Shopify

First Shopify AI generated content for merchant products at scale

I led the design of image alt text generation in Shopify admin, giving merchants control to review, edit or regenerate suggestions.

SaaS
Accessibility
GenAI
E-commerce

Overview
Strong photos, empty alt text
Editable AI-generated alt text in Shopify admin, with merchant review across desktop and mobile.
Role
Product Design Lead
Product direction, media editing flows, model quality review and accessible editing controls.
Team: Tech lead, PM, UX researcher, content designer
Problem
Product images lacked descriptions
Product media and Content → Files left merchants to write descriptions for each image. The project research recorded low metadata coverage across the catalog.
Solution
Editable alt text at upload
Generate alt text during upload and batch editing, with merchant review before saving.

Product media editor with an empty alt text field beside product photography — Product media editor: an empty alt text field beside a sharp photo.

From education to generation at upload

The project moved through three approaches: writing guidance, batch generation in Files, and drafts at upload. Merchant review remained part of each generation flow.

Missing metadata affected access and discovery

Unlabeled images gave screen-reader users and image search less context. Missing metadata also limited asset organization, reuse and partner DAM integrations.

Storefront product page where descriptive alt text supports discovery — Storefront: the shopper-facing page that inherits the gap.

Research, design and model evaluation

The design lead, tech lead, PM, UX researcher and content designer worked from the first pitch through model QA and an Enterprise soft launch over six to nine months.

Cross-functional Shopify squad photo — The Shopify project team.

Writing guidance did not improve coverage

Training decks and a Shopify blog guide explained how to write useful alt text. Merchants still lacked time to write descriptions, so guidance alone did not improve coverage.

Shopify blog guide on writing and adding image alt text — The writing guide was separate from the upload flow.

Time was the main barrier

The original research summary covers interviews and surveys with 50 merchants, alongside platform analysis. Its findings shaped the move from guidance to generation.

Cited time as the main barrier¹: 75%
Were unaware of alt text’s SEO benefits¹: 60%
Preferred a third-party DAM with metadata features¹: 45%

Batch generation in Files

Merchants selected assets in Files, generated drafts and reviewed each row after upload.

Shopify Files list with Add alt text placeholders on most assets

Files list with assets selected and Generate alt text entry point

Batch generation on mobile

Choose files, generate drafts and review progress without leaving the Files view.

Mobile Files list with Add alt text placeholders — List

Mobile Files with selection and Generate alt text bar — List

Generate at upload, keep the merchant in control

Product context informs the draft. The merchant can inspect, edit and approve it within the media editor, on desktop or mobile.

Desktop Preview and edit with Generate alt text and editable field — Generate a draft within the existing media editor.

Mobile Preview and edit with Generate alt text and editable field — Generate a draft within the existing media editor.

Desktop Preview and edit with AI suggestion dropdown — Review the suggestion before applying it.

Mobile Preview and edit with Apply actions on suggestions — Review the suggestion before applying it.

Product category, description, and alt text as inputs to generation — Use the category, description and image as context.

Alt text field states for generation, suggestion review, editing and saving — Use the category, description and image as context.

We evaluated roughly a dozen models on merchant uploads and tested the editing flow with Enterprise customers. Inaccurate descriptions can mislead screen-reader users², so generated text remained editable and required merchant review before saving.

Reported rollout results

The project presentation records growth in metadata coverage, less manual entry and a rollout reaching more than two million merchants.

Metadata coverage reported in the project recap³: 15% to 95%
Time saved on manual metadata entry³: 80%
Merchants reached by the reported rollout³: 2M+

For a next release, I would test unusual products and image formats earlier, then use those examples to define the model-quality checks before rollout.

Recommendations

From people who worked on this with me.

One of the most impressive things about Tidjane is his ability to balance strict product requirements with unbound creativity. He recently worked on the integration of LLM into alt-text for images, a project that demonstrated his skills in both design for AI and good understanding of the back-end powering the experience. In addition to his technical expertise, Tidjane is a great team player – he's level-headed and knows when to step in to help unblock the project. Overall, it's been a pleasure to have him on the team and I look forward to a chance to work with him again.

Alëna IouguinaDirector, Experience Design @Autodesk

It was a pleasure to work alongside Tidjane, particularly in our collaborative efforts to streamline UX designs for file management within Shopify. Tidjane has demonstrated a unique ability to simultaneously manage tight deadlines while maintaining a sharp sense of design.
Tidjane's proficiency in crafting user-centric interfaces, which are both intuitive and visually engaging, sets them apart in the field. His clear grasp of user-focused design principles has led to the development of cohesive and understandable interfaces, enhancing our overall user experience.
I confidently endorse Tidjane's exceptional UX design skills, leadership and adept time management. His combination of creativity, effectiveness, and a profound understanding of user experience would make him an invaluable asset to any team.

Alex MassaadCTO at Victoria Garland. I build the custom Shopify apps that “off-the-shelf” solutions can’t replace.

I worked with Tidjane for over a year as his manager on the Content Experiences team at Shopify. In that time, I observed him to be a careful and systematic designer, who is a calm and stabilizing force in the face of uncertainty and quickly changing circumstances. He’s also confident when working on the types of “iceberg” experience problems, where most of the challenge is not visible in the final UI, but essential to the UX none-the-less.

Theresa PaulUX Lead @ Shopify

I had the pleasure to work with Tidjane on the same team at Shopify; Digital Assets, over the past year. My first observation was how seasoned and calm he is facing complex problems, and technical constraints. Tidjane and I used to have several pairing sessions where we brainstormed solutions, ideas, and feedback. Loved the way he shares feedback in a very constructive fashion, yet challenging approach to uncover any hidden opportunities. Being as crafty as he was, discussing intricate details and even hypothetical concepts with him was very easy due to his ability to visualize and see the end vision we're aiming for, a rare skill that I haven't seen in many designer, and when it does exist, it makes those pairing sessions WAY more productive and fluid. Will be gladly looking forward to cross paths again.

Osama GhazalShopify & Broadcom Alumni

Shipped with

Tech lead
Image pipeline, generation queue, and mobile parity
Product manager
Rollout sequencing and the exec narrative
UX researcher
Merchant interviews, surveys and segment analysis
Content designer
Education artifacts and in-product copy

Sources and notes

3 references

Note
Author’s original Shopify research summary: interviews and surveys with 50 merchants, plus platform analysis. Percentages describe the project’s reported findings, not all Shopify merchants.
webaim.org
WebAIM holds alt text to a strict accuracy bar: it must be an equivalent for the image, since a wrong description still reads as fact to a screen reader.
Note
Author-reported results from the original Shopify project presentation: metadata coverage increased from 15% to 95%, manual-entry time fell by 80%, and rollout reached 2M+ merchants. The source does not specify a measurement window or survey methodology; coverage is not itself an accessibility-conformance score.