AI-Powered Test Generation Plugin
Client
Early AI
Focus Areas
AI Powered Testing / UX in IDEs
(01)
Client overview
Early is an AI-powered solution for generating quality tests via CI/CD integration, ensuring consistent usage and coverage across an entire organization.
(02)
Project Challenge
Engineering teams often struggle to maintain consistent test coverage across fast-moving codebases. While CI/CD pipelines catch issues late in the process, developers still lack real-time, in-IDE guidance to help them understand gaps, generate missing tests, and ensure code quality before submitting a pull request.
EarlyAI set out to solve this by embedding AI-driven test generation directly into developers’ daily workflow, but needed to do so without disrupting their coding flow or introducing yet another complex tool into an already crowded environment.
(03)
Project Goal
To design an in-IDE plugin that feels native, unobtrusive, and aligned with developer workflows, while clearly surfacing EarlyAI’s value: intelligent, auto-generated tests that update in real time as code evolves. Our goal was to create a plugin that developers actually want to use because it integrates seamlessly, accelerates productivity, and provides insights without demanding additional effort or context switching.
(03)
Main Design Challenges
Designing Inside Someone Else’s Product (The IDE Constraint)
Unlike standalone products, a plugin must coexist within an existing visual language, layout constraints, and interaction paradigms. The challenge was to create a UI that feels authoritative and valuable, yet blends naturally into VS Code or JetBrains environments. We needed to highlight StartEarly’s functionality without breaking the developer’s flow or violating established mental models.
Balancing Familiarity With Product Differentiation
Developers rely on fast pattern recognition inside their IDEs.
We had to maintain the native IDE look-and-feel, while still giving EarlyAI a clear, recognizable identity. This meant carefully crafting micro-interactions, iconography, hierarchy, and information density to create a distinctive yet unobtrusive visual presence.
Building Trust While Presenting Complex Test Logic
AI-generated tests can be dense, technical, and difficult to evaluate at a glance. One of our biggest challenges was designing a presentation layer that not only makes this complexity digestible, but also builds trust.
The design had to strike a delicate balance: showing the details to earn credibility without overwhelming the user or slowing down their workflow. Our goal was to create a visual structure that communicates clarity, rationale, and confidence, so developers feel comfortable adopting the AI’s suggestions and gradually build long-term trust in the system.
(04 Projects)
