SYNOPSIS
I led a rapid development of two user-friendly, low-code company apps in under a month for customers and designers to collaborate on their projects via a shared user interface.
JUMP TO:
PROJECT OVERVIEW | MOBILE CUSTOMER APP | DESKTOP DESIGNER APP | RESULTS
BACKGROUND
roomLift is an interior e-design company that had multiple apps for storing company (and customer) data. This made it confusing for purchasing customers to know where to upload photos and ask questions, and for designers to find their customers’ data.
We wanted to create a sleek, simple way for customers and designers to share their data back and forth.
Executive leadership wanted to keep costs down by developing a no-code app with the in-house team within 2-3 months.
APP FUNCTIONALITIES
I used Glide to create a mobile customer app (powered by Airtable) where purchasing customers could:
Create a user profile
Upload their photos
Take a questionnaire
View or edit their previous order history
Access our help center
I also created a sister desktop app for the roomLift team where:
Interior designers can see their customer data and contact them
Admins can see and edit all data - and assign designers their specific customer orders
Designers have access to our team onboarding documentation and other apps
RESPONSIBILITIES
As the project manager, I was directly responsible for:
Learning the capabilities of the Glide software
Designing the UX and UI
Connecting the app to the following systems via Zapier and API integrations:
Airtable (the powerhouse of the app)
Shopify (customer purchases)
Typeform (questionnaires)
Asana (project management)
Floorplanner (e-design room planner)
Drive (order data)
STEP 1: DOCUMENT THE SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE
We had so many interconnected applications, so it was essential to understand if a Glide app could fit with our current system. In fact, it simplified it by allowing us to cut several systems out (no more Dropbox for uploading photos or Google Forms for questionnaires - or our admins chasing down customer data on every app they upload on).
STEP 2: EXPERIMENT WITH GLIDE
I utilized the community of the Glide forums - and the oversight of my mentor - to find a template app that matched what we were looking for, and to begin building my first app in the Glide interface.
Since this was in 2022, there was no AI to assist us - we had to make it on our own. Nowadays, we could do projects like this even faster with AI assistance - potentially within a week or two, depending on scope.
MOBILE CUSTOMER APP
Within a month, I designed a system so that when a customer ordered on our Shopify website, Zapier sent the info to Airtable (which was the database for the Glide app) and powered the customer’s access to:
User profile (with their name and email pre-populated)
Upload photos directly to the app
Take questionnaire about their project
Access their unique order, photo and questionnaire history
Access our blogs and help center
DESKTOP DESIGNER APP
I also created a sister app for the roomLift team (interior designers and admin), which enabled:
Admin to assign designers their customer order info
Access photos and quiz history
Contact customers directly
Access toolbar of design resources
Access designer onboarding materials
EXCEEDING GOALS
The app was completed in one month, a month before the team’s deadline.
The team saved costs by having the apps created in-house.
The customer app has been used by 250+ customers to securely control and upload their data for design projects, and 20+ designers to access their customer’s info in the designer app.
