Quick Guide to SaaS UX Design - 8 best practices and examples

November 3, 2022

Growth

MIN

Let’s start with acknowledging the value of your product. In terms of what you offer, it is a great product. It is well-thought, the market has welcomed you well, and you are doing great.

But…

After a few months, you start to lose your users even if you keep developing your SaaS product. It can be devastating for a product manager. But don't worry...

It is very likely that your users churn because of the poor UX design of your product, regardless of how you have improved it so far. I’m not the only one saying that.

According to PwC's report on customer experience , 42% of customers would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience. Although the report focuses on CX more, it applies to the SaaS UX as well.

According to PwC’s report on customer experience,

TL;DR

SaaS UI/UX is crucial for lowering churn rates and higher customer retention.
UX design in SaaS means how your users interact with your product in the user journey.
UX is important for SaaS as SaaS products are complex tools most of the time, and the SaaS ecosystem is rapidly changing, which means that your competitors in the market are also running fast.
UX design in SaaS is an ever-ending process consisting of:

Ideation
Research
Analysis
Design
Launch
Iteration

8 best practices and examples of SaaS UI/UX are:
1. Frictionless Registration: Zoom

2. Smooth Onboarding: Webflow

3. Good Info Architecture: Freshbooks

4. Handy Dashboard: Trello

5. Chatbot for Help: Shopify

6. Search Bar: Monday.com

7. Effortless Offboarding
8. Simple UI/UX

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Let’s dive into them real quick…

What Is UX Design in SaaS?

UX design in SaaS means how you deliver your product and its value to the users. In order to prove the value of complex products such as SaaS apps, you need to really understand what your users expect from your product or service and tailor its UX design accordingly. In each and every step of your process, it is important to keep your users at the center, and this is what decade-defining SaaS companies do.

Why is UX important for SaaS?

In contrast with other digital products, as a SaaS product owner, you need to sell it every month recurrently, and it means much more focus on the users with their changing expectations, intentions, and desires day to day.

And it is not only the SaaS user that changes rapidly but also the ecosystem your product is located. By this, I mean your competitors in the SaaS market. It’s a fast-paced environment in which your SaaS product tries to thrive, so UX becomes more important in order to keep your users content with your product.

I can list some of the crucial reasons why UX design is important for SaaS:

Good user experience increases customer acquisition, retention, and conversion rates.
Effective UX design reduces customer churn rates.
Intuitive UX helps the company to grow, which is extremely relevant if you’re a start-up.
Well-thought UX reduces development costs.

Do they resonate with you?

If so, let’s discuss how you can achieve greatness in UX design…

How Do You Improve SaaS UX?

Well, it takes time…

Actually, it is a never-ending process.

Ok, I don’t want to scare you, but I can say it is a long way to the top if you wanna improve your product’s UX. (R.I.P. Bonn Scott)

The UX design process is an iterative one through which you aim to solve design problems. Basically, it consists of 6 steps, but it is not written in stone. Depending on the product and the product team’s priorities, this process can be shaped differently, and it is something like this:

Ideation: The rough sketch of the problem at hand with the product’s design.
Research: SaaS UX research to see users’ expectations and behaviors.
Analysis: Categorizing users and adding details to the design project at hand.
Design: Prototyping of the possible solution to the problem.
Launch: Sharing your design solution with the end-users.
Iteration: Turning back to any of the steps above to improve design again and again.

Following these steps and deciding on the design sprints in line with them will make you reach your goal easier. Also, don’t forget that it is not a solo project one can take on. Collaboration can be added to each and every step of this process, and I can’t stress enough how crucial it is for your product design.

Best UX Design Practices in SaaS

I defined the SaaS UI/UX broadly in the previous paragraphs. Most of the time, examples are more explanatory than words, especially if you are talking about design.

Let’s take a closer look at what great UX design is with substantial examples from the SaaS marketplace to give you some design inspiration.

