Company
Role
Timeframe
Nected
Product Design
3 Months + Iterations
About
Nected is a low-code, no-code decision management app with core functionalities such as a rule engine, workflow management, experimentation engine, and AI tools. Its aim is to help customers empower non-tech teams, save time, and accelerate time to market.
I joined as a founding product designer when the product was in its early stages. I collaborated closely with the founders and laid the UX foundations of the rule engine. After launching and iterating on the rule engine with customer feedback, I later worked on the workflow manager and experimentation engine as well. I'll provide a brief overview of the rule engine and how it works. If you're curious about a specific aspect, please email me, and I'll be happy to go into depth on that too.
Process
After clearly understanding what to build through brainstorming sessions with the founders and team members, I followed a fail fast methodology to rapidly ship and test my designs.
- Stakeholder interviews and brainstorming sessions
- competitor analysis
- rapid prototyping (whiteboard/ paper) and then hifi wireframe
- UI, Design Review and implementation
- Iteration based on design partner feedback and microsoft clarity data
What is a Rule?
A rule is a set of predefined rules or conditions that automates decision-making processes. Nected evaluates incoming data against these rules and executes actions and provides recommendations accordingly.
- Integrate data source (create now or integrate existing)
- Add logical conditions and outputs
- test rule and publish
- Add actions based on output
- Call the rule via API
Rule Engine Overview
1. Connect Integration
Connect your database in Integrations tab. You can connect any DB (mysql, mongodb, google sheet etc) by authenticating using your credentials.
2. Create Dataset
After successfuly creating an integration. Select the same in the ‘create dataset’ dropdown and create a datasets using SQL query engine to attach data directly with rules. There’s also a no-code form available now to do the same.
3. Create Rule
Go to Rules tab and click on 'Create Rule' and select the type of rule you want to create.
4. Add Source to Rule
Add Input attributes(Variables with assigned data types) and map them to a primary key of the dataset.
5. Add Conditions and Result in Rule
To create a Simple Rule, add conditions on the Input attributes (mapped to your dataset) and add Output/ Actions to be executed if the condition is true.
Decision table and Ruleset
Nected has 2 more types of rules, Decision table and Rulesets.
- Decision Table can be used to create multiple rules, really fast, just like an excel table.
- Ruleset is call all rules in one set and get matching results as per different rule policies: First, Collect and Unique.
Workflow Manager
I also worked on Nected’s latest core feature, Workflow Manager. It's an alternative to Zapier, N8N, Retool and aims to provide unlimited flexibility in creating backend workflows.
Creating a Workflow - Add Trigger and Action
Define how the workflow will get triggered, currently there's only API trigger available. Then users can add actions (rules, database fetch) and also create branches, providing unlimited flexibility. Here's a sample flow:
Upcoming features
I also recently worked on Version control and Analytics dashboard which are currently in development and will be launching soon.
Competitor Analysis
As I didn’t find any direct competitor on wearable devices, so I reviewed popular exercise-for-reward related apps on iOS app store. Their strengths, weaknesses and USPs were analysed and relevant ideas were selected for our wearable app.
Testing
To measure the app's success metrics such as
1. Daily Active Users
2. No. of Daily Trip Logs
3. Task Success Rate
4. Time on Task
will be measured and further iterations will be made.
More Work
Apple Commute+
Gamifying Active Transport
Innovaccer
Redesigning Forms in InRef
.png)
