Reinvent the Filtering Page

Expand Use Cases and Drive Expansion

Unito is a powerful workflow solution that links users’ favorite work apps and tools. What sets Unito apart is its unique blend of user-friendly design, deep integration capabilities, and two-way synchronization.

My Role

User research, UX design, and Product Design

Team

Graham Mann, Product Manager
With Unito

Timeline

Aug 2024 – Dec 2024

The Flow Builder: Unito's Core Journey

Unito is a powerful workflow solution that links users’ favorite work apps and tools, syncing information bi-directionally. This concept is visually translated as the Flow Builder, the main interface for setting up and managing syncs.

From Insight to Implementation: Our Approach

1. Understand The Needs (Jul 2025)

→ Identify gaps through quantitative, qualitative, and internal audits
→ Analyze how existing filtering options limit user workflows

2. Diverge and Explore

→ Revisit past explorations for learnings
→ Generate new ideas and concepts
→ Gather stakeholder feedback to align vision

3. Converge and Test

→ Refine solutions into a testable prototype
→ Run user tests to validate UX and tech feasibility
→ Align on a technical approach and iterate

4. Implement and Evaluate

→ Support development of v1
→ Conduct QA
→ Measure impact and prepare next iterations

What Exactly Were We Looking At?

Limited Functionality

Users were restricted by binary conditions, preventing them from fine-tuning filters.

Lack of Clarity

The UI didn’t clearly communicate what users were expected to do.

No Predictability

Users couldn’t accurately anticipate what items would be included or excluded from sync.

Sources of information:
→ Pricing survey
→ Customer conversation analysis
→ Feedback loops with customer-facing teams
→ Previous research insights

The objective was clear: How can we unlock more use cases and improve usability to increase both activation and conversion rates?

More Operators = More Use Cases

Scaling filtering was made easier by our flexible logic: [Field] [Operator] [Value(s)]

Methods

→ Functional Benchmark
→ Work session (PM + Design): List the required operators
→ Work session (PM + Design): Review customers’ scenarios to check that the cases would be covered
→ Weekly trifecta (PM + Dev + Design)

Deliverables

Matrix: Operators available per data types (string, rich text, URL, enum, number, date)
Matrix: IPS fields + visual components from the design systems
Functional specification per field type
Adapt the components in the design systems

More Operators = We Need to Review It All

Unito’s UI may appear simple, but beneath the surface, it operates like an iceberg—with most of the complexity hidden underneath. The intricacies of bidirectional synchronization lie at the heart of this system, making any design change a high-stakes challenge.

The Three Environments of Any Sync Operation

Because Unito is a third-party integration tool, every design problem must consider three distinct environments:

The source environment (where data originates)
The destination environment (where data is synced)
Unito as the middleman (governing the sync behavior between them)

This results in three fundamental sync mechanisms that must be accounted for:

Start Syncing (Filter In): What determines when an item enters synchronization?
Automation: What conditions must remain true for an item to keep syncing?
Stop Syncing (Filter Out): What conditions remove an item from synchronization?

Let’s look at how implementing new operators impacts those sync mechanisms?

Findings

Troubleshooting need

Users seek more human-readable errors and detailed troubleshooting content to reduce dependence on customer support.

Syncing activity overview's limitations

While the syncing activity overview is essential for confirming data synchronization post-flow creation, users don't view it as the optimal tool for troubleshooting.

Monitoring tools overlaps and inconsistencies

While monitoring or troubleshooting, users may encounter similar information using different tools or features, potentially leading to conflicting or contradictory data.

Better fit with users' mental models

When users encounter errors in their tools, they instinctively turn to Unito for answers. However, the app did not provide information tailored to our users' mental models.

Lack of predictability

Users misinterpret default behaviors as errors due to the Unito app's inadequacy in setting clear expectations for syncing actions.

Crafting Solutions: The Five Key Elements

During this phase, we organized multiple work session to get aligned on suggested solutions.

