Company: Apptile
Role: Product Designer (Redesign Owner)
Team: CPO, Senior Developer, Associate Designer

Context: UX Debt Was Blocking Monetization

Apptile lets brands build mobile apps without code—using modular, customizable blocks we call tiles (think Shopify blocks for mobile).

To edit each tile, users interacted with a right-hand configuration panel. Over time, this panel became the single biggest source of friction and delay in app creation:

• Blank panels caused confusion when no tile was selected.

• Mandatory fields prevented publishing until fixed, often without clear guidance.

• Inconsistent controls meant switching tools or relying on developers.

• This slowed down go-lives and impacted monetization timelines.

Our design team set out to unblock this flow, improve self-serve usability, and cut app creation time in half.

Problems We Identified

My Approach

1. Refactored List View Controls

• Introduced Shopify-based autofill to pre-populate key content fields.

• This eliminated blank state errors and reduced customization steps by 60%.

2. Eliminated Mandatory Field Friction

• Negotiated logic changes with the CTO to allow fallback values.

• Enabled tiles to render even when fields were left untouched—creating a smoother WYSIWYG experience.

3. Redesigned the Panel Structure: A Modular, Scalable System

We introduced a three-tab model for every tile:

• Basics – Key setup fields (like product, collection, offer selection).

• Settings – Toggles and advanced configuration.

• Style – Consistent styling properties across all tiles.

This brought clarity, predictability, and a shared mental model across 100+ tiles.

4. Created a Scalable Rollout Plan

• Audited 100+ live tiles and mapped old vs new control systems using Google Sheets.

• Older tiles gracefully degraded—new tabs were hidden until migrated, ensuring zero breakage.

5. Internal Component Standardization

• Partnered with internal design team to merge redundant controls.

• Built a mini component library that replaced 90% of legacy editor use.

• This unlocked faster onboarding and build speed for new team members.

Outcomes