across multiple decks

04

The limited widget set constrained Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, reducing what it could generate

05

Widgets need to work seamlessly across a wide range of contexts, interactions, and sizes

Challenges

At Chronicle, widgets are the core building blocks of every deck, the way users bring data, media, and narrative together on a slide. Widgets are the visual storytelling tools that make a presentation worth looking at, an image, a chart, a table, a metric, the components users reach for when they want to say something with more than words. The range of widgets available, however, had not continued to grow with the product. The ones that existed had evolved independently of each other, resulting in fragmented patterns and inconsistent UX behaviour.

Users had some tools for theming their decks and customising it to their brand, but not many. There was no system for defining custom typography, or establishing a consistent visual identity that could carry across multiple decks in a team's workspace. Teams were left to recreate their brand by hand every time, which made producing on-brand presentations slow and inconsistent.

KEY CHALLENGES

01

The widget library had stagnated, limiting the kinds of stories users could tell in their decks

02

Configuration menus and interaction patterns were inconsistent across widget types

03

Users had no way to apply their brand consistently across multiple decks

04

The limited widget set constrained Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, reducing what it could generate

05

Widgets need to work seamlessly across a wide range of contexts, interactions, and sizes

Challenges

At Chronicle, widgets are the core building blocks of every deck, the way users bring data, media, and narrative together on a slide. Widgets are the visual storytelling tools that make a presentation worth looking at, an image, a chart, a table, a metric, the components users reach for when they want to say something with more than words. The range of widgets available, however, had not continued to grow with the product. The ones that existed had evolved independently of each other, resulting in fragmented patterns and inconsistent UX behaviour.

Users had some tools for theming their decks and customising it to their brand, but not many. There was no system for defining custom typography, or establishing a consistent visual identity that could carry across multiple decks in a team's workspace. Teams were left to recreate their brand by hand every time, which made producing on-brand presentations slow and inconsistent.

KEY CHALLENGES

01

The widget library had stagnated, limiting the kinds of stories users could tell in their decks

02

Configuration menus and interaction patterns were inconsistent across widget types

03

Users had no way to apply their brand consistently across multiple decks

04

The limited widget set constrained Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, reducing what it could generate

05

Widgets need to work seamlessly across a wide range of contexts, interactions, and sizes

Brand Kit is the creative foundation that powers every Chronicle deck. Set up your brand once and every presentation, whether built manually or generated by Muse, looks and feels like you.

Solution

The most significant challenge was giving users a way to bring their brand into Chronicle and have it carry consistently across everything they made. We started with theming, a straightforward system for applying a set of customisable colour themes across slides. Theming was a tricky feature, not because of any single problem but because of how much it touches. Every widget, every existing deck, every future component, the theming system has to account for all of it and still feel simple to use. What previously required editing every widget colour manually became instant.

It was a good first step but colour alone was not enough. Brand Kit expanded on this, giving users control over logos, typography, colours, tone of voice, slide themes, and more. Define your brand once and Chronicle carries it everywhere. This foundation also gave Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, a much richer understanding of a user's brand to draw from when generating presentations.

In parallel we began expanding the widget offering. Every new widget was designed with Brand Kit in mind from the start, so that a chart, a table, or an image slider would inherit the user's brand automatically. The two workstreams pushed each other forward. A richer widget library gave Brand Kit more surface to work across, and a smarter brand system made every new widget more powerful out of the box.

Solution

The most significant challenge was giving users a way to bring their brand into Chronicle and have it carry consistently across everything they made. We started with theming, a straightforward system for applying a set of customisable colour themes across slides. Theming was a tricky feature, not because of any single problem but because of how much it touches. Every widget, every existing deck, every future component, the theming system has to account for all of it and still feel simple to use. What previously required editing every widget colour manually became instant.

It was a good first step but colour alone was not enough. Brand Kit expanded on this, giving users control over logos, typography, colours, tone of voice, slide themes, and more. Define your brand once and Chronicle carries it everywhere. This foundation also gave Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, a much richer understanding of a user's brand to draw from when generating presentations.

In parallel we began expanding the widget offering. Every new widget was designed with Brand Kit in mind from the start, so that a chart, a table, or an image slider would inherit the user's brand automatically. The two workstreams pushed each other forward. A richer widget library gave Brand Kit more surface to work across, and a smarter brand system made every new widget more powerful out of the box.

Solution

The most significant challenge was giving users a way to bring their brand into Chronicle and have it carry consistently across everything they made. We started with theming, a straightforward system for applying a set of customisable colour themes across slides. Theming was a tricky feature, not because of any single problem but because of how much it touches. Every widget, every existing deck, every future component, the theming system has to account for all of it and still feel simple to use. What previously required editing every widget colour manually became instant.

It was a good first step but colour alone was not enough. Brand Kit expanded on this, giving users control over logos, typography, colours, tone of voice, slide themes, and more. Define your brand once and Chronicle carries it everywhere. This foundation also gave Chronicle's AI engine, Muse, a much richer understanding of a user's brand to draw from when generating presentations.

