Alloy

Intro

Alloy Automation (YC W20) is an e-commerce automation tool. While I cannot publish the details of the app, I can say that I defined brand guidelines, worked on core features, and redesigned all the landing pages. Below are some of the user flows I designed and got to see implemented.

Problem: Users are encouraged to share the recipes they created to the public, but doing so requires too much time and effort.‍

Solution: I re-designed the flow making recipe-sharing much easier. Improvements to the old flow include: previews so that users can visualize exactly what the information they input will be used for, better page hierarchy, and a faster input process.

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Problem: Alloy is a powerful tool with many capabilities, and can be overwhelming to new users.

Solution: I designed a tutorial that walks users through making their first recipe. It also introduces users to Alloy-specific terminology, including action blocks, triggers, etc.

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Problem: Recipes can become complex, involving while loops, if conditions and multi-step actions. Command-Z could bring users several steps back, but some users wanted to refer back to the recipe they made days ago.

Solution: I designed version control to allow users to save backups whenever they wanted to and enable auto-saving.

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Problem: Users want to see trends regarding their businesses.

Solution: With the user's permission, Alloy can collect data on its user's businesses. I designed a flow that allows users to choose which metrics they want to see, graph them, and analyze trends.

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Problem: Sometimes, a user might want to see not just one value graphed versus time, but a mathematical formula graphed versus time.

Solution: I developed the metric builder for users who want to create and save their own formulas specific to their business. The user could combine data and mathematical operations to create their own equations.

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Outcome

I gained domain knowledge in web based automation by shipping end-to-end features for various parts of the stack. One of my favorite features was the onboarding flow. I felt that such an experience was appropriate due to the app's technical complexities and that Alloy users shared the same desire: to automate their tedious workflows. As a result, this helped save time on giving customers demos, because more customers were able to start using Alloy on their own.