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# User Test: Loren (2026-04-07)

## Context

I tried to create a movie entirely in Hypnograph for the first time, in a Hypnograph sort of way of randomly selecting clips for each Composition in the Sequence until I found a composition that followed well for some reason from the last.

## What went well

I generally build up a sequence of 90+ clips to compose a movie. I was able to get a sequence that had a real impact on me as I played a soundtrack from Spotify as the clips played through. It felt focused and like I was usually thinking about what next, more than thinking back to what was or churning / re-visiting previous edits.

## Takeaways

* Cycling random options for next-clip is awkward right now because it requires repeatedly reselecting layer 1 and pressing period
* Composition vs layer Effect Chain targeting is confusing: it is too easy to accidentally apply effects to layer 1 when intending to apply them at the composition level
* Need the ability to insert a composition mid-history without replacing an existing one
* Need a sequence/playback setting for what happens at the end of a sequence: stop, loop, or keep auto-generating new compositions
* Post-sequences priority: support recomposing clips with transforms such as resize, crop, zoom, and per-layer canvas positioning, possibly also at the composition level
* Need a simple fade-to-black or gap option, even if initially implemented as inserting a black-frame composition
* Timeline editing is still awkward: no playhead, no scrubbing, and needing to replay from the beginning to evaluate timing changes
* Current sequence model cannot easily support overlapping clips the way a conventional nonlinear editor timeline can; acceptable for now, but a future limitation
* Sequence-level Effect Chain is probably going to be wanted
* Composition and/or layer-level volume settings
* Glitchy transitions, likely threading problems around new snapshot generation
* Possibly unnecessary playback resets for simple operations like layer visibility toggles
* Would be nice to have transition not apply when jumping back to the beginning of a composition while authoring
* Really wish I had a sequence-level way to set an audio track
* Happy validating discovery: copying the history file out as a hypnogram file and reopening it worked, effectively turning history