Product Design (UX-UI)
Company: Unity Technologies
Year: 2021–2024
Unity DevOps: empowering real-time 3D creators in their development workflows
Unity stands as a leading platform for real-time 3D content creation, serving a broad spectrum of creators ranging from game developers and artists to architects, automotive designers, and filmmakers. Unity DevOps has been designed to address the distinctive challenges of game development, offering cloud-based version control and CI/CD solutions to automate workflows, release more often, and deliver higher-quality games. I joined the DevOps team to help build and unify these cloud-based services, with a specific focus on Build Automation (formerly Cloud Build). Additionally, I provided UX and UI guidance to ensure coherence across the Unity Version Control component and the Unity Gaming Services dashboard.
Setting the scene: understanding Unity Build Automation background
What is UNITY Build Automation?
Formerly known as Cloud Build, Unity Build Automation is a turnkey CI/CD solution for cross-platform builds automation in the cloud, allowing developers to build faster, test more efficiently, and deliver higher-quality RT3D projects without the hassle of manual configurations or local build pipelines. The success story of Second Dinner leveraging Cloud Build to deliver Marvel Snap, 2022’s Best Mobile Game, showcases the platform’s capabilities and its pivotal role in the DevOps workflow.

USER BASE 
Historically, the Cloud Build user base has mainly consisted of indie and small studios (5-14 developers). These users are primarily sophisticated DevOps tool users, predominantly programmers with a technical background and existing familiarity with Unity tools. This group prioritizes configurability and is sensitive to pricing. One business objective was to expand our reach to medium-sized studios and appeal to new, non-technical users such as project managers and producers. In 2023, Unity Build Automation catered to thousands of monthly active organizations and hundreds of daily active organizations.
OBJECTIVE
The primary objective of Build Automation is to consistently deliver fast and reliable builds. Previous user research and feedback have revealed that these are the most critical expectations users have for the service – something I definitely kept in mind to guide my design decisions.

ChallengeS
Onboarding to this dynamic and complex environment, I identified and anticipated various challenges:
→ The build process is inherently risky, leading to potential failures and substantial losses of both time and money for users.
Balancing simplicity and complexity in a unified interface serving both technical and non-technical users.
→ The product, acquired in 2014, was located in the Unity Gaming Services dashboard under the DevOps suite without in-depth integration, revealing inconsistencies and fragmentation in the overall Unity user experience.
Numerous touch points and dependencies with other services necessitated communication and collaboration with different organizations, requiring adjustment to various internal processes.
From Cloud Build to Build Automation: consolidating the dashboard integration
Phase 1 – Revamping the web interfacE
My initial contribution was the redesign of the Cloud Build interface in the existing Unity Gaming Services web dashboard. I needed to ensure design solutions aligned with our 2022 objectives: 
Enhanced integration in the Unity Gaming Services dashboard for a unified experience.
Improved alignment with Plastic SCM, our version control component.
Simplified user onboarding and product setup to expedite developers’ workflows and boost user acquisition and retention.

To begin, I studied existing User Research artifacts to understand our users’ journey, needs, and pain points. I mapped out the core user flows of the existing legacy experience, collaborating closely with engineers to identify and prioritize UX issues.
While the Build History main page redesign had already begun when I joined the team, core configuration flows and settings pages were pending. I finalized the Build History page designs, proposing table optimizations such as expandable rows, quick links, dynamic status icons, and contextual tooltips to streamline user workflows.
On the main Configurations page, I revamped how users view their configured build targets, presenting them in a table format for easier management and search capabilities. The addition of the functionality to trigger builds directly from the build target configurations table eliminated the need for users to navigate away to another page to take a central action, significantly speeding up their workflow. This UI overhaul provided an opportunity to propose impactful UX improvements, including progressive disclosure strategies like expandable table rows and modules, and tooltips for enhanced user guidance.
I frequently engaged with the Dashboard Design System team to understand current components and patterns, and to ensure consistency and scalability with other Unity Gaming Services dashboard solutions (LiveOps, Analytics...).

Phase 2 – DevOps unification: Cloud Build becomes Build AutomatioN
While working on Cloud Build, I actively participated in DevOps unification efforts. This involved introducing a new Overview page and consolidating the onboarding process, alongside implementing cross-sell strategies. Our goal was to establish a cohesive information architecture for DevOps, facilitating better integration and bridging the gap between Unity Version Control and Unity Build Automation (the new product names for Plastic SCM and Cloud Build) under a single subscription.

