# TikTok · story widget

- **Industry:** social media
- **Status:** shipped
- **Team:** 1 PM, 1 SDE
- **Timeline:** Jul 2026 - Sep 2026

I redesigned TikTok's Stories widget and the flow that teaches people to add it.

## Problem

The widget already had real adoption among younger users, but it cropped stories with no context and
often failed to load. The goal was a widget that makes sense at a glance and works as a way back into
Stories.

## What I designed

The widget itself (small and medium, light and dark), a step-by-step tutorial for adding it with a
picture-in-picture guide video, and cold-start prompts between stories. The motion pieces were made
together with TikTok's creative team.

## Takeaway

A widget lives on someone's home screen, outside the app, so it has to earn that space every day:
design for adoption and long-term use together.

## More

- [All work](https://ruocanpeng.com/) · [About Stella](https://ruocanpeng.com/about) · [Contact](https://ruocanpeng.com/contact)