The default answer has been A/B testing. But while A/B testing remains the gold standard for high-stakes decisions, it’s not always the right tool for every design change. Many teams have fallen into the trap of either testing everything (creating bottlenecks and slowing innovation) or testing nothing (making changes based purely on intuition).

There’s a better way. By understanding when different validation* methods are most appropriate, SaaS teams can make faster, more confident design decisions while maintaining the rigor needed for their most critical changes.

*Note: We know validation is a bad word in the research community because it implies “proving you’re right,” but we feel it’s easier to read and more quickly comprehensible for those not in research disciplines. We’re using “validation” in this article, but “evaluation” or “confirm or disconfirm” would be more acute in other settings.

The real cost of a bad experimentation strategy

When teams lack a clear strategy for validating decisions, they create what researcher Jared Spool calls “Experience Rot” – the gradual deterioration of user experience quality from moving too slowly or focusing solely on economic outcomes rather than user needs.

The costs manifest in several ways:

• Opportunity cost: Market opportunities disappear while waiting for test results that may not even be necessary
• Resource waste: Development time gets tied up in prolonged testing initiatives for low-risk changes
• Analysis paralysis: Teams debate endlessly about what to test next instead of making decisions
• Competitive disadvantage: Competitors gain ground while you’re stuck in lengthy validation cycles

The key is matching your experimentation method to the decision you’re making, rather than forcing every design change through the same validation process.

A framework for design validation decisions

The path to better validation starts with two fundamental questions about any proposed design change:

1. Is this strategically important? Does this change significantly impact key business metrics or user experience?
2. What’s the potential risk? What happens if this change performs worse than expected?

Using these dimensions, you can map any design change into one of four validation approaches:

High Strategic Importance + Low Risk = Just ship it

If you can’t explain meaningful downsides to a design change but know it’s strategically important, you probably don’t need to validate it at all. These are your quick wins.

Examples for SaaS teams:

• Adding customer testimonials to your pricing page
• Improving mobile responsiveness
• Fixing broken links or outdated screenshots
• Adding clearer error messages in your product

Why this works: The upside is clear, the downside is minimal, and the time spent testing could be better invested elsewhere.

Low Strategic Importance = Deprioritize

Not every design change needs validation because not every change is worth making. Some modifications simply aren’t worth the time and resources, regardless of the validation method you might use.

Examples of low-impact changes:

• Minor color adjustments to non-critical elements
• Changing footer layouts
• Tweaking secondary page designs that get little traffic
• Adjusting spacing that doesn’t affect usability

When to reconsider: If data later shows these areas are creating friction, they can move up in priority.

High Strategic Importance + High Risk = Validation territory

This is where both A/B testing and rapid testing methods become valuable. The critical next decision becomes: can you reach statistical significance within an acceptable timeframe, and are you technically capable of running the experiment?

When to use A/B testing vs rapid testing

When to use A/B testing for design changes

A/B testing remains your best option for design changes when:

• You have sufficient traffic on the experience: Generally, you need 1,000+ visitors per week to the page being tested
• The change is reversible: You can easily switch back if the results are negative
• You need statistical confidence: Stakes are high enough to justify the time investment
• Technical capability exists: Your team can implement and track the test properly

Examples of SaaS use cases for A/B testing:

• Complete homepage redesigns
• Pricing page layouts and messaging
• Sign-up flow modifications
• Core product onboarding changes
• High-traffic landing page variations

When to use rapid testing for design changes

When A/B testing isn’t right due to traffic constraints, technical limitations, or time pressures, rapid testing provides a faster path to validation.

Rapid testing methods work particularly well for SaaS design validation because they can:

• Validate concepts before development: Test wireframes and mockups before building
• Narrow down options: Compare multiple design variations quickly
• Identify usability issues: Spot problems before they reach real users
• Provide qualitative insights: Understand the “why” behind user preferences

Examples of SaaS use cases for rapid testing:

• New feature naming and messaging
• Dashboard navigation restructuring
• Enterprise sales page designs (low traffic)
• Value proposition clarity testing
• Multi-option comparisons (6-8 variations)

The natural next question might be “which rapid testing method should I use?” Here is another decision tree framework to help answer that.