We created a DevOps Overview page as a central hub, providing users with a comprehensive understanding of their project’s DevOps landscape. Additionally, I leveraged our onboarding module component, presenting all relevant setup tasks to guide users who subscribed to DevOps and nudge them to explore our version control and build solutions for their project.
Phase 3 – IMPLEMENTING THE NEW DESIGN SYSTEM
In the latter half of 2023, the Design System team introduced a significant overhaul, upgrading and optimizing components, now with dark mode capability. This prompted our team to once again update the entire Unity DevOps interface, integrating the new set of optimized components and patterns. The goal was to enhance user navigation and interactions across various services within the Unity Gaming Services ecosystem. This redesign contributed to simplifying the data input and monitoring processes, particularly in areas like configuration flows and tables, improving the overall usability of Build Automation and consolidating its integration within the new Unity Cloud dashboard.
Configurations flows: designing for technical and non-technical users
Configuring a build target in Cloud Build was a central workflow, which led me to optimize onboarding and setup processes by implementing intuitive steppers, clear empty states, meaningful UX copy and improved settings categorization.

Additionally, I introduced two options to set up a new build target configuration:
→ The “Quick Target Setup” option offers a simplified experience with a stepper interface
, guiding users through the minimum configurations necessary for each platform. 
→ For users preferring more control, the “Target Setup” option allows for setting up “Basic Settings” first, then navigating to a second “Advanced Settings” tab for additional configurations.
This decision of introducing two different setup options stemmed from user testing sessions, recognizing the importance of accommodating diverse user preferences. Our goal was to offer control and flexibility in certain interface areas, while ensuring guidance and safeguards to prevent errors and workflow disruptions.

Settings were organized into cards under two tabs (Basic and Advanced), providing a convenient overview with contextual guidelines, tooltips, and documentation links for extra assistance. This layout was designed for scalability and ease of use, allowing for quick additions of settings and categories without overwhelming users. It also eliminated “hidden surprises” for users: in the previous layout, checking a box could unexpectedly reveal five additional inputs on the screen for users to fill in, which was a frustrating experience.
Note: these workflow enhancements were implemented in 2022, predating the Dashboard Design System update in 2023, hence the use of older component versions in the designs.
GIF of high five between Maverick and Goose from the Top Gun movie.
We utilized Amplitude for events analytics, revealing positive impact from the UX updates on the Configurations pages:
The new “Quick target setup” option saw higher usage than anticipated.
Users could complete their build target configuration in an average of 3 minutes or less, compared to over 10 minutes previously.
Better, faster, stronger: continuous delivery of UX enhancements and tailored feature releases
Much of my work focused on researching, designing, and testing continuous improvements for the Unity Build Automation user experience, driven by user feedback. This included:
Refining the categorization of configuration settings to accommodate additional functionalities and dependencies; 
Optimizing onboarding flows to facilitate a smoother user introduction to the platform; 
Clarifying error messaging to improve user comprehension;
Consolidating alert and notification messaging to declutter the interface and reduce information overload;
→ Implementing batch deletion of builds to speed up workflows;
→ Introducing caching optimizations to reduce build times;
→ Launching beta support for building and signing Xbox applications, paving the way for console support and increased user acquisition.
Simultaneously, the Engineering team worked on making the service technically more performant and reliable, successfully addressing one of our users’ major pain points with the Cloud Build experience within months of efforts.

Paving the way to profitability
Migrating to a metered billing model
As part of our efforts aimed at increasing our business profitability, I contributed to transitioning our product to a metered-billing model (‘pay-as-you-go’). This involved designing a user-friendly wizard to guide users through the migration process. In May 2023, we rolled out the metered version of Build Automation, featuring expanded storage, concurrency limits, and an improved UI. We facilitated easy consumption monitoring through a dedicated Usage page and usage metrics modules on key screens, like the DevOps Overview page, along with timely notifications. Additionally, we introduced settings for users to manage build minutes and concurrency limits, providing greater control.
Introducing Premium Builders for Windows and Mac
Responding to user demands, we introduced Premium Builders to support larger and more complex projects while ensuring high performance. These builders were meticulously tested and benchmarked against real-world projects by our Product and Engineering teams. Users were encouraged to try them out and assess their alignment with specific project needs.

To showcase these new Premium Builders options effectively, I leveraged our existing custom radio button components, presenting them as visual cards within the build target configuration flow. This allowed users to easily compare specifications and pricing and make selections in a single click. I also utilized our existing label component to subtly highlight the fact that this was a new option in the flow.
GIF of computer Kid giving a thumbs up.
These UX and technical enhancements significantly contributed to acquiring and retaining paying customers, resulting in:
→ 30% reduction in build times
→ Premium builders performing 27-28% faster on average than standard ones
→ A 10% lower churn rate than projected for the metered billing migration
→ Over 59% year-over-year revenue increase

Reflecting on the journey
Embarking on this journey in a highly technical and complex engineering-led field was both challenging and rewarding. Active listening, curiosity and humility were essential in understanding our users’ intricate workflows, highlighting the pertinence of user-centered design methodologies. Through the Unity Leadership Training, I gained invaluable insights into the company’s principles, emphasizing leadership qualities within Individual Contributor roles. I also had the opportunity to immerse myself in the video game development process through Unity tutorials and events like Game Jams, expanding my skill set. Ultimately, navigating organizational and UX maturity issues with resilience, openness, and a commitment to building strong connections with my peers made my journey at Unity one filled with growth and meaningful relationships.
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