How, When, and Where to Find a Designer for a SaaS Application
Design and user experience (UX) are among the most important aspects of SaaS. Good design helps not only convert customers but also engage them with your product and make them return again and again.
But how do you find someone who can create stunning UX for your SaaS clients?
First of all, to correctly and fairly evaluate each designer's portfolio, you need to understand what good SaaS design looks like.
What's Special About SaaS Design?
The ultimate goal of a designer is not to wow users with a great user interface of a SaaS product, but to make them say "wow" at how easily and effectively the app helped them solve their problem.
Therefore, a good SaaS project should have the following characteristics.
Flexibility
Since SaaS products tend to scale quickly, a professional designer must always take this into account. To handle the constant evolution and growth of a cloud application, instead of spending all time and effort creating components tailored to current needs, a good designer makes everything adaptable and scalable to future requirements. This means a SaaS product designer should be able to work with design systems.
Fast and Easy Sign-Up Process
The next thing that helps your customers quickly realize that your product is effective and needed is a simple sign-up process.
Due to the nature of the "software as a service" model, people access the product through a browser, so they usually aren't comfortable entering too much data just for a trial (especially billing info).
Designers who understand the essence of SaaS strive to make the sign-up process fast, clear, and short. They achieve this by using short forms, removing all extraneous information, and creating clear call-to-action buttons.
Let's look at Trello's sign-up process.
It's very fast and simple. The visitor sees a short form that asks only for an email address and a bright call-to-action button with a clear label: "Sign up — it's free!"
Thus, the visitor only needs to complete one step to accomplish their task.
Clear and Noticeable Call-to-Action Buttons
When a customer uses the app, they should understand what to do and what will happen after certain actions. CTAs help users quickly achieve their goals and easily complete tasks.
Effective CTAs that turn visitors into customers are usually appropriately sized (large enough to be noticed), contrast well, and have persuasive copy.
Here's an example of a well-designed CTA created by our team for ClientJoy (formerly Gridle).
The headline presents Clientjoy's value proposition, and then the reader's attention logically moves to a contrasting CTA button that says "sign up for free". The size and color make the CTA easy to spot.
Intuitive and Clear Page Architecture
UI patterns such as forms, button styles, pages, and reports should engage users. When patterns are consistent and intuitive, they make the product appealing and build habit.
Minimalist and clean design is the first step to eliminating unnecessary features and clutter in a cloud application. It helps users focus on the core elements and bring order to the overall layout.
A SaaS product renowned for its simplicity and clean minimalist design is Dropbox.
Even beginners in this app can easily understand how it works and what is required of them. The minimalist design and clear navigation leave no room for confusion.
Human-Centered Design
Designing SaaS products requires deep study of users and their behavior, because the primary goal of any cloud software is to provide value to the customer. SaaS UX design works as a tool that helps communicate value and create a convenient, practical product.
Duolingo is an excellent example of a simple, intuitive app centered primarily on users. Duolingo's design resembles a video game. It's filled with interactive visuals, yet there are no extraneous elements that could confuse the user.
This language-learning app demonstrates what human-centered design is.
Optimized Dashboard
SaaS products help users process large volumes of data. Good SaaS UX design allows presenting important information to users quickly. Most frequently used data, pending updates, and summaries of key events encourage users to keep coming back.
Therefore, cloud app developers must be able to create understandable dashboards that provide users with all the necessary data.
Based on the above principles that contribute to effective SaaS design, we can define the skills a cloud software designer should possess.
How to Hire a SaaS Designer
If you are new to the world of UX design, it's easy to get confused when trying to find the best candidate. To understand which direction to look, let's break down:
- what are the responsibilities of a UI/UX designer;
- what skills, knowledge, and experience should a designer have to fulfill these responsibilities;
- how to identify the candidate's skills, personal qualities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Understanding the UI/UX Designer's Responsibilities
The role of a SaaS designer requires:
- Understanding the specifics of the SaaS business
- Mastering the end-to-end design process, including user research, prototyping, testing ideas, and refining design based on data and customer feedback
- Clearly articulating problems based on research and data
- Identifying user needs, iterating solutions
- Skillfully and consistently creating/working with an existing design system
- Choosing logical UI patterns, ensuring polished visual design and transitions
- Knowing user-centered design principles
- Being able to work with modern design and prototyping tools (Figma, Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.)
Identify Core Skills and Experience
A UX designer can't be a jack-of-all-trades, an expert in everything. However, there are a number of applied skills a candidate needs to fulfill the role of a UI/UX designer:
- UX research. To create a great SaaS app, a designer needs to understand who the users are, what their needs are, and how they plan to use the product. To figure this out, UI/UX professionals should conduct user research before starting the design.
- Information architecture. UX design is not just about "making things look pretty". It also requires the designer to structure the app's content and features in a way that is user-friendly.
- Wireframing. The design process usually begins with black-and-white layouts to focus on the logic behind the elements.
- Visual design. The look and feel of the product have a huge impact on the user's perception of the interface. Therefore, the designer must be able to create pixel-perfect icons, buttons, and color schemes.
- Prototyping and testing. To ensure that your design decisions will be understood by users, the designer must be able to conduct user tests before launching the product.
Evaluate the Candidate's Education
When it comes to education, many UX designers don't hold a degree in UX or related fields. It's entirely possible to start a UX career without a diploma, replacing it with UX courses and self-study.
Instead of requiring degrees, ask candidates to present their portfolios. There is no better way to gauge a designer's qualifications and ability to find solutions for various design challenges than by reviewing their portfolio. Additionally, a portfolio demonstrates the candidate's work ethic — something all employers look for.
Another opportunity for the candidate to showcase their knowledge is through a pre-employment test assignment. For example, design a user interface for an AI messenger mobile app (at least 3 screens).
Talk Live
An effective workflow and successful final result are impossible without mutual understanding between you and the designer. So it's very important to ensure you're comfortable communicating with a potential employee. The best way to see if communication is easy is to request a video interview.
Tell the designer everything about the future app. Share your thoughts on the target audience, monetization strategy, and unique value proposition, show a moodboard with liked app designs, etc. Share all this information and listen carefully to the designer's feedback to see if you want to work with them.
Prepare a List of Questions
First, ask the candidate what sets great UX design apart from bad UX design. Mature professionals have their own definition of good design and can formulate a clear, specific answer to this question.
Knowing what good UX is one thing. Knowing how to create good UX is another. This brings us to the question of the candidate's knowledge of UX best practices.
Technical questions are meant to assess the designer's level of professionalism in the field. Here you want to learn how the candidate structures their design process and what methods they use in their work. For example, ask the candidate to talk about the last project on their resume.
If a candidate is serious about building their career as a SaaS designer, that's always a good sign for any employer. So it's worthwhile to ask interviewees how they became designers and how they see their professional growth.
Here is a sample list of interview questions for SaaS designers:
- Tell me about yourself.
- What is the difference between UX and UI?
- What sets good UX apart from bad UX?
- Tell me about some of your favorite examples of good UX.
- Tell me about the development process of this project.
- How do you see your future career in UX design?
- Do you have any questions?
Don't Forget About Onboarding After Hiring a Designer
After hiring a designer, take time for onboarding and establishing a proper workflow. Otherwise, the whole endeavor will be doomed to fail.
Here are a few tips on how to help designers create high-quality products.
- Introduce designers to your product
Any designer hired to develop a product must have a clear understanding of how that product works. Obvious, right? However, digesting this volume of information in a short time is no easy task. Help your designers by documenting all guides, demo videos, and client interviews in one place.
- Explain your workflow
Walk the new employee through the entire workflow, explain how everything is set up and why it works that way. Describe in detail which rules are flexible and which are fixed. In the early days, a newcomer may benefit from "shadowing" an experienced designer.
- Allocate time for learning
Where to Find a Designer
Understanding the specifics of SaaS design makes it easier to review resumes and portfolios.
Let's look at some places where you can find a designer for your app.
Upwork
Upwork is a global freelancing platform that offers help to employers wanting to hire and manage remote specialists. You can find a freelancer or freelance agency, conduct an interview, and start collaborating.
Here you can find profiles of app designers with their work experience, reviews, and links to portfolios.
Designhill
Designhill is a popular creative marketplace that helps businesses and individuals find professional designers for projects of varying complexity and scale. You just describe your needs, fill out a brief, and wait for responses from professionals, then choose the one you like best.
Behance
Another way to find a good specialist is to search on Behance. The site features portfolio listings of various designers. You can find samples you like, see who created them, and reach out.
Dribbble
Similar to Behance, Dribbble provides a listing of works by various designers and creatives. Filter by the specialization you need ("SaaS app", "web design", "interactive design", "SaaS dashboard", "B2B dashboard", etc.), find work you like, and contact the creators.
Clutch
Clutch is a B2B hiring decision platform. You can find design agencies sorted by objective client reviews, experience, client list, etc.
Word of Mouth
Asking friends and acquaintances for advice may seem somewhat old-fashioned, but don't neglect it. Talk to people you know, ask if they have contacts of designers who might be useful. Who knows, maybe someone you know has faced the same problem and can give you useful recommendations.
Don't know where to find something? Just run a Google search! We think you know how to use this tool well. Google gives access to a huge amount of information, but don't forget to thoroughly vet the agencies or freelancers you find there.
Conclusion
Choosing a designer for your app is a complex and important task. It's crucial to find a designer who doesn't just blindly follow your instructions, but works as your thought partner, helping you navigate complex problems.