Explore prototype

1. Introduce item search by URL

Aligning with users' mental models for starting investigations more efficiently.

2. Explicit 'Activity' entry in navigation

Signaling users where to find monitoring and troubleshooting elements distinctly, avoiding mix-ups with settings related to the edit journey.

3. Implement a new status, 'retrying'

Enhancing predictability in syncing behavior by acknowledging Unito's multiple attempts before classifying a change as a failure.

4. Clear explanations for syncing issues

For every change Unito cannot sync, providing users with transparent reasons and potential resolution points.

5. Allow users to 'sync' one item at a time

Offering a significant time-saving feature. Previously, users could only trigger a full resync, a potentially time-consuming process depending on project sizes. The ability to only sync 1 item is a valuable time-efficient option for users.

Evaluating Impact and Iterating for Success

Before initiating the implementation, we conducted a series of user tests involving both internal and external users, enabling us to make necessary adjustments.

An impactful outcome from internal user tests, predominantly involving customer-facing teams, was their strong advocacy for the entire feature implementation, believing it would significantly ease their work. This expectation was met during implementation.

After a month of progressive roll-out to gauge the impact on a new cohort, which showed neutral effects on the conversion rate, we decided to extend the roll-out to all our customers.

In the 6-month evaluation

Effective utilization of designed solutions

In the initial 6-month period, users demonstrated clear engagement with three main solutions: 203 items' searches by URL, approximately 1,650 users accessed the side panel for syncing issue explanations, and about 300 users utilized the sync one-item feature.

Partial impact on the activation to conversion rate increase

Following the feature's release in July 2023, we observed a rise in the activation to conversion rate. However, various factors may have influenced this trend.

Challenges in ticket impact measurement

While the customer-facing team noted an overall decrease in ticket numbers, pinpointing the feature's direct impact is challenging. The decrease likely reflects a culmination of parallel improvements.

Persistent resolution path finesse lack

Ongoing limitations in the resolution path hinder the design's full self-explanatory potential.

Next Steps

Usage analysis for hypothesis formulation

Dive into usage data to formulate potential hypotheses.

Introduction of micro-surveys for targeted feedback

Implement micro-surveys to gather focused feedback from users in the context of their monitoring and troubleshooting journey.

Keep feedback collection from customer-facing teams

Maintain regular feedback collection from customer-facing teams regarding user interactions and comprehension.

User interviews for improvement insights

Conduct interviews with active users to gather insights on potential improvements and reach out to non-users to understand their blockers.

Next Project

Reporter Without Borders

morgane.davy@gmail.com

Back to work

Empower Users in Crafting Their Ideal Workflow

Enhance monitoring and troubleshooting journeys for tailored experiences

My Role

User research, and UX design

Team

Andrew Cianci, UI/Product Designer
Graham Mann, Product Designer
With Unito

Timeline

Nov 2022 – Feb 2023

Observations and Problem Definition

Let’s begin by defining key terminology. Within the Unito app, a ‘flow’ refers to a connection between two tools, whereas a ‘workflow’ encompasses multiple interrelated flows.

In the past, our product team prioritized a simple flow creation journey, inadvertently neglecting post-creation stages: monitoring and troubleshooting.

Recognizing the need for balance and the analysis of existing data revealed a gap in features for tech-savvy and power users. They crave a clear syncing activity overview for effective troubleshooting and monitoring.

Our challenge: Enhance current features to empower users in monitoring and troubleshooting, aiming to reduce support ticket influx.

Focus on Research Methodologies

We divided the research process into three distinct phases: discovery, exploratory, and evaluation.

Gathering Data

During this phase, Graham (PM) and I split the work. Findings were consolidated both in Miro and Dovetail.

Sources

→ Data analytics
→ Survey results (Most recent activity table)
→ Insights from previous research
→ User recordings
→ Feedback from customer support and sales teams
→ Chat analysis from Hubspot
→ 12 user interviews