Beyond grateful to be spending this week thinking and writing about beautiful design in such a magical part of the world:

I hope you enjoy today’s piece.

— Tom

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How Attio does design

Chess Move

The what: A TLDR explanation of the strategy

There's a feeling that happens when you first open most B2B software. Your shoulders tense up. You brace yourself for the influx of tabs, dropdowns, tooltips, and enterprise complexity. You know you're about to spend the next 2 hours figuring out where everything lives.

Attio might be my favourite example of software in an established category (CRM) betting on world-class design as a cornerstone strategic advantage.

Instead of feature intimidation, you get something that feels almost... beautiful.

In the micro: subtle gradients, tactile hover states, perfectly-smooth cubic bezier curve animations.

In the macro: user-journeys that build confidence through progressive disclosure, design systems creating familiarity, a creative sandbox built for flow-state.

The kind of experience that makes you think “this is how software should be built”.

This isn't just good design for design's sake. It's a calculated strategy to compete in a crowded market dominated by unfriendly products built over decades.

As a company ushering in the next generation of CRM, Attio’s world-class design became their strategic equaliser with established players - creating a reason for evaluators to chose the product even while they were still closing the ‘feature gap’ with competitors.

Today, their design advantage has graduated from catch-up mechanism to creating preference among equally capable tools. A gap that’s hard to close for legacy players who can’t easily unbloat decades of accumulated complexity.

Breakdown

The how: The strategic playbook boiled down to 3x key takeaways

1.  Progressive disclosure

There’s a great irony when it comes to powerful software: the more capabilities you show upfront, the less capable users feel.

The limitless possibilities create a wall of intimidation, pushing people away from the very functionality they came looking for.

Here's what Attio figured out: people don't need to see every possible feature on screen #1. In fact, showing them everything upfront actively works against adoption.

“Progressive disclosure” dramatically reduces cognitive load - users can focus on one task without being overwhelmed by options they don't need yet. It also builds confidence through small wins - each successful interaction makes users feel empowered and more likely to explore deeper functionality.

When you first land in the product, you authorise your Gmail account, and a few moments later you’re presented with a clean table containing enriched data across your existing contacts.

Then, depth reveals itself as you explore.

Hover over the “Last interaction” property, and a modal surfaces with a preview of the email, and the option to enlarge for more info.

Click into an account and additional capabilities appear:

• Add to list

• Run workflow

• Compose email

• Enrol in sequence

• Timeline of activity

• Account team structure

• Latest email interactions

• Internal comments section

• Connection strength scoring

Click one level deeper into the “Emails” sub-section:

• Filters

• Attachments

• Times and dates

• Email preview modals

• Subjects and recipients

• Team access provisioning

This same principle is apparent in each section of the app.

AI call recorder.

Email composer.

Report generator.

Automation builder.

Command+K launcher.

Information and capability is only exposed at the right moment, based on the user’s actions.

Click, hover, tab, run, add, launch.

Nothing more, and nothing less, than exactly what the user needs at that point in time.

2. Systems thinking

Beneath Attio's polished surface lies a dedication to design systems that enable consistent and scalable experiences across the product.

Take their company record system - company details can appear as:

^{(and probably more that I’m not aware of!)}

Each representation uses the same underlying data, but adapts to its context.

Another example is their text editor - the same core component appears within various workflows:

Each field lets the user type text, along with all the relevant capabilities you’d expect in that context. Signatures for emails. Due dates for tasks. Delays for sequences. Etc.

The result is a familiar feeling and unified experience for the user. The same blinking blue cursor. The same ‘/’ menu for headings, images, and lists. The same ‘@’ menu for tagging teammates.

Plus, improving one interaction pattern uplifts the experience everywhere - a leveraged and scalable development pattern.

Now I know this might seem like a trivial point to some, but anyone who has used bloated legacy tools has witnessed first-hand the painful experience of ‘Frankenstein Software’:

→ An amalgamation of updates, add-ons, and quick-fixes, cobbled together over years, creating a slow and disjointed experience.

Attio’s dedication to modern development principles, world-class UI, and systems-driven design means the whole product feels like it was built by the same team at the same time, even as it grows in sophistication.

3. Flow state

Most business software feels like... business software. Functional, but not exactly something you'd choose to spend time in.

Attio designs for a different emotional state entirely: creative flow.

Building automations feels less like configuration and more like playing a puzzle video game. Intuitive node connections, satisfying arrow bends, and tasteful visual cues simulating the data flowing through your creation, making the abstract feel tangible.

Notifications stack like elegant cards with perfect shadows and timing. A UI pattern reminiscent of MacOS.

These micro-interactions don't just make the product prettier - they make users feel like they’re in a creative sandbox.

Attio takes a ‘world-building’ approach to product design that creates a psychological shift for users: a desire to spend time in the platform (rather than merely tolerating it).

An increased propensity to explore, to experiment with features they might otherwise ignore, and ultimately to organically extract more value from the platform.

→ Possibly the most powerful competitive advantage of all: making people want to open your app. 

Rabbit Hole

The where: 3x high-signal resources to learn more

Attio’s AI strategy ↗

[3 minute read]

The best AI features don't make themselves a distraction - they seamlessly supercharge existing workflows until users can't imagine working without them.

An endless stream of “how did it know to do that?” moments.

Attio's approach to invisible intelligence reveals why the future of AI UX is less about "AI buttons" and more about letting 1 person magically do the work of 100s.

How Attio Creates Beautiful, Functional Design ↗

[10 minute read]

My buddy Bill’s article on Attio’s design philosophy was one of the inspirations behind this piece.

To continue today’s exploration with questions like “how does Attio balance taste with user requests?” and “how does good design create productivity efficiencies?” - this is your next click.

Add this to your design swipe-file ↗

[1 minute read]

Turns out the industry’s best product designers can also spin up the industry’s best landing page.

If you made it this far, it’d be a shame not to check out this little slice of magic.

Taking a week off next week so will catch you with another breakdown on 15th July!

— Tom

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