UI/UX Design: Importance and 8 Best Practices

Did you know that roughly 90% of users claim they stop using an application after having a bad experience due to poor usability? Apart from thinking about new cool features and eliminating bugs, you should enhance the overall customer experience. The question is, how to achieve it when building a SaaS application?

In general, SaaS product design obeys the same basic interface design rules as any other app. What makes it stand out is an average user and their needs, meeting which is the design's main objective. Common SaaS customers expect the app to provide the easiest and shortest way to reach their goals. That's why such a product's design should be as intuitive and minimalistic as possible.

Besides, SaaS is a web-based software, which also affects design solutions and should be taken into account. It particularly applies to mobile devices that occupy 52,2% of online traffic. Therefore, SaaS product design might be more challenging than it might seem.

This post reveals major SaaS UX best practices, challenges, and upcoming trends. It's based on our team's deep understanding of designing SaaS user interfaces. We at Wontik have comprehensive experience in SaaS product design that helps improve the user journey and increase consumption

Ready to learn more? Let's dive deeper into details!

Importance of Creating a Great SaaS UI/UX Design

Building a SaaS app is quite a complex process. While some products manage to succeed long-term, others fail to reach the audience and prove their value. The effectiveness of UI/UX design can be crucial to distinguish a robust product from and a fragile one. Here is how UI and UX for SaaS can make a difference.

· Decreased Customer Churn Rates

A SaaS service might be quite sensitive. Its success depends on consumption. Thus, it's essential to retain users and showcase the product's value to them. A successful UX solution can serve this purpose with a simplified sign-up process and a frictionless onboarding experience.

· Simplified User Journey

A well-designed SaaS product allows clients to enjoy a simple yet comprehensive experience when using the app. The implemented features are aimed at reaching all possible audiences.

For instance, a business intelligence SaaS needs to meet all potential customers' needs, from top management to a certain employee. Prototyping, customer journey, and user testing at the early design stages help UX designers find the right way to reach them all.

· Streamlined Data Access

When using a SaaS product related to data delivery, a client wants to access the required set of KPIs and essential metrics. It's hard to overestimate the role of dashboards in increasing customer ROI and your service's value.

Properly visualized data doesn't overwhelm users - instead, it engages them, delivering them the desired reports quickly and clearly.

Design Issues for SaaS Product

· Features Relevance

Working on SaaS interface design, the biggest issues you will face are adding new features and figuring out which ones to keep or remove.

Product competence is extremely important for prioritizing features. That's what product designers deal with in our company. They consider whether these changes will bring value to your customers and not complicate the navigation.

Always keep in mind the goal of your SaaS product design: do the new features contribute to it? Don't obsess about creating perfection. Your solution should be workable and useful.

As an extreme example, you can take a look at the Aliexpress app. The product's value is so significant and obvious for users that its usability may often be neglected. We can write the whole article about the Aliexpress application's design flaws. However, it's much more important to make your SaaS product benefit your customers. Polishing UX is a secondary goal.

So if you're a monopolist with a unique market offer, feel free to skip this article. You will be fine. But if you're not the one yet, we will tell you how to make your customers stay.

· Prototyping Issues

Design process shouldn't be isolated from the users. As product creators, we are not capable of evaluating it relevantly. Thus, testing and interviewing is crucial.

One of the most typical mistakes in building a SaaS product is the lack of full-fledged testing at the earliest production stages. A static interface sample doesn't bring clarity about the app's future usability. Thus, you might choose the wrong strategy and fail.

To address this issue, build a clickable prototype. It will allow you to see if the user journey is smooth and all features work properly. Prototyping is also a great opportunity to carry out the first user interview, test the user's interaction with the interface, and make the necessary changes. It will be much more cost-efficient to replace or improve something at this initial stage than later on when development is in progress.

· Overwhelming Interface

When creating SaaS app UI design, you should find a way to deliver all required information to the customers without overloading the interface. Don't try to place all data on a single screen. It leads to users' frustration and, accordingly, increases churn rates.

From the very beginning, the clients should be able to make decisions and navigate with ease. It can be achieved by grouping information, prioritizing the essentials, and giving users a chance to go deeper if required.

It's important to make a customer initially use the features that represent the main product value. The value is not always obvious. Thus, to make it definable, don't neglect the careful and consistent creation of the User Journey Map. It will visualize the way users interact with your product. At the initial stages, it's even more important than the very design of your app.