Why Simplicity Is So Incredibly Important in SaaS Design?

Simplicity is a simple word with a complicated application. This reality is critical to any SaaS design, like websites, apps, or other SaaS-related products. Therefore, designers working on services by Eleken should pay special attention to it.

But how vital is simplicity to SaaS design? This post answers the question and shares all the important details on attaining it in your design solutions. Read on to learn more and improve your SaaS design.

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What Is Simplicity in SaaS UX Design?

Defining and qualifying UX simplicity is difficult. Therefore, Tom Krcha, an author at the Web Designer Depot, points its subjectivity to multiple meanings. The concept can refer to a design’s “cleanness,” build complexity, intuitiveness, and features.

This multiplicity made Tom define it as “serving users what they need when they need it in the most straightforward way possible.” The keyword to consider here is “the most straightforward way” because it spares users unnecessary complexity. We can also use this definition to say that simplicity in design is the absence of unnecessary complexity.

Benefits of Simplicity in SaaS Design

So, why is simplicity beneficial in SaaS design? Here are the top benefits of simplifying your design.

Faster Loading Speeds

An Etsy experiment showed how a simple design affects a website’s loading speed. The test added 160kb of hidden images to the company’s mobile page to slow it. The addition produced a 12% increase in bounce rate. This increase means SaaS designs must be intuitive to avoid overloading users and improve page loading speeds. 

More User Convenience

A simple design also promotes positive user experiences. Users love doing things fast and prefer paths with the least resistance. Any product or app design that exposes people to unnecessary resistance or difficulty is a big “no” for any SaaS designer. Uber has benefitted from and served its users using simplicity. The company doesn’t care about “wowing” its users with complex, and hence; users love its services.

Reduced Feature Creeps

Complicated SaaS products and solutions are likely to have more feature creeps. It happens when designers keep adding more product features without properly thinking them through. This inconvenience reduces a product’s original value and confuses users with unending options.

User Satisfaction

Online forms are another area where simplicity plays a significant role. Initial web forms lacked visual prompts, and users didn’t realize they had missed fields until they pressed the “complete form” buttons. So, keeping it as simple as necessary and possible is the key here.

How Simplicity Affects SaaS Design

Below are some essential ways it affects an entire SaaS design project.

Your Innovation

Most SaaS companies with increasing customer bases usually face the temptation of plotting all the little feature requests on their product roadmaps. However, keeping a healthy balance and prioritizing feedback sustains your innovativeness while maintaining the intuitive product experiences your customers crave.

Your Marketing and Selling

Simplicity also affects how you market and sell your SaaS products. This effect is visible every time businesses grow; their products have more features, and the SaaS problems they need to solve increase. At this point, seasoned SaaS product marketers face daily problems translating complex feeds and speeds into simplified benefits sales persons can easily present and prospects understand. These marketers also develop solutions that articulate how and when they formulate value and offer prospects easy buying experiences for faster sales cycles.

Customer Retaining and Growth

Lastly, simplicity helps SaaS enterprises grow and maintain customers from the start. This process begins at onboarding, where short and clear processes drive essential metrics like time-to-value (TTV). It moves further to how brands engage their clients throughout their post-sales journeys. This process enables customers to access support documentation and other resources by engaging customer support teams online or in person.

How to Maintain Simplicity in SaaS Design

You are up-to-date on how simplicity in SaaS design affects your business and its benefits. But how do you integrate it into your design projects? This section examines ways to maintain simplicity in your SaaS design.

Leverage Numbers and Data

Nobody disputes data’s power when making key decisions. Working with accurate information and facts hastens and simplifies informed choices. Gathering valuable information allows you to find some of the most critical answers for making decisions. Therefore, leverage your data with simple, insightful reports to turn their insights into intelligent moves.

Avoid Unnecessary Options

Decision-making is one of the essential rituals customers have to engage in while interacting with your brand and offers. However, this process consumes time and energy. If you overload users with choices, you may unknowingly overwhelm them with unnecessary intellectual work.

Consequently, the many small decisions along the way can make customers abort processes and revoke purchase decisions. We recommend giving customers only a few necessary options to hasten decision-making and give them a positive experience.

Define how you wish your users to make every choice. For instance, if you want them to fill in dates of birth, specify your format to avoid confusion and unnecessary delays. The same thing applies to filling in phone numbers. Always clarify if you want them to fill in their numbers with or without dashes/spaces.

Asking and Listening

Asking and listening are among the most effective ways to maintain a simple design that keeps your users happy. Never assume that you no longer need to listen just because you’ve been serving customers for the last 50 years. Always ask your users what works best for them and what doesn’t.

Don’t fear to ask because your ego tells you customers might think you “aren’t an expert enough” to serve them. On the contrary, clients care more about how much you care about them and not how much you know. In fact, all your knowledge is useless if you can’t use it to prove your care for buyers. Thus, keep a listening ear and respond to feedback appropriately.

Conclusion

That’s all you need to know about simplicity’s importance in SaaS design. We hope you will actualize these insights to give your users the simplest design that gives them the best experience.