Overview
Alai is a YC-backed (W24) AI powered presentation tool that helps tech professionals create high quality presentations faster.
They approached us to help build a fresh, innovative and intuitive v1 of the product — One that stands out from the sea of tools out in the market.
What we did
Solving for the
AI “blank start” paradox
The Problem
😊
ExcitMent
Fuelled by lofty promises on the website, users sign up with starry-eyed optimism
🤨
Confusion
Pushed into the deep-end with just a blank prompt field, users don’t know where or how to begin
🤦
disappointment
Users get a generic output because the prompt entered wasn’t relevant or clear enough
😮💨
Acceptance
Have to go through a bunch of iterations and learning curve to finally arrive at an acceptable output
OUR SOLution
A fresh experience that smartly gathers the vital details from users, without feeling like a chore
Intuitive AI interactions, beyond “prompt-boxes”
While the prompt-box has become an AI UX staple, it’s not always ideal. We identified instances where providing more specific, guided UX patterns would be more better for both, the users and AI.
Threaded iterations
We explored a new pattern for iterative items – threads. A simple yet clear way to let users know how their decisions are chained together, letting them go back & forth, and changing directions from anywhere in their thread.
Sliders
We realised that certain aspects of presentations could be quantified as parameters on a scale. We introduced sliders for these, making their adjustment easy and visually intuitive for the user.
Select options
The classic case of recognition vs. recall — users don’t always know what to ask for. For certain parameters, we figured it was easiest to present clear, exhaustive options. This way, users can identify what they want, try it out and keep what works best.
Designing a flexible, robust canvas and theming engine
To have Alai’s AI create beautiful, sophisticated presentations, we had to give it the right foundation to build on. We explored and crafted a deceptively simple system. It can add, scale & move elements, drastically change the vibe, smartly adapt content and much more, all while maintaining pristine aesthetics. How? That’s a secret ;-)
Balancing customisability with ease-of-use
We benchmarked all existing presentation tools – decades-old and freshly-minted, to arrive at the edge Alai could offer users over all of them
A theming system that offers a wide aesthetic range with just a few clicks
Creating element variants so they don’t get repetitive and boring
Elements like content sections, tables, timelines, etc are usually used multiple times across slides. To make them look fresh and interesting every time, we created multiple variants of each one that users can shuffle between.
All the Small Things
At Chariot, we take as much effort & pride in obsessing over the tiny details as we do the big picture stuff. Here are a few of the details on Alai that we’re particularly proud of!
Informative Visual Affordances
With our canvas following an effortless drag-and-drop structure, we crafted nifty, non-intrusive indicators to let the user know where they can drop elements to.
Super-Quick Add Menu
When you’re working in the flow state, speed is key. We optimised for this with micro-interactions for users to take quick actions on adding elements, etc.
Contextual Icons
In several places on the interface, we made icons update contextually based on quantities, directions, etc, leaving nothing ambiguous.
Ethereal Animations
To let users know when Alai’s AI is doing its magic. Subtle yet clear — and we all love a good gradient animation, don’t we? :-)
Clean & Focussed UI
Not really a “tiny detail” — we put in a lot of effort to ensure the interface feels clean & fluid, while keeping the focus on the presentation canvas itself.
Anticipatory Animations
Letting users know via a subtle animation where exactly clicking on “Add Slide” will add their slide.
250+
Components
400+
Screens
40+
Unique Flows
“Thoughtful. Tailored. Timely.”
Chariot took a thoughtful, first-principles approach to design, focusing on the user and deeply understanding the core problem.
This led to solutions that felt fresh, original, and tailored to our needs. Their attention to detail was evident in every aspect, and they genuinely cared about creating the best possible experience.
They were highly responsive, iterating quickly on feedback and always delivering on time. Working with them was a great experience, and I’d highly recommend them to anyone looking for thoughtful, user-centric design.
Anmol Sood & Krishna Gupta
Co-founders, Alai
TEAM
Aakash Rodrigues Creative Director & Lead Designer
Shreesh Kuliyal UI/UX & Product Designer
Siddharth Thorat Jr. UI/UX & Product Designer
