Forgebase | Stephen HQ

Things I did

Product design

Dashboard UI

Developer docs

Client

Self-initiated

Year

2026

Platform

Marketing site, web dashboard, docs

Login and user accounts for developers, from sign-up to first working login in five minutes. I designed the marketing site, the dashboard and the docs.

The challenge

Developers judge an auth product in their first ten minutes with it. Most dashboards in this space bury the three things they need first: their keys, a working login and logs that explain what went wrong.

The approach

I designed the whole journey backwards from the first successful login. The site leads with real code, the dashboard opens on a setup checklist, and every error in the logs links to its fix.

Real code, not stock UI

The site

Code above the fold

The homepage leads with the five lines of code it takes to add login, not a list of features. Pricing is per active user and one click away, so a developer can estimate the bill before signing up.

Onboarding

From sign-up to first login in five minutes

After sign-up, the dashboard opens on a four-step checklist: create a project, copy your keys, paste the snippet, test a login. Each step ticks itself off the moment Forgebase sees it happen.

The dashboard

The questions you ask in an incident, answered on one screen

The overview answers what developers ask when something breaks: is login working, how many users are affected, and what changed. Charts use a single accent colour, so a spike is the first thing you see.

Reason first, raw request second

Logs

Errors that explain themselves

Every failed login opens a drawer with the request, the reason in plain English and a link to the exact section of the docs that fixes it. The goal is a fix without a support ticket.

Components

The screens your users actually see

Forgebase ships drop-in screens for sign-in, API keys and SSO setup. They take on each customer's name and colours, so they feel like part of the app, not a third-party page.

Docs

Docs you can paste from

The quickstart knows your framework and fills in your real keys, so the code on the page is the code you paste. Search groups results into guides, API reference and errors.

Target time from sign-up to first working login

5 min

In the setup checklist, each one ticking itself off

4 steps

From any failed login to the docs that fix it

1 click

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