In parallel we began expanding the widget offering. Every new widget was designed with Brand Kit in mind from the start, so that a chart, a table, or an image slider would inherit the user's brand automatically. The two workstreams pushed each other forward. A richer widget library gave Brand Kit more surface to work across, and a smarter brand system made every new widget more powerful out of the box.

Streamlined Brand Kit creation

Rapid setup, deep customisation

Brand Kit was designed to remove the barrier between getting started and getting it right. Paste in a website URL and Chronicle pulls your fonts, colours, and logos instantly, populating the brand kit in a single step. Smart defaults handle the rest, reading the available light and dark colours to set sensible starting points, with your primary brand colour applied as the highlight.

For users that want more control, the customisation goes deeper. Typography settings, text case and spacing, extended colour palettes, refined slide themes, every detail can be adjusted to match a brand exactly.

Brand Kit was designed to remove the barrier between getting started and getting it right. Paste in a website URL and Chronicle pulls your fonts, colours, and logos instantly, populating the brand kit in a single step. Smart defaults handle the rest, reading the available light and dark colours to set sensible starting points, with your primary brand colour applied as the highlight.

For users that want more control, the customisation goes deeper. Typography settings, text case and spacing, extended colour palettes, refined slide themes, every detail can be adjusted to match a brand exactly.

Widgets and features

01

Charts

02

Image slider

03

Dynamic gradients

04

Tables

05

Metrics

Bringing data to decks for the first time, built in under a week.

Chronicle had limited data visualisation capability before Charts. Working alongside a developer, we built it using the AI-assisted workflow, the developer handling the base data layer while I built the component layer on top. The whole thing came together in under a week. It has since become one of the most impactful additions to the product, giving users a fast and flexible way to bring data into their decks without leaving Chronicle.

01

Charts

Bringing data to decks for the first time, built in under a week.

Chronicle had limited data visualisation capability before Charts. Working alongside a developer, we built it using the AI-assisted workflow, the developer handling the base data layer while I built the component layer on top. The whole thing came together in under a week. It has since become one of the most impactful additions to the product, giving users a fast and flexible way to bring data into their decks without leaving Chronicle.

02

Image Slider

03

Dynamic Gradient

04

Tables

05

Metrics

Widgets and features

An example presentation showcasing all the new widgets harmoniously together in a deck

Outcomes

When Brand Kit launched, the impact on how teams worked in Chronicle was immediate. Adoption was strong from the start, and the feedback from clients reflected how much the added control meant to them. For enterprise marketing teams who had previously been recreating their brand by hand across every deck, having a single place to define it and trust it to carry everywhere was a meaningful shift in how they used the product.

The expanded widget library added to that. Users were building richer, more dynamic decks, reaching for charts, tables, image sliders, and metrics in ways the product had not supported before. The combination of a stronger brand foundation and a broader set of widgets changed what Chronicle could do for its users in a tangible way.

With Brand Kit and the new widgets working together, Chronicle also became a more capable platform for Muse to build on. Every generated presentation could now draw from a richer set of components and a deeper understanding of the user's brand, making the AI output feel more considered and more useful.

Outcomes

When Brand Kit launched, the impact on how teams worked in Chronicle was immediate. Adoption was strong from the start, and the feedback from clients reflected how much the added control meant to them. For enterprise marketing teams who had previously been recreating their brand by hand across every deck, having a single place to define it and trust it to carry everywhere was a meaningful shift in how they used the product.

The expanded widget library added to that. Users were building richer, more dynamic decks, reaching for charts, tables, image sliders, and metrics in ways the product had not supported before. The combination of a stronger brand foundation and a broader set of widgets changed what Chronicle could do for its users in a tangible way.

With Brand Kit and the new widgets working together, Chronicle also became a more capable platform for Muse to build on. Every generated presentation could now draw from a richer set of components and a deeper understanding of the user's brand, making the AI output feel more considered and more useful.

Outcomes

When Brand Kit launched, the impact on how teams worked in Chronicle was immediate. Adoption was strong from the start, and the feedback from clients reflected how much the added control meant to them. For enterprise marketing teams who had previously been recreating their brand by hand across every deck, having a single place to define it and trust it to carry everywhere was a meaningful shift in how they used the product.

The expanded widget library added to that. Users were building richer, more dynamic decks, reaching for charts, tables, image sliders, and metrics in ways the product had not supported before. The combination of a stronger brand foundation and a broader set of widgets changed what Chronicle could do for its users in a tangible way.

With Brand Kit and the new widgets working together, Chronicle also became a more capable platform for Muse to build on. Every generated presentation could now draw from a richer set of components and a deeper understanding of the user's brand, making the AI output feel more considered and more useful.

Credits

Role

Lead Product Designer

Client

Chronicle

Year

2026

2026

Team

Praveen Kumar

Akshit Bhardwaj

Jordan Lee

Claire Taylor

© Elliot Midson 2026

37.2491S, 144.4532E

KYNETON, AUSTRALIA

© Elliot Midson 2026

37.2491S, 144.4532E

KYNETON, AUSTRALIA