For any business, a clean and attractive design shouldn't be all that your website has to offer. It should also convert visitors into leads, and finally into paying customers. Yet, you can't deny that when a potential customer visits your website, first impressions matter. And no business knows this better than software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.
Every SaaS website, no matter the niche, needs to do one thing well: convert visitors into buyers. Your website should be designed according to your company's buyer personas. To give you some inspiration, we’ve compiled 12 features from the best SaaS website examples that make them stand out.
With so many websites and information on the internet, it is unlikely that users remember everything that they come across. However, they will never forget how something makes them feel. Remember, websites that focus on selling to the consumers’ hearts go a long way.
More than the actual information, it is the emotional effect of that information which has an impact on the audience. This is exactly why UX SaaS design has garnered such an integral position in mobile app and web design.
A perfect user experience design for your SaaS site must be a symbiotic combination of text, layout, graphics, and other interactive elements. It should ensure that your users have a once-in-a-lifetime online experience rather than a merely informational view.
Differentiation matters when it comes to the quantity and complexity of information that the users are presented with. If a website doesn’t give an outstanding experience, it is lost somewhere in the web of the internet.
A modern SaaS web page design doesn’t mean that everything on the site has to be complicated. If something is too complicated for the visitor to understand, they are likely to lose interest almost instantly.
According to statistics, a visitor takes 50 milliseconds to decide whether they are interested in your website or not. Therefore, interfaces need to highlight the required actions as clearly as possible for visitors. Users can’t be expected to think too much about what they need to do.
Consider what your website should present first so that it is convenient for visitors to use. For instance, for a specific option, focus on having one useful button rather than having four. The presence of too many similar options can frustrate the visitor and lead to choice paralysis.
In the case of an effective SaaS website design, feedback and visibility are of utmost importance. A good web design ensures that the important things are visible on the website so that users can see what functions are easily available and what the system is presently doing.
Feedback is equally necessary as consistent and constant feedback ensures that users’ desire for control is enhanced. This includes ensuring that the website covers up unintended mistakes and errors that are caused by the user. An honest mistake must be easy to recover from and the users must not find themselves stuck for no reason, with no escape at all. For example, are users allowed to go back without losing their web form entries? What happens if they enter incorrect payment info?
SaaS websites with an optimal conversion rate don’t beat around the bush. They state their main value proposition loud and clear. Their detailed service pages reveal the useful features and robust nature of their software. They also clearly mention who their target audience is. Many websites make the conversation all about them, but effective SaaS websites prominently feature their users as the main heroes.
Using a to-the-point web design, SaaS businesses can cater to both organized users and procrastinators. The layout of some of the best SaaS websites is at all times both simple and dynamic. They don’t waste time and clearly mention what they do and who they do it for.
You’ll find plenty of effective SaaS websites that offer examples of how you can create a compelling story around your users. These sites use featured testimonials from managers, employees, and clients to reiterate key product differentiators.
If you care to hear more peer opinions, you can browse an entire library of interviews with thought leaders relevant to their niche. Many of these sites also prompt you to join a free community or request a product demo tour.
The best SaaS websites use persuasive copywriting to make it easy for visitors to see how the product compares to competitor offerings. For example, you can have a separate section on the site dedicated to outlining your advantages and what the user should do and shouldn’t do to compare products. Keep the language simple and avoid technical jargon that is too complex to understand.
SaaS web design is also consistent. It reuses different behaviors, components, and colors all over each page so that users develop a feeling of familiarity. This involves everything from the placement of buttons and icons to the colors and fonts you use.
Maintaining a consistent UX design theme makes everything simpler and clearer. Keep in mind that today’s user wants to save time. Anything task that is time-consuming can become a major annoyance.
Use solid typography (such as dark on white), appealing color themes, and design elements that are easy to navigate.
A good SaaS website will look good and work properly no matter what the situation is. When designing your SaaS website, focus on design elements that work best in various circumstances (such as straightforward responsive formats, less things stuffed in corners, concise text etc.)
Moreover, your design should factor in different device resolutions. Whether a visitor is on a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop, they should receive an outstanding experience with no compromises. Your website content should cater to any and all commonly used screen sizes.
Many users feel uncomfortable browsing a website if it’s not responsive. They may leave the site sooner which, at scale, will lead to decreased traffic and revenue loss.
Navigation is, undoubtedly, one of the most common animation techniques used on SaaS websites. Recently, website designers have created navigation innovations that enable customers to use websites more smoothly.
Navigation items and icons are displayed or hidden dynamically based on user actions. This technique helps in saving screen space and keeps the user focused on the main area of your website. It creates an organized appearance and shows that your website is professional.
You can also use navigation to break your website into categories, which makes it easy for potential customers to find content within each category. This speeds up the time customers spend searching on your site and makes your pages more accessible.
Here’s another bonus point of having great navigation: viewers are more willing to explore your site and spend more time reviewing your company and its products. You can also hire professionals to help you with this, or look into ready-to-use navigation bars that work with your CMS.
A good SaaS website design is the one that is easy to trust. If you want your user to perform an action, then make sure you help them understand why the action is required.
Be truthful and clear in descriptions. This will help you build trust at every stage, resulting in more conversions down the funnel.
Many SaaS companies put security seals on their site to increase conversions and build credibility. Some reveal trust scores or sales stats on their websites that show visitors how safe their business is. Others indicate the presence of SSL/TLS, meaning the site connects over https and data transmitted between a visitor’s browser and the server is encrypted.
Once you develop that trust, your users are more willing to share their payment information, which they might not want to share with an outsider. Eliminating distrust will produce an increasingly seamless user experience.
Every website has to find a way to provide feedback to viewers. That’s where animations come in. Some of the best SaaS websites out there use animations to provide feedback on actions performed by users. This could be as simple as a background color that changes when a button is hovered over, or as complex as an interactive statistical graph that dynamically displays data based on the user’s location. Animations enhance the overall user experience by improving the communication abilities of your site.
Split screens are everywhere in today’s SaaS website design trends. Hands down, split screens are the easiest way to pack more information on the main screen without making it too busy.
Many SaaS websites split their homepage and use animation to reinforce their main pitch. They use cool and memorable illustrations and graphics to break away from the “SaaS is boring” stigma.
Some of the best SaaS websites we’ve come across have an interesting Customer Stories section. Rather than the traditional case study, these stories are told in an interesting narrative form that shows how the software played an integral role in solving the customer’s unique problem.
They show pictures of actual customers at work and sometimes let the customers do the talking with short video testimonials. This goes a long way towards proving to a visitor that the business is a trustworthy company with a great product.
At Expedition Co., we guide startups and established organizations alike, turning fledgling ideas into compelling products. If you are looking for a premier website design and development company for your SaaS business, contact us today. Our enterprise team can help you build a custom design that’s responsive and engaging with an exceptional conversion rate.
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