Incorporate your experimentation strategy into your design process

With a decision-making strategy for how and what to test, you’ll need to incorporate the strategy into your design process. The most successful SaaS teams don’t treat validation as an afterthought. They build it into their process from the beginning:

• During ideation: Use rapid testing to validate concepts and narrow options before detailed design work
• During design: Test wireframes and mockups to identify issues before development
• Before launch: Use A/B testing for high-stakes changes, rapid testing for others
• After launch: Continue testing iterations based on user feedback and performance data

The compounding benefits of a sound experimentation strategy

The goal isn’t to replace A/B testing with rapid methods or vice versa. Both have their place in a mature experimentation strategy. The key is understanding when each approach provides the most value for your specific situation and constraints.

Teams that master this balanced approach to validation see remarkable improvement, including:

• 50% better A/B test win rates (because rapid testing helps identify winning concepts)
• Faster time-to-market for design improvements
• More confident decision-making across the organization
• Better team morale from seeing results from their work more quickly

Perhaps most importantly, they avoid the extremes of either testing nothing (high risk) or testing everything (slow progress).

For SaaS teams serious about optimization, the question isn’t whether to validate design changes; it’s whether you’re using the right validation method for each decision.

Start by auditing your current design change process. Are you testing changes that should be implemented immediately? Are you implementing changes that should be tested? By aligning your validation approach with the strategic importance and risk level of each change, you can move faster without sacrificing confidence in your decisions.

And if you aren’t sure how to get started, our team can help.

The post How to Validate Website Design Changes: A Decision Framework appeared first on The Good.

We dove deep into the user experiences of 15 top AI tools, documenting over 100 monetization touchpoints, upgrade pathways, and conversion tactics. What we found were five distinct patterns that drive revenue for these leaders.

These strategies aren’t just for AI. They’re blueprints that any SaaS tool can adapt to accelerate its own growth. Here’s what we learned.

The data behind the patterns

Our analysis covered tools spanning text generation (ChatGPT, Claude), search (Perplexity), design (Ideogram, Leonardo.AI), video creation (Runway), and productivity (Grammarly, QuillBot). Each tool was examined across four critical areas:

• Monetization elements: Upgrade CTAs, limit notifications, premium feature gates, and more
• Monetization pathways: The specific user journeys from free to paid
• Pricing and payment screens: Where users actually convert when they decide to upgrade
• Missed opportunities: Places where tools could be driving more conversions

What emerged were five clear patterns that high-converting tools use consistently.

Pattern #1: The progressive squeeze

The strategy: Start with subtle hints, then gradually increase conversion prompts as users become more invested.

Who’s doing it: Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity have mastered this approach.

How it works: These tools begin with gentle upgrade suggestions embedded in the interface. A small CTA in the sidebar, a mention of plan limits in account settings. As users engage more, the messaging becomes increasingly direct.

Claude exemplifies this perfectly. New users see a subtle “Free plan” indicator and a small upgrade CTA. After several conversations, users get friendly notifications about approaching limits. Only when limits are actually hit does Claude present the strong upgrade push with clear urgency messaging.

ChatGPT follows a similar pattern but with more touchpoints. Multiple upgrade opportunities appear once logged in, but the real conversion push happens when users try to upload files or access advanced features.

Why it converts: Users invest time and mental energy before hitting any hard walls. By the time they reach limits, they’re already committed to the tool and see clear value in upgrading rather than switching to alternatives.

The missed opportunity: Many tools go straight to hard limits without the progressive buildup, losing users who might have converted with a gentler approach.

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How Top AI Tools Turn Free Users Into Paying Customers

Pattern #2: The feature tease

The strategy: Show users exactly what they’re missing by displaying premium features prominently, then gating access.

Who’s doing it: Ideogram, Grammarly, and Leonardo.AI excel at this approach.

How it works: These tools don’t hide their premium features. Instead, they showcase them prominently with visual cues like lock icons, blurred previews, or “Pro” badges. Users can see the feature, understand its value, and often interact with locked elements that trigger upgrade modals.

Ideogram shows locked features upfront on the dashboard, displays private galleries as gated sections, and lets users click through to see upgrade benefits. When users generate images, editing options appear with clear visual indicators of which features require upgrading.

Grammarly shows blurred premium suggestions alongside free ones, lets users see statistics with tone analysis grayed out, and provides partial feature previews that create curiosity about the full experience.

Why it converts: Curiosity combined with FOMO creates powerful motivation. When users can see exactly what they’re missing and how it would solve their problems, the upgrade decision becomes much easier.

