Experienced Designer, Manager,
and Successfully Exited Founder
© 2024 David Adkin. All rights reserved
For Adalo’s brand and website, I started by creating the brand identity and logo, followed by designing the initial website that would bring this vision to life. The brand was crafted to feel familiar, fun, and a bit magical — capturing the essence of giving people the power to create their own apps. The stars are a playful symbol of that “magical” feeling, reminding users that building apps is now within reach for everyone.
I also came up with the name Adalo as a tribute to Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, who envisioned a world where anyone could use computers to create their own programs. The brand strikes a balance between modern tech and friendly accessibility; by incorporating real people and illustrated characters, it feels approachable while maintaining the credibility of a cutting-edge platform.
I led the design of Adalo's brand and website from 2018 to 2021 as the sole designer, building everything in Webflow and establishing the site’s core look and feel. As our team grew, I transitioned into a design leader role, guiding new team members in both design and Webflow implementation to ensure consistency and innovation across every page.
Before Adalo, I hadn’t used Webflow, so I learned it from scratch to build our website. When our team grew, I taught new designers how to use Webflow, passing along the skills to keep our site aligned with Adalo’s vision.
On the homepage, we aimed to balance a technical edge with a friendly, approachable feel. If the product comes across as overly technical, it loses the no-code appeal, yet if it focuses too much on showing the product in detail, it starts to feel too targeted at developers. To strike this balance, we incorporated a scroll-triggered Lottie animation that reveals key details as you move down the page. This gives a sense of the product’s power but presents it in a simplified, conceptual way, so anyone—regardless of technical skill—feels like they can dive in and start building.
We designed the Adalo Experts listings page as a space where visitors can connect with vetted freelancers and agencies skilled in building apps on Adalo. To keep it approachable and familiar, we gave it a LinkedIn-like feel and included filters so visitors can easily find experts by service type, cost, or location. For those wanting tailored recommendations, we created a "Get Matched" feature — visitors simply describe their project needs, and through a custom process, we match them with the top three experts, triggering personalized email campaigns to help them get started smoothly.
Our persona-specific pages take Adalo’s brand guidelines and give them a unique twist to resonate with each audience. For the tech-savvy crowd, we’ve crafted a sleek, dark-mode experience that dives deeper into product features, complete with engaging screenshots to satisfy their curiosity. Meanwhile, for the business-focused persona, we emphasize Adalo’s value proposition with relatable visuals of everyday users bringing their ideas to life. Each page balances Adalo’s brand essence with tailored messaging and design, creating a personalized experience that speaks directly to what each persona cares about most.
The 'Adalo 2.0' page was crafted specifically for makers, the builders who bring ideas to life on our platform. To evoke a sense of power, we embraced a dark mode aesthetic tailored to their preferences and incorporated a custom Lottie animation that amplifies this feeling. We also featured Apple event-inspired cards that showcase each feature in style —much like the iconic feature roundups at the end of an Apple event—highlighting Adalo 2.0’s capabilities in a way that feels both impressive and accessible.
The 'Inside Adalo' page gives a playful, behind-the-scenes look at the team powering our no-code revolution, combining a fresh vibe with Adalo’s core brand identity. This page highlights the fun, collaborative spirit driving our work, emphasizing the principles and purpose behind every feature and innovation. From our guiding values to the vibrant personalities that make up Adalo, it’s an invitation to connect with the heart of our company — a reminder that Adalo is as much about community as it is about creation.