Founded in 2018 by Ben Haefele (AB '10), David Adkin (BFA '11, MArch '13), and Jeremy Blalock, Adalo unlocks the worlds creative potential to make applications—mobile or web—entirely without code.

by Aidan Stern (Sam Fox School of Art & Design (BFA '23) – Design

A Summer to Remember

When I first interviewed with David back in February of 2020, Adalo had just hired its second or third employee and seemed to be heading towards a big and bright future. At that time, I could not have predicted the new world that we would be living in nor could I have predicted the over 16 person team that greeted me virtually come June of 2020.

Designed by Aidan Stern

For the 10-week internship, I am working as part of the Design, Marketing, and Growth team and guided by David Adkin and Katelyn Campbell, the head of Marketing. David and Katelyn gave me the task of redesigning Adalo's customer success stories and case studies for the website's Showcase page as my overarching 10-week project. I also have been given smaller tasks that I have autonomy over.

Research... Ideate... Iterate... Repeat!

Much of my time these past few weeks has been devoted to researching successful uses of case studies and customer success stories from comparable ventures in the tech and no-code space. After researching I began sketching and presenting my ideas in a visual capacity. The most frustrating point for me is attempting to design in such a way that the consumer could not tell the difference between work done by any of the 3 designers at Adalo.

Iterations of different case-study and customer success story components

What has surprised and challenged me most so far has been the constant iteration process. It has taken a little getting used to think about designing not just one final product, but 8, or even 10.

Make it an image... but moving

My favorite project I have worked on so far has been creating and monitoring Adalo's Giphy account. As part of one of my side-projects of helping to redesign/rethink Adalo's Instagram account (@AdaloHQ), I have been making custom gifs and stickers available on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. I verified Adalo's account as a public brand in order to release gifs to Giphy. Since that process has completed, I have made it my personal goal to publish one new Adalo-themed gif every day. Feel free to use these Adalo-themed gifs and stickers by searching the keyword "Adalo" in any Giphy-supported environment.

Designed by Aidan Stern

Reflections and Looking to the Future

Since starting, I've grown so much as a designer. I will continue pushing myself to provide meaningful change and growth to Adalo. By far the best experience has been the close interactions I get with the founders and other Adalo leadership. Through this hands-on experience I am learning a whole new side of business and feel empowered to build and grow a venture of my own in the future.

The Adalo Team "Clapping it Out" at the End of the Morning Stand Up

My goal is to finish the drafting and mock ups of the case studies by the end of this week. In the coming weeks I hope to begin publishing these case studies and move on to my next project with Adalo. I truly have loved working with David, Katelyn, and the rest of the team and hope that I can continue to grow along side Adalo.