10 SaaS App Design Mistakes to Avoid

6 min readOct 7, 2020

SaaS market size is predicted to be USD 307.3 billion by the year 2026. Even the COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed down its growth and any aspiring startup in this domain would want to jump on the bandwagon. It’s normal to think about failing to make your mark. But, we have observed that a few SaaS businesses fail because of the design of their UI and not because their products are not useful or innovative enough. The struggle for developing an uncomplicated design is easier said than done. If you wish to get ahead of your competitors, here are some SaaS App design mistakes that UX designers must avoid to attract and retain users.

1. Negligible social presence

Connecting with your target audience on a personal level is equally important as providing them with product information. This creates an intent for prospective clients to use your product. One way to do this is by showcasing testimonials from clients on the webpages. The other is placing all the social buttons on the page itself as we have done on our website.

2. Overly complicated registration page

Users today are tech-savvy. They know that by entering their personal details, they’re opening themselves to tons of solicitation emails. If your app’s registration page asks for too much information, users will refrain from interacting with it. Moreover, a really lengthy registration page is not visually appealing and a huge turn-off.

Keeping this practice in mind, we designed the registration page for Celes Care where only the necessary details are to be entered. We then injected the page with multiple aesthetic colors to counter the over-simplicity.

3. Excessive use of technical jargon

The use of technical language might be a force of habit and it’s easy to forget that app users prefer a more easy-to-understand language. In fact, cut and dry content is not appreciated by most people, regardless of the industry.

Content has to show some personality and resonate with the user’s persona. Technical jargon will only make you seem robotic and confuse users. While crafting content:

Avoid long walls of text
Create easily digestible sections

For instance, consider the example of OneMoney from our portfolio. The language and app structure is kept simple enough for new users to easily understand what the app is offering.

4. No option for a free trial

When it comes to SaaS businesses, not including a ‘try before you buy’ prompt for users leads to potential losses. Even though people can get an idea from demo videos and screenshots, the feel of using the product is completely different.

Salesforce gives users a free trial that acts as a first-hand experience of using the product and also the motivation to invest.

5. Not optimized for mobile

Responsive design is the need of the hour. The UI of your app has to look good on all screen sizes — desktops, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and so on. If your app only looks great on full-size screens, it will be written off for poor user experience.

This is why we have made sure that the apps designed by us, such as Aruba, have a responsive design and adjust itself perfectly, irrespective of the device.

6. Unclear, vague value propositions

That means when a user first visits your app, you have only 8 seconds to explain what your product is all about. That may not be a lot of time, but that’s all you’ll get. This is why vague value propositions are unacceptable.

Avoid fluff at all costs. Tell your users straight away what you are, what you’re offering, and what you want them to do. You can even use subheads to highlight the pain points.

7. Too much focus on features, too little on benefits

Mentioning technical, cold features will not win you brownie points with your target audience. Instead, focus your content on the changes that your product will bring about.

How many SaaS products have you seen saying they provide a feature like, ‘No Downtime’ or ‘Unlimited Cloud Storage’?

Too many, right? So, this doesn’t differentiate your product or bring value to your customers and this is considered to be one of the deadliest SaaS app design mistakes.

8. Not optimizing the loading time

Animations, videos, and high-resolution images are too often mentioned on UX UI design trends. But, nobody ever mentions how they affect the app’s loading time.

The optimization of such large assets is mandatory. If not, the sluggish wait time results in poor user experiences and repels users from using the app.

Hence, our strategy while designing Medicopia was to keep it simple. We optimized the images and animations used in the app to prevent the dramatic slowing down of the app.

9. Too many customization/configuration options

Flexible features can enhance the value of your app. However, presenting users with too many options only frustrates them and hurts the aesthetic feel. Unless your user can quickly and simply find the utility of your app, they will not subscribe to it.

What can you do about it? Hide the options. If your users need them, they can click on the individual tabs and satisfy their curiosity. Just as we did with Corpus ATV platform. We categorized activities such as Gaming, Live TV, Catchup TV, etc upon which users can click to find out more.

10. Only words, no visual elements

Only telling about your product without showing it is one of the biggest SaaS App Design mistakes that UX designers must avoid. Including videos, relevant screenshots, or even gifs of your product will make it easier for your visitors to visualize themselves actually using the product. With a lot of emphasis laid on UX UI design today, you cannot afford to make the mistake of not showcasing your product.

Take for instance Invision, the website showcases their product beautifully.

Final Words

The SaaS marketplace is extremely competitive. You also don’t have to think of perfection from the start. However, avoiding these SaaS app design mistakes will give you a fighting chance in the industry.

For inspiration, check out Divami’s portfolio.

Originally published at https://www.divami.com on October 7, 2020.