Senal Wijeratne
Quick links
Appspotr is a no-code mobile app development platform that empowers users to effortlessly create and customize iOS and Android apps. Tailored for individuals and businesses without extensive coding knowledge, Appspotr offers pre-designed templates and easy customization options, enabling users to design and build mobile applications without traditional programming skills.
📝 Note: To comply with confidentiality clauses in my agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated sensitive and confidential information from this case study.
Designing UIs was quite simple with Appspotr’s drag & drop UI builder. However, users faced the complexity of needing to utilize Appspotr’s custom syntax when accessing dynamic data(from databases, APIs, App Users, etc.) hindering the seamless design process.
Internally at Appspotr we called this “$ syntax code”, users had to understand how this code works and write out the syntax manually
In summary our goal with this project was to:
Enhance the user experience of accessing dynamic data by introducing an intuitive, visual interface that eliminates the roadblocks for users when accessing dynamic data on App UIs.
Appspotr was in a unique position, it had it’s own app development service called Appspotr Studio. This meant that we had two main audiences for this project.
I led design efforts in this project as Appspotr’s Design Team Lead, collaborating with two other designers.
My responsibilities encompassed conducting user research, concept design, final design, and overseeing implementation together with our development team.
We conducted multiple rounds of research with internal and external users, we aimed to pinpoint areas offering the highest value.
Since we had relatively easy access to Appspotr’s users, we conducted some user interviews to understand the challenges users faced. What we discovered could be categorized into the below 3 areas:
Developing concept designs, we identified that the core issue; the need to display available options, provide descriptions, and offer examples, was a common problem many products face.
With this revelation, we were able to draw inspiration from successful solutions in other products:
Formula builder from Google Sheets
Autocomplete in VS Code
Query builder from Insomnia
With the above design research, we were able to develop the below as our first concept design. Some points of interest in this concept are highlighted below:
With this solution, users were able to use the syntax builder to click through the available options and access the data they need in applicable UI components
With the concept design we conducted a technical feasibility study, we were informed we only needed minor changes for a seamless integration into the existing system.
With further feedback from users and our QA team, some final tweaks were done to the design:
Reordered the syntax structure
Separated data and data manipulation
Added data & function types to the tags
Removed syntax preview and unsupported legacy functions
With these changes we were able to finalized the design for this feature. Below are some screen shots from different UI scenarios
Accessing the variable “name” from UI Inputs
Translating the Input variable “homeTitle” using the translate function
Formatting the Input variable “dob” into “DD-MM-YY” format using the date function
Dropdown option UI states:
Once the design if finalized and handed over, I oversaw the implementation with the development team, and collaborated with QA to ensure a flawless implementation.
Our post-launch user tests validated and confirmed a successful launch. The feature achieved high adoption rates and received positive feedback.
Looking ahead we wanted to improve this feature further and add some learning resources around it. Some ideas we added on to our our roadmap include:
This project not only addressed a crucial challenge for users but set the stage for continuous improvement, reinforcing Appspotr's commitment to user-centric design and innovation.