Creating a new cloud service on our control plane

The Challenge

Hasura is a leading platform that enables developers to create unified APIs efficiently.

A common pattern observed among users is the creation of multiple API services across various environments, including development, staging, testing, and integration.

During the transition from version 2.0 to 3.0, we identified an opportunity to redesign their control plane, which manages a user's services.

This redesign aimed to address the complexities of service management and pricing structure.

User-Centric Approach

To inform the redesign process, we conducted user research to help identify the data points of primary importance to users to help them wayfind the the service they were looking for.

Some of these key points included:

• Service name
• Traffic volume (critical for overage management)
• Throughput
• Plan type
• Service URL and admin key

These insights guided the development of a more intuitive and user-focused control plane.

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Pricing Structure Complexity

One of the most significant challenges was presenting the pricing models. Hasura offers three distinct plan types:

• Free
• Shared
• Dedicated

Each plan type has specific limitations and benefits.

Additional factors influencing pricing included:

• Higher costs for Shared and Dedicated plans utilizing Postgres databases.
• Variable pricing for Dedicated plans based on resource utilization.
• The option for both hourly and monthly pricing to accommodate plans that can scale to zero.

Solution-ing the Challenges

To address these challenges, we designed a control plane that:

1. Prominently displays of the data points to help the user find their service.
2. Implements a way to understand the pros and cons of selecting different plan types when creating a service.
3. Helps understand the variable pricing options and how they effect pricing.
4. Visualized both hourly and monthly pricing options for maximum flexibility (as the servers were serverless and were billed by active-hour usage).

The result was an interface that effectively simplifies complex information, enabling developers to efficiently assess and manage their API services across various environments.