1. Frictionless Registration: Zoom

I started using Zoom during the pandemic to attend my online classes, and I remember well how easy it was to complete the registration forms, download it into my laptop and start using it.

Most SaaS users complete registration to benefit from the free trial plans offered by the product, and it is a perfect chance for you to convince them to pay for it. If you lose them as soon as they agree to know your product better by registering, you will regret your registration UX.

Zoom asks a few questions in the first step. None of them are redundant or time-consuming.

The confirmation e-mail notification appears on your screen in seconds, and within minutes, your registration is completed.

2. Smooth Onboarding: Webflow

The onboarding process of the SaaS users is a little bit more complicated than other products generally. It is because a SaaS application offers users more than one key features at once, which is, in fact, great for your business.

At the first step into your product’s enchanting world, the user should feel welcomed instead of frustrated and alone. Onboarding is when the user can build an emotional connection with the product.

So, designing a comfortable and easy onboarding user experience is crucial for you. Think of how your users would enjoy discovering your value and design that process accordingly.

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Webflow is not ignorant of its feature-rich world and onboards its user with tooltips explaining how to complete a task or use a feature.

You might want to use other elements, such as welcome modals and hotspots, when applicable. They will provide your users with a better onboarding experience for sure.

3. Good Info Architecture: Freshbooks

Info architecture (IA) in UX design is sorting out all elements, copies, information, or image in the most effective way possible.

It mainly depends on the hierarchy between the pieces. You should organize them in a logical order to create a good UX.

See how Freshbooks groups the information necessary for the user according to the order of their importance.

4. Handy Dashboard: Trello

Dashboards are the main navigation elements of your SaaS product. It defines most of the success of your UI/UX design as it is the part in which the user spends the most time in your product.

So, a handy and intuitive dashboard would please your users and bring about more sympathy for your product.

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Trello knows how to do it well. The UX/UI design of the dashboard is as intuitive and simple as it can be.

5. Chatbot for Help: Shopify

We all know that calling customer support, waiting for a representative to pick up your call, explaining your problem with the product, and the other steps following it are just pain in the neck.

Instead, adding an AI chatbot to your UX design saves time and money.

Shopify's pretty smart chatbot is always there to answer your questions and help you.

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6. Search Bar: Monday.com

Think of how common using a search bar is to find anything in your overall digital experience. You use search engines online, spotlight search on your macOS, etc. It is modern users' general behavior to use search bars, and it applies to SaaS products, too.

Monday.com uses a quick search button to help you navigate the app. Instead of looking for something manually, all you need to do is type what you want to search for.

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It is time-saving, and I can assure you it makes your users happy.

7. Effortless Offboarding

Offboarding your users safe and sound is as important as onboarding them.

I know that it is not something you desire as a product owner or a UX designer, but it happens all the time. All products are destined to lose some of their users at some point.

But it doesn’t mean that you should turn your fear of abandonment into aggression. When your users leave your product, there is always a chance that they will come back sometime. The less frustration they experience during the offboarding, the more likely they will come back.

Figma allows space for its users who want to delete their accounts.

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It is an experience as easy and smooth as onboarding.

8. Simple UI/UX

Brevity is the soul of wit, they say.

In SaaS products, simplicity is the soul of customer engagement.

Look how basic Skype’s mobile version is. There is nothing unnecessary or additional to the core UX needs. The buttons are well-serving, and you don’t have to worry about how to complete a task.

Obviously, following simple design principles makes your product more user-friendly.

Wrapping it up…

The SaaS UI/UX design of your product is a crucial part of customer satisfaction. So, it determines your churn rates and helps you achieve high customer retention rates.

That’s to say, you have to think of improving the UX design and conversion-focused design principles for your SaaS product.

Intuitive UX consists of an easy registration process, a smooth onboarding experience, a well-thought info architecture, an efficient dashboard, a smart chatbot, a working search bar, gentle offboarding, and simplicity in general. Lacking any of them can lead your users to a bad experience.

Just try one or several of them to improve your cloud-based software's user experience and see the results very soon.

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