Implementation tip: The key is showing enough value to create desire while maintaining a clear visual hierarchy between free and premium features.

Pattern #3: The moment of need

The strategy: Present upgrade options precisely when users are most invested and would benefit most from premium features.

Who’s doing it: Runway, QuillBot, and Character.AI time their conversion prompts perfectly.

How it works: Instead of generic upgrade CTAs, these tools interrupt workflows at strategic moments when users are actively trying to accomplish something and would most benefit from premium features.

Runway waits until users want to export in 4K resolution or remove watermarks, both of which are moments when they’re already committed to using the generated content.

QuillBot triggers upgrade prompts when users hit word limits mid-task, not during idle browsing.

Why it converts: Perfect timing equals the highest conversion rates. When users are already invested in a task and premium features would immediately solve their problem, the upgrade becomes a logical next step rather than an interruption.

The psychology: This taps into the completion bias. Once users start a task, they’re motivated to finish it, making them more likely to pay to remove obstacles.

Pattern #4: The transparent countdown

The strategy: Create urgency and build trust by clearly showing usage limits, remaining credits, and reset timers.

Who’s doing it: Perplexity, Grammarly, and Copy.AI have perfected transparent limit communication.

How it works: Instead of surprising users with sudden limits, these tools constantly communicate remaining usage through progress bars, countdown timers, and clear messaging about when limits reset.

Perplexity shows “2 queries remaining today” with each search, giving users clear visibility into their usage without anxiety.

Grammarly displays credit counts and refill timers for AI features, so users can plan their usage accordingly.

Copy.AI uses a prominent word count progress bar that updates in real-time, showing exactly how much of their monthly limit has been used.

Why it converts: Transparency builds trust while creating healthy urgency. Users appreciate knowing where they stand and can make informed decisions about when to upgrade rather than feeling tricked by hidden limits.

The trust factor: When users trust that limits are fair and clearly communicated, they’re more likely to see upgrading as a reasonable business transaction rather than being forced into paying.

Pattern #5: The omnipresent nudge

The strategy: Place multiple upgrade touchpoints throughout the interface without being intrusive.

Who’s doing it: ChatGPT, QuillBot, and Ideogram have mastered multi-touchpoint conversion.

How it works: These tools strategically place upgrade opportunities at different points in the user journey, including header CTAs, sidebar reminders, settings page options, and feature-specific prompts. The key is making each touchpoint feel contextual rather than repetitive.

ChatGPT places upgrade CTAs in the dropdown menu, file upload tooltips, model selection interfaces, and account settings. Each serves a different user intent and provides value beyond just asking for payment.

QuillBot integrates upgrade opportunities into the workflow, for example, in premium mode selectors, feature benefit explanations, and contextual prompts that feel helpful rather than pushy.

Why it converts: Repetition without annoyance increases recall and provides multiple chances to convert users at different readiness levels. Some users need to see upgrade options multiple times before they’re ready to act.

The balance: The key is ensuring each touchpoint provides value or information, rather than simply asking for money repeatedly.

The standout performers

While all 15 tools showed growth-focused design, three stood out for their sophisticated monetization strategies:

Claude excels at the Progressive Squeeze, building user investment before presenting upgrade opportunities. Their limit messaging feels helpful rather than restrictive, and the upgrade pathway is seamless.

Ideogram masters the Feature Tease, showcasing premium capabilities so effectively that users understand the upgrade value before reaching any limits. Their visual hierarchy makes premium features aspirational rather than frustrating.

Perplexity nails the Transparent Countdown, creating urgency without anxiety through clear limit communication and value-focused messaging.

Common missed opportunities

Our analysis revealed several patterns where even successful tools leave money on the table:

• Timing failures: Many tools show upgrade prompts during onboarding when users haven’t yet experienced value, rather than waiting for engagement.
• Value communication gaps: Some tools gate features without clearly explaining the benefits, leading to confusion rather than desire.
• Conversion pathway friction: Several tools send users to generic pricing pages rather than contextual upgrade flows that maintain momentum.
• Limit surprises: Tools that suddenly cut off functionality without warning create frustration rather than conversion motivation.

Applying these patterns to your SaaS growth strategies

These AI growth strategies aren’t limited to AI tools. The underlying principles work for any SaaS looking to improve free-to-paid conversion:

Start with your user journey mapping

Identify key moments where users experience value and where they encounter limitations. These are your conversion opportunity points.

