UI Bakery Low-code platform
Role: Product Designer
Duration: 2019 - Present
Team: 15 people (3 PMs, 4 Engineers, 1 Designer, sales & support)
Domain: Web Application · SaaS · Low-code / Developer Tools · Internal Tools · B2B AI
Context
UI Bakery has evolved through multiple pivots - from a simple theme generator into a platform where users can build and customize applications with code-level control or by simply chatting with an AI Agent.
2019
Theme generator
Eva DS, Eva colors, Nebular (I also was a key designer on those products) dashboard theming tool.
2020
Website & app builder
No-code (with low-code elements) builder for apps & websites.
2022
Low-code platform for internal tools
Pivoted to a low-code platform for internal tools. This required a complete redesign of workflows, drag-and-drop UX, IDE experience, and integrations.
2024
Low-code platform with AI-powered low-code IDE
Same system, but with AI chat-based in-code debugger, documentation, and coding assistant. Check PH release.
2025
UI Bakery Agent for internal app generation
Shift towards an AI-powered app generator, again reshaping the product experience. Check PH release.
By 2024, UI Bakery grew to $1M+ ARR company without external funding, with hundreds of SMB & enterprise clients and thousands of DAU.
As a solo Product Designer, I handled everything from research to final UI - making UI Bakery more consistent, developer-friendly, and enterprise-ready.
Challenges
At UI Bakery, I faced several interconnected challenges over 7+ years as the only designer:
Product–market fit pivots
The product radically shifted 3 times: theme generator → no-code builder → low-code internal apps → AI app generator.
I joined PMF workshops and translated strategic outcomes into UX flows, prototypes, and redesigns.
Solo design role
No design team to share the workload.
Single-handedly managed the entire process end-to-end: research, discovery, prototyping, testing, and delivery.
Had to move quickly while ensuring consistent quality across the product.
Redesigning end-to-end experiences
Each pivot required radical changes in onboarding, workflows, developer-facing IDE patterns, and sometimes design systems.
Competing with larger players
The market included Retool, Appsmith, Appian, and more recently, Lovable, Cursor, Bolt.new, Replit and v0.
Users & Flow
UI Bakery was adopted by a wide range of teams - from startups to large enterprises such as Grant Thornton, Rhenus Logistics, Frontex, etc.
Across all segments, key needs were consistent:
Developers / Makers
Expected a code-native environment - VS Code-like precision, structure, and speed.
Needed visual clarity and transparent data-to-UI mapping.
Wanted flexibility and fast iteration - the ability to prototype logic visually without engineers.
Decision-makers
Focused on reducing delivery time (up to 10× faster).
Wanted to minimize team dependency (no extra QA, design, or frontend resources).
Enterprise teams
Required scalable structure, roles, and environment control for collaboration.
The new flow combined all use cases into one ecosystem covering app creation and lifecycle.
Solutions
What was done and what benefits were achieved for each solution:
Drag-and-drop Builder
Designed the builder for faster, clearer layout creation - refining grid behavior, simplifying logic, and adding a structured sidebar.
👉 Users started building functional interfaces within minutes, with a much lower learning curve and smoother first-time experience. The new grid system (inspired by CSS Grid and React Grid Layout) doubled the time-to-first-value.
Theming & Design Systems
Created UX/UI flow for a scalable design system and theming framework that allowed users to adjust design parameters in real time on their live apps.
👉 Users could switch themes within seconds without needing any custom development.
Low-code IDE & Developer Experience
Built a code-native UX inside the IDE, so that users could create business logic and connect data to components in their apps. It has consistent layout, syntax highlighting, variable binding, workflow creation, and automation setup.
👉 Strong developer feedback on professional and smooth feel after the latest redesign in Spring 2025.
Internal Database and Data Source library
Designed a native, Supabase-style database that lets users create and edit tables visually - no SQL needed. Also designed the Data Source library and smooth connection flow for integrating external databases and APIs.
👉 Became one of the core features, used by nearly all enterprise customers. Since release, no requests for redesigns or improvements - only consistently positive feedback.
Organization
Built multi-project structure from scratch - roles, permissions, environments, onboarding.
👉 The last redesign in early 2025 received highly positive user feedback and noticeably improved overall usability. Onboarding conversion increased by 2 - 4% with each new iteration.
AI Assistant
Chat-based in-code debugger, documentation, and coding assistant.
👉 Received consistently positive user feedback and was highlighted as one of the coolest features on the platform.
UI Bakery Agent
The latest pivot introduced an AI Agent that builds internal apps from a single prompt - generating UI, workflows, and data models automatically. I designed the entire AI experience - from app creation and debugging to motion-based feedback.
👉 Latest pivot brings massively accelerated conversion (>10×).
Research, Discovery & Validation
Since the project lasted many years and had many internal apps and parts, I used a multi-layer research and testing process:
Continuous feedback & metrics
Collected insights via support, AMs, and in-product analytics to spot user pain points early.
User research & testing
Ran surveys, CustDevs, and usability tests (corridor, A/B) to validate design decisions.
Behavioral analysis
Used FullStory & PostHog to review sessions and map friction–energy patterns.
Impact
Recognized externally for design excellence:
“UI Bakery stands out for design-conscious teams that prioritize custom-branded, visually polished applications.”
Perplexity, 2025
Business outcomes
Reached $1M+ ARR without external funding (according opened info from 2024 and growing).
Achieved higher activation in AI Agent vs traditional low-code builder.
Adopted by thousands of SMB and enterprise clients globally.
Up to x15 faster time-to-release with the low-code platform.
Average 2-minute app generation via AI Agent.
Reduced the number of people required for a project by an average of 3 times.
High funnel retention post-activation.
(Accurate numbers are under NDA)
Design leadership impact
Led end-to-end product design across all directions: IDE, Builder, Theming, Database, Organization, and AI Agent.
Scaled 2 unified design systems, reducing design debt by ~25% and doubling iteration speed across teams.
Maintained strong UX satisfaction — ease-of-use and clarity ~81–84%.
Unified design system improved perceived maturity and visual consistency.
Achieved measurable design gains: +16% visual modernity with last redesign in 2025 before AI release.
Onboarding conversion grew per iteration, supported by improved flow predictability.
Solo-led multiple pivots, +10 Product Hunt launches, and enterprise releases.
Results, Reflections and Takeaways
Led end-to-end design for an AI-powered low-code IDE, growing from internal prototype to $1M+ ARR SaaS used by thousands enterprise teams - as the sole designer.
Working through constant pivots and developer-driven workflows pushed me to become faster, sharper, and more systematic.
I learned to stay flexible and seek early feedback from users, teammates, and metrics as the main source of truth.
Over time, I realized that simple, “good-enough” MVPs often bring more real value than polished but overdesigned ideas - because true insight appears only through use. This experience strengthened my product thinking: clear, functional design drives both impact and revenue, while lasting quality comes from continuous iteration, not perfection.