Dataset·July 9, 2026·2 min read

What professional design work looks like, step by step: 294 annotated Photoshop trajectories

An open dataset of 294 annotated steps across 14 computer-use trajectories, recorded as professional designers built real advertising and fashion-editorial assets in Adobe Photoshop and the browser.

Contra Labs
Contra Labs
July 9, 2026 · 2 min read

What does professional creative work actually look like, step by step? This sample dataset holds 294 annotated steps across 14 computer-use trajectories, recorded as working designers built real advertising and fashion-editorial assets in Adobe Photoshop and the browser.

We gave five designers from the Contra network a single creative brief each, a handheld-vacuum product launch, and recorded them carrying it through to multiple production-ready deliverables: an Instagram post, a vertical Story, a subway ad, a full-page print ad. The designers narrated their reasoning aloud as they worked, so every step's thought is transcribed from the expert's own voice.

Each step pairs a screenshot with a first-person thought, a structured action, and executable grounding: an Adobe Photoshop MCP tool call, a keyboard shortcut, a menu path, or a coordinate click, with a preferred execution path marking the most deterministic option. The format follows the AgentNet trajectory schema, extended with a Photoshop action taxonomy and multi-path execution. This structure makes the data directly usable in several training contexts:

  • Computer-use agent SFT: long-horizon, multi-application trajectories with screenshots, actions, and coordinates in a format interoperable with existing GUI-agent tooling.
  • Reasoning mid-training: pair screenshots with narration-grounded chain-of-thought to teach models how experts actually plan, act, and correct course mid-task.
  • Tool-use and function calling: every step carries a structured tool_call, so agents can learn to reach the same goal through an API instead of pixel clicks.
  • Benchmarking and evals: a human expert baseline for long-horizon creative workflows, executable end-to-end through the Photoshop MCP.

The dataset was recorded in 2026 on macOS and Windows. It is released under the CC BY 4.0 license on Hugging Face.

Continue reading3 studies
All research
  1. August 14, 2026Benchmark
    Claude models lead landing page design, but no model wins every design stageSix models built landing pages for three products across ideation, mockup, and refinement. Opus and Fable finished first and second overall, but a different model led each stage of the work.Read
  2. August 12, 2026Benchmark
    Ad videos: six models across ideation, mockup, and refinementThe Human Creativity Benchmark moves to video: six models, three client campaigns, three phases each, judged head to head by working creatives. Seedance 2.0 won the set, and no model held the product together once it started moving.Read
  3. August 7, 2026Research
    What stands between Opus 5 and client-ready pages: layout and readabilityNine designers annotated 20 landing pages one at a time, 738 notes in all. On Opus 5's pages the notes clustered in layout and readability, while brand fit and originality drew the fewest flags in the set.Read