Audit your current upgrade messaging

Are you using the Progressive Squeeze, or do you jump straight to hard limits? Are you showing users what they’re missing with Feature Teasing?

Review your limit of communication

Do users understand their usage limits, and when they reset? Transparent Countdown reduces churn and builds trust.

Optimize your touchpoint strategy

Map where upgrade CTAs appear in your interface and ensure each serves a specific user need rather than just asking for payment.

Test your conversion timing

Are you presenting upgrade options when users are most invested (Moment of Need) or just when it’s convenient for your UI?

What does this mean for your growth strategy?

AI tools are teaching us that successful monetization isn’t always about restricting features; it can be about showcasing value, building trust, and timing conversion opportunities perfectly. The tools growing fastest aren’t necessarily those with the best AI models, but those with the smartest user experience design.

These patterns work because they align business needs with user psychology. Instead of seeing limits as barriers, users experience them as natural progression points toward greater value.

The AI boom provides a unique laboratory for studying growth tactics at scale. These tools process millions of users and can iterate rapidly, revealing what actually drives conversions versus what we think should work.

As AI capabilities become more commoditized, user experience (including monetization design) becomes the key differentiator. The tools implementing these patterns now are building sustainable competitive advantages that will persist even as the underlying technology evolves.

Taking action on these insights

The most successful SaaS companies will adapt these AI growth strategies to their own products before their competitors catch on. Start by analyzing your current monetization approach against these five patterns:

1. Map your user journey to identify Progressive Squeeze opportunities
2. Audit your feature visibility to implement Feature Teasing where appropriate
3. Review your limit of communication to adopt Transparent Countdown principles
4. Time your conversion prompts to leverage the Moment of Need psychology
5. Optimize your touchpoint strategy using Omnipresent Nudge best practices

The data from these 15 AI tools provides a roadmap, but implementation requires careful testing and optimization for your specific user base and value proposition.

Ready to apply these AI growth strategies to accelerate your SaaS growth? The Good specializes in analyzing user experiences and implementing conversion optimization strategies that turn insights into revenue. Our team has helped dozens of SaaS companies optimize their monetization flows using data-driven approaches just like this analysis.

Get your personalized monetization strategy audit. We’ll analyze your current user experience against these proven patterns and create a prioritized optimization roadmap tailored to your product and audience. Schedule a consultation with our team to discover how these AI growth strategies can accelerate your revenue growth.

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How Top AI Tools Turn Free Users Into Paying Customers

The post 5 SaaS Growth Strategies That Work (Based On Analysis Of 15 Top AI Tools) appeared first on The Good.

While 89% of product teams are conducting user interviews according to recent industry data, there’s a critical gap between gathering user input and uncovering the insights that actually drive business results.

We see this all the time in our client work. Teams building features that competitors have without competitor data, or developing features based on the loudest customers without checking the significance of those friction points.

So what’s the solution?

The companies consistently shipping features that move the needle know the difference between asking users what they want and understanding what they actually need. It starts with discovery research.

What is discovery research in UX?

Discovery research in UX is the foundational phase of user research that focuses on understanding user problems, needs, and contexts before any solutions are designed.

Unlike evaluative research methods that test existing designs or prototypes, discovery research explores the unknown territory of user behavior to uncover opportunities and define problems worth solving.

Discovery research helps you understand use cases and user needs. It can ground you in what problems to solve and what is going on in the market.

This grounding is essential for product teams who want to build features that users actually need and will drive growth.

Discovery research typically involves methods like user interviews, field studies, diary studies, and market analysis. These approaches help teams understand the broader context of user goals and challenges before jumping into design solutions. The insights gathered during this phase become the strategic foundation for all subsequent product decisions.

Discovery research versus UX discovery

While these terms are often used interchangeably, there’s an important distinction that affects how product teams approach their research strategy.

Discovery research specifically refers to the research methods and activities used to understand user needs and identify problems. It’s the “how” of gathering insights through interviews, observations, and analysis. This includes techniques like ethnographic studies, user interviews, and competitive analysis.

UX discovery, on the other hand, is the broader strategic phase that encompasses discovery research, but also includes other activities such as technical feasibility assessments, business viability analysis, and stakeholder alