About App Portal
Keka App portal is a new development platform that will enable users to build integrations using the Keka APIs and Webhooks. Users can create, test and publish their apps to the Keka Marketplace gaining higher visibility for their offerings. Also build "private" apps that can be used within their own organization for enabling their desired workflows and processes.
How it started?
"Keka Secures India’s Largest Series A SaaS funding with $57 Million from WestBridge Capital"
By 2023, Keka had grown exponentially, serving over 8000+ customers and 150+ partners. However, a key challenge emerged—meeting the integration needs of these customers and partners. At the time, Keka didn’t have a dedicated team or POD to address these requirements. Recognizing this gap, the business saw a huge opportunity to unlock an additional ~ $2M in ARR by solving these integration challenges. This realization set the stage for building a strong integrations team.
Joining Keka in 2023 as a Product Designer in the Marketplace and Integrations POD came at the perfect time, just as Keka achieved India’s largest Series A SaaS funding. It was an exciting opportunity to be part of a transformative journey.
What did I do?
Timeline
Initial discussions
In my first discussion with the Product team, we talked about the problem we were solving, who the users are, and the product's vision and strategy. It felt a bit overwhelming 🤯 but also very interesting. The product was highly technical, and I needed to understand how different systems connect and how data is shared between them. It was a challenging start, but it made the work even more exciting.
The Problem 😕
"App portal will be used by different personas across varying roles in businesses, healthcare, education, IT, and more. Our users include partners, customers, and keka's internal teams."
We had a couple of discussions with a variety of partners and customers multiple partners and customers to better understand the challenges they face. These conversations gave us valuable insights into their pain points, workflows, and expectations, helping us identify areas where we can improve and create more seamless, impactful solutions for their needs.
What we found on
High level 🔎
Partners
We have more than 150+ partners who provides different services such as Product integration, Implementation, and Re-sellers. Through our discussions with the partners, we have got an interesting insights into their challenges. Here’s an overview of the key issues they are facing.
Customers
With over 6,500 active customers, from small businesses to large enterprises. We had a chance to connect with couple of customers and gained valuable insights from our discussions with them. Here are the challenges they're currently facing.
Defining the challenge
and exploring ideas💡
Analysing...
Based on an analysis of competitor products and multiple internal brainstorming and whiteboard sessions with the Product and Development teams, I’ve come up with the initial iterations to gather feedback from users, internal teams, and leadership.
To begin, we analysed several competitors to see how they approached this problem and identified key insights to help us design a better user experience.
Approach 01
What didn’t work
Solution seems like the focus is more on listing rather than creating an app. Combining App configuration (Technical details) with listing details is not scalable as configurations require detailed setups, and these complexities are likely to increase over time.
The solution might not be scalable as there would be multiple workspaces where user would be installing and testing an app in their workspaces.
Users have no clear way to review or verify the data they enter, leading to uncertainty and potential errors.
Approach 02
What didn’t work
Although the approach seems good however, Allocate more space for configuration details as they are more important for user interaction and reduce the space of the header component, as it has minimal functionality.
The listing experience is confusing, making it harder to use. Simplifying the structure and interactions can make it easier to navigate and understand, reducing effort for users.
App manifest should not be included in the configuration as it is an independent feature that allows users to upload the written code containing all the app details.
Simplify the app status component by showing only the current stage, with an option to view all stages. Additionally, need to work on UX copy to make it clearer and more concise to the user.
A homepage designed for partners and customers
Designed a personalised homepage for partners and customers, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience tailored to their needs.
Seamless app creation tailored for Keka users
Create apps with ease through simple, step-by-step guidance. The process ensures clarity and a seamless experience from start to finish providing more flexibility.
Simplifying the App configuration
Configure your app with ease using intuitive tools and clear guidance, ensuring a seamless experience from start to finish.
Different states of app status
Displaying all use cases during app creation, allowing users to easily track and understand the app's current status.
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App listing details experience for Keka users
Simple and seamless experience for adding the app listing details which will be displayed to the Keka customers on Keka marketplace.
After multiple approaches and feedback from the leadership, and internal stakeholders. We have finally went ahead with this approach. We conducted user testing sessions with partners to evaluate the product's usability, ensuring that the experience is both seamless and simple.
App listing details section components
The design goal is to make each section seamless, enabling users to easily complete the app listing details. The section menu features different states for clarity, while the technical design section captures the app's tech stack.
Snippets of a user testing session with one of our partner
We had a usability testing session with partner called "Kredo AI" and received good amount of insights from the session.
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Metrics
Sharing the Impact
Finally, after over a year of hard work and countless brainstorming sessions, our product is live! I am excited to see strong traction, with meaningful impact on our business, customers, and partners.
Learnings
Thanks for watching 😀
🫣 how I designed Homepage experience
