Magic Eraser - Making of an AI Tool

Team

1 PM, 1 Engineer, 1 Designer, 1 ML Engineer

Tools

Figma, Jitter, Adobe

Platform

iOS, Android, Web

Year

2022-2025

My Role

Sole Product Designer

The first product I ever designed. One tool, one job, remove anything from any photo in under 60 seconds. On three platforms. I joined Magic Studio in 2021 as its founding designer. No prior product, design system or visual language. Just a technical team with an ML in-painting model, and me, figuring out what that should feel like for someone who'd never edited a photo before. Four years later, that one browser page had become a three-platform product: web, iOS, and Android. Still designed by one person.

Scope of Work

0-1 Product Design
UX Research
Interaction Design
AI UX Patterns
AI Tools
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Psychology

Starting Point

ML model: In-painting over user-selected regions
Target user: Non-designer. Zero editing background
Success bar: First result under 60 seconds from landing
Precedent: None. No AI photo eraser existed in 2021

View Live Site

The Problem

Why couldn't anyone just… remove it?

The problem was universal. But every existing solution required expert knowledge, time, or both. The gap between "I want to remove this" and "I successfully removed this" was enormous, and no consumer product had closed it in 2021.

The small business seller:

Listing on Etsy, Shopify, Amazon. Needs clean product shots fast. Can't afford a retoucher for every item.

The everyday user

Perfect photo except for one thing. Doesn't know Photoshop exists. Shouldn't need to.

The daily content creator:

Posts constantly. A stray object ruins the shot. No time for a learning curve.

The professional short on time

Knows the tools. Doesn't always have 20 minutes. Needs one step, not ten.

The small business seller:

Listing on Etsy, Shopify, Amazon. Needs clean product shots fast. Can't afford a retoucher for every item.

The everyday user

Perfect photo except for one thing. Doesn't know Photoshop exists. Shouldn't need to.

The daily content creator:

Posts constantly. A stray object ruins the shot. No time for a learning curve.

The professional short on time

Knows the tools. Doesn't always have 20 minutes. Needs one step, not ten.

Design Process

What did we actually research and what broke us out of the obvious?

I audited 12+ tools hands-on: Snapseed, VSCO, Adobe Express, Photoshop, remove.bg, Canva, PicsArt, Lightroom. Four areas defined my research: object selection, undo/redo logic, AI latency handling, and the result moment. None got all four right.

  • Photoroom

  • Adobe Lighroom

  • Canva

  • Remini

  • Bazaart

  • VSCO

  • PicsArt

  • Remove.bg

  • Instagram

Constrains #1

Early model limitations meant the first erase often returned fragments of surrounding objects, wrong enough to frustrate, not obvious enough to explain.

User patience is zero, so we designed the re-erase loop: paint over the bad fill, erase again, and the model returns a clean result. A constraint became the product's most distinctive interaction pattern.

The first web version

Some of the first wireframes for App

Platform Architecture

Why does the same tool need three completely different designs?

Web, iOS, and Android aren't three versions of the same design. They're three products with different interaction models, performance constraints, failure modes, and user expectations.

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Images Edited

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Mobile App Users

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Mobile App Users

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Revenue Generated

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Tools Followed

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Tools Followed

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App Store Rating

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App Store Rating

Customer Voice

What did users actually say?

App Store and Play Store reviews are a real-time usability study at scale. Positive reviews validate decisions. Critical ones show what to fix. Both matter.

“Genuinely the fastest way to clean up a photo. Used it for every product listing this month.”

Priya MTeam lead

“The re-erase trick is a game changer. Recommending this to every photographer I know.”

@designstuff.coDesigner

“Best eraser app on Android. Simple, fast. Even my mum can use it.”

Sarah K.CEO

“An incredible experience from start to finish. The attention to detail is remarkable throughout.”

David L.Designer

“My brain is breaking 🤯 I use the Adobe suite, but know a lot of people at startups/independent companies who are short on cash who could use this.”

Matthew RitchieContent Manager

“Wow! It removes things so smoothly, I can't even imagine pictures in my mind better than it looks after using the magic eraser. Interface & interaction is intuitive. I checked that it is also possible to remove mountains and people from heterogeneous natural background. Good job!”

Andrew LitkovskyiTeam lead

“This is ridiculously good. The detail is incredible and couldn’t be easier to use.”

Logan RileyManager

“I just took this for a spin and it's wild how good it is! I think it's very practical if you need to remove a couple annoying things from a photo quickly. ”

Austin DrabikEditor

“For someone who once tried to learn Photoshop this is so great.”

Santeri SCyber Security

“Excellent landing page. Big fan of simply showing > telling.”

Ryan HooverFounder

“Genuinely the fastest way to clean up a photo. Used it for every product listing this month.”

Priya MTeam lead

“The re-erase trick is a game changer. Recommending this to every photographer I know.”

@designstuff.coDesigner

“Best eraser app on Android. Simple, fast. Even my mum can use it.”

Sarah K.CEO

“An incredible experience from start to finish. The attention to detail is remarkable throughout.”

David L.Designer

“My brain is breaking 🤯 I use the Adobe suite, but know a lot of people at startups/independent companies who are short on cash who could use this.”

Matthew RitchieContent Manager

“Wow! It removes things so smoothly, I can't even imagine pictures in my mind better than it looks after using the magic eraser. Interface & interaction is intuitive. I checked that it is also possible to remove mountains and people from heterogeneous natural background. Good job!”

Andrew LitkovskyiTeam lead

“This is ridiculously good. The detail is incredible and couldn’t be easier to use.”

Logan RileyManager

“I just took this for a spin and it's wild how good it is! I think it's very practical if you need to remove a couple annoying things from a photo quickly. ”

Austin DrabikEditor

“For someone who once tried to learn Photoshop this is so great.”

Santeri SCyber Security

“Excellent landing page. Big fan of simply showing > telling.”

Ryan HooverFounder

“Genuinely the fastest way to clean up a photo. Used it for every product listing this month.”

Priya MTeam lead

“The re-erase trick is a game changer. Recommending this to every photographer I know.”

@designstuff.coDesigner

“Best eraser app on Android. Simple, fast. Even my mum can use it.”

Sarah K.CEO

“An incredible experience from start to finish. The attention to detail is remarkable throughout.”

David L.Designer

“My brain is breaking 🤯 I use the Adobe suite, but know a lot of people at startups/independent companies who are short on cash who could use this.”

Matthew RitchieContent Manager

“Wow! It removes things so smoothly, I can't even imagine pictures in my mind better than it looks after using the magic eraser. Interface & interaction is intuitive. I checked that it is also possible to remove mountains and people from heterogeneous natural background. Good job!”

Andrew LitkovskyiTeam lead

“This is ridiculously good. The detail is incredible and couldn’t be easier to use.”

Logan RileyManager

“I just took this for a spin and it's wild how good it is! I think it's very practical if you need to remove a couple annoying things from a photo quickly. ”

Austin DrabikEditor

“For someone who once tried to learn Photoshop this is so great.”

Santeri SCyber Security

“Excellent landing page. Big fan of simply showing > telling.”

Ryan HooverFounder

Self Audit

What would I change if I started today?

App Store and Play Store reviews are a real-time usability study at scale. Positive reviews validate decisions. Critical ones show what to fix. Both matter.

What I carried Forward

What would I change if I started today?

App Store and Play Store reviews are a real-time usability study at scale. Positive reviews validate decisions. Critical ones show what to fix. Both matter.

2026

How I'd do it differently in 2026

The same 5-phase process but the time between question and answer has fundamentally changed.