Aitend: Website & Platform
Aitend is a global platform for sales agents, service, and support based on Artificial Intelligence. I've joined the Aitend founding team as a Sr. Product Designer to help them leverage designs for their website, platform and create a scalable Design System.
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The Ask
I was invited to become a Senior Product Designer on Aitend's founding team, tasked with contributing to the development of their digital user experience. In my role as the sole designer, my primary objective was to grasp the product's objectives and establish the brand's identity for clients who were newly introduced to the company. It was crucial to ensure that the website and platform were not only professional and ready for scalability but also following the highest standards of design excellence.
Project Overview
What defined success to my UX Work
Exploring AI-Driven UX
As a AI-driven company, my mission is to ensure my design practices were also AI informed. AI became my ally in user research by automating data analysis and user feedback processing, enabling quicker insights into user behaviors and preferences. During the prototyping phase, AI assists in generating realistic, context-aware content and scenarios, allowing for more comprehensive testing.
Establishing the Design Vision
Establishing an early design vision sets the tone for the entire product development process and ensures a consistent user experience across the board. With a clear Design Vision, I could align everyone's efforts, from developers to stakeholders, towards a common goal. It helps me communicate the importance of user-centered design and sets the standard for quality.
Collaboration
Collaboration with the stakeholders and developers in our founding team was absolutely essential for producing exceptional outcomes. It ensured that my design decisions were aligned with the company's overarching goals and vision. It fostered a sense of ownership and shared responsibility, making everyone invested in the success of the product.
Website Design | Desktop
The Process
My initial job was to make the website, which was really important for getting partners, clients, and helping our own team. With my experience in user design, I've developed a method to understand what clients and partners want so we can make the best product. In this website design, I've applied this process to deliver the complete designs in time-record (which was crucial for the Aitend team).
- Understanding the audience: During my discussions with the stakeholders, it became evident that our main focus should be on designing for desktop, even though the world was leaning towards mobile-first approaches. Our audience typically discovered the brand on mobile but preferred to make purchases on desktop since the mobile platform wouldn't be available initially.
- The CMO and I agreed on a content structure that best met the user's needs. Our primary goal was to inform users about the company's services, showcase a few examples of what users could achieve with Aitend, and guide them on how to create a free account.
- Establishing a design vision was critical to helped position Aitend in the market in contrast to other competitors who often appeared less serious and more playful.
Website Design | Mobile
Crafting an Engaging Experience
After approving and implementing the desktop designs, I started crafting a unique mobile experience. I knew that this experience needed to be remarkable in a very mobile-driven world. We thought about our audience in that moment: we knew that users would visit our home and pricing pages using their phones, but they usually don't purchase in a mobile browser. So, we decided to make these pages really easy to use on mobile devices: very simple and very clean. We also thought about situations where someone might start creating an account on their phone but then finish it on their computer. We want to make that process smooth and simple too. Our goal is to provide a great experience for our users, no matter how they use our website.
The scalability issue
Discussions around Design System
I chose to initiate an early design system discussion with the founding team, developers, and stakeholders, despite being the sole Product Designer, because I recognized the immense long-term benefits it could bring. Establishing a Design System (or starting one) from the outset allowed us to prepare for future scalability and fostered consistency in our product's user experience. By having a shared library of design components and guidelines, we not only ensured a cohesive and efficient design process but also laid the foundation for reusing components across the platform. This not only saved time but also enhanced the overall user experience by maintaining a uniform look and feel as our product grew.
Product Redesign
Creating an Experience on Figma
When I joined the team, the founders had already created and put most of the screens into action. After getting a handle on how users would interact with the product and mapping out the ideal user paths, I suggested giving the design a makeover using the latest elements we had used on the website.
The first step involved planning out how users would navigate the product and organizing the platform's structure, which are common but important things in user experience. Then, I went through the existing designs carefully. During this review, I noticed that certain elements like icons and colors didn't fit with the new designs. I wanted to make sure the designs met AODA standards and were clear and straightforward. You can get a sneak peek of the results below:
What is next?
As I continue to be a crucial piece in Aitend's founding team, I'm proud to say that our research work with users has just began. As the company grows, I hope to continue developing our Design System, establish a user-centric culture and a research plan. We aim to be the most used player in the AI-based assistants market. As a leader in the project and in this company, my mission is to continue to grow the team, the design vision and our relationship with users.
