Everything in the world is designed, either by nature or by humans. The design of an object dictates how its audience interacts with it. Complex devices do not lead to poor interactions. And simple gadgets do not lead to increased interactions. Hence, there is a lot more to it than complexity. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how design affects interaction. By understanding this, you optimize your design for an improved user experience. It is imperative for SaaS businesses since their success hinges on excellent UX. Building products with great UX is difficult, but not impossible. One way to improve your UX is to employ SaaS UX design best practices.
Difference between UI and UX
You probably think of websites and SaaS products when UI and UX are mentioned. UI and UX have become mainstream words with the boost in apps and SaaS products. Several people use them interchangeably. And many are still unclear as to the term's meanings and applications.
In simple words, UI (user interface) is how a user interacts with an object. It’s all about how people can use its features and functions. Whereas, UX is how they experience and navigate the object. It deals with their feelings and thoughts about it. You need to consider UI as much as UX for a solid product or website. It was never a question of UI or UX. Since both deal with different aspects of the products; you need to factor them into your design. Therefore, both are important for products that are optimized for interactions and engagement. Read More: 6 Best Practices: Your Ultimate Guide to SaaS Customer Onboarding
Importance of SaaS UX design
UX has been around for a long time. However, companies realized its importance recently. UX involves elements of design, research, technology, and psychology. UX employs the understanding of customer behavior to optimize a product or website to boost engagement and conversion rates. Therefore, good UX is imperative to provide a seamless experience. UX is as important to big conglomerates as it is to startup businesses.
Why?
About 40% of users will not return to a website that has a long leading time (x)
88% of users will not return on account of a bad user experience (x)
We see a 5x drop in numbers when websites are not optimized for mobile (x)
There is a 9,900% increase in ROI (x)
You can boost 200% conversion rates with a good UX (x)You can also think of UX as the common area between viability, desirability, and feasibility. The best of business, human psychology, and technology.
Saas UX Design Issues
It is easy to design and execute an app, website, or SaaS product. However, it is very hard to create an excellent website/product. There are many things that can improve UX design. Many factors contribute to the development of a usable product. And the lack of the same factors leads to poorly designed products.
Screen fatigue due to overwhelming elements and features
When it comes to digital products, simplicity is not the only way to go. By design, SaaS products and websites are complex things. There are many dynamic elements and several functions that drive the product/website. And these features are crucial to a product/website. However, after a certain point, these features can become too much. Having too many elements and features in the same area can seem cramped. Audiences need a slow introduction to a product. And by throwing in elements, you are risking screen fatigue. Bright colors or too many elements can tire the eyes out and drain a person. This can cause brain fog, confusion, irritability, and strained eyes.
Lack of user input in prototyping processes
When you are working on SaaS UX design, involve users in your design and research. Why? Your product or palladium is a portable solution for a specific audience. You may have a great product. But people will not use it if it is difficult to use. Every target audience will be different since they have different user journeys and behavior. Plus, you may not identify all the problems when you are designing. And This is where most SaaS companies fail. They do not include users when they are designing. Therefore, some issues are not identified and affect convection rates.
Lack of market and customer research in SaaS
UX design strategyMarket research is incredibly important when it comes to advertising the marketer as a whole. And your place in it. Additionally, customer and user persona creation is also crucial to UX design. Because this data provides insight into customer behaviors and journeys. The lack of market and customer research leads to poorly designed products/websites. If you do not know your market and customer, then you cannot optimize it for them. Read More: 10 SaaS Growth Strategies to Try in 2022
Here are a few SaaS UX design best practices:
It does not mean Saas UX design best practices to be a universal design architecture. Since each SaaS company is unique, its design will also be unique. The best practices serve as a guiding framework for UX designers and UX architects. You do not have to employ all the best practices. You can pick ones that are best suited to your company and purpose.
1. Streamline the architecture
Building an app, website, or SaaS product is hard. Designing it for optimized human experience is harder. Because good human experience involves ease of use and a simplified flow of functionality. Plus the vision of the organization. Since this can mean different things to different people, the definite definition is hard to pin down. One way to boost engagement of a website/product is to create excellent architecture. You can think of architecture as the high-level view of the design. The architecture of a product involves the structure, flow of design, and market research. The structure of a product determines the overlay of usability. Plus, you are not compromising the simplicity of use with functionality.
2. Simplify the user journey
The user journey is a crucial method of understanding customer behavior. Plus, it provides information on a customer’s touchpoints and purchases, among many other things. Therefore, you can use a customer's journey to determine where they are in the sales funnel. Moreover, past data aid in creating a predictive model by analyzing purchases. You can also translate this mapping of a user’s behavior into UX design. By creating a UX that is based on the user journey, you are guiding your customer to conversion. Additionally, you can scale the model to include user journeys of various personas.
3. Brand and platform-specific
Your SaaS UX design should be brand specific. What does it mean? Your brand is more than the colors and logo associated with your company. It also includes words that define your brand and ethos. As well as the feelings you aim to invoke. These things are from your brand. Your websites, mobile app and SaaS products should also reflect this. Additionally, you should optimize your services for all platforms you use. For example, a dynamic gallery is an excellent element that engages audiences. On a website, it works very well because of the large screen. However, the same element will not look the same on a mobile. By optimizing the website to work efficiently on mobile, you are providing the same experience on laptop and mobile. A level of consistency across devices and platforms is also necessary for brand perception.
4. Easy registration and onboarding experience
New experiences can be a frightening ordeal for many people. Because it brings unexpected things and feelings. You can also apply this to registrations. Users want a quick and seamless registration experience. They do not have the time and patience for a long, drawn-out registration process. They will discontinue if they feel it is long or tiresome. Plus, registrations require the input of a lot of information that takes up more mental capacity. A good SaaS UX design is simple and straightforward.
Onboarding does not end at the registration of a user. It also includes the education of the user. Saas products are complex tools that require foundational understanding to operate them. Additionally, navigation of websites and apps can be difficult for many. You can bridge this gap in education by taking a brief minute to explain the workings of the product/website broadly. Or you can create tutorials that help the user navigate. First, you have to register. Then you need to learn to use the product. Finally, after you use the product, we consider them as onboarded users.
5. Search tool and support access
One of the most important and most used functions is the search function. People must have the ability to look up information and location functionalities through the website/product. With tutorials and transparent overlays with educational content, SaaS products become fairly easy to use. However, there is still a need for a fictionality that allows users to look for tools/functions and information through the platform. It gives them quick access without having to look for the tool extensively.
Other functionalities that are used as much as the search tool are the support functionality. SaaS products are niche products and require a certain level of technical knowledge. You are giving your audience a way to reach customer support by providing a support button. And customer support is crucial to a company. Good Saas UX design will account for an audience seeking help. Therefore, most websites and products have a support button on the top. Here, it is easy to reach and find in one glance. Read More: What is SaaS Marketing? How it differs from traditional marketing?
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