What are Some Challenges That UX/UI Designers Face in SaaS Companies?

What are Some Challenges That UX/UI Designers Face in SaaS Companies?


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IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


The main concern for any SaaS company is having customers continuously revisit their product. The best way to ensure this, is by creating a great user experience. This has had a proven success rate especially for SaaS start-ups in the United States, where they incorporate design in their earliest stages of production, and where developers and designers work as one.

This process reduces development costs, stops the company from wasting their limited resources, and increases customer acquisition. The main goal is to have the customer use the product as quickly as possible. This is an ideal scenario, however, UX/UI designers still come across challenges in their day to day work life. 

 

When is the designer onboarded 

UX designer work challenges

During my recruitment career to date, I’ve heard countless candidates tell me that they were brought in late in the production process, and were the first designer on the team. Due to this, it was hard to assert any real and useful changes into the design of the product as there was a  reluctance to go back to the drawing-board and essentially tear down the already live code. Any design that existed up to that point was put in place by developers on the team, who have very little experience (if any) with UX or UI design. This, of course, can lead to negative results for the SaaS product resulting in lost money and the user being reluctant to use the product again.  

 

Fighting for a place at the table 

UX designer meetings

The most frequent feedback I get from my candidates about their current workplace is that they must continuously validate the importance of design in the company. In fact, the most common challenge for UX/UI designers seems to be human imposed, rather than any issues they might have in the design process itself. There are ongoing discussions with the senior leadership teams on why a good user flow and overall design of the service is invaluable for the success of the company. Their lack of knowledge on the matter pushes the design to the back, falsely believing that it’s the developers who should be at the head of the table, rather than the two teams working closely together. The final result often differs from the stakeholders’ vision, primarily due to this unwillingness to communicate. 

 

A barrier between the designer and the user

UX designer challenges

Continuing from the point made above, the lack of understanding of the design process leads to instances where the designers themselves are unable to do their job. One of those barriers exists where companies don’t allow UX designers to talk directly with the customer or user. This naturally slows down the process, on top of potentially hurting the experience for the user. 

UX/UI designers come across various challenges that are outside of their workflow. They have to continuously educate those around them and attempt to assert themselves as an important contributor in the SaaS company. Good design has proven to bring in exceptional results, however, it works best when it is implemented into their early stages of product development. The changes in attitude towards UX and UI design has been shifting for the better in the most recent years, and hopefully leaders will soon learn from their past mistakes of undermining such work. Young start-ups have shown how much good user experience impacts the success of the company. This cannot go unnoticed for much longer. 

 

If you would like to gain further insights into UX challenges other designers are facing, please get in touch with me at cathy.wojnicki@gempool.ie or if you're looking for a new opportunity in the job market, you can head over to our UX/UI jobs page for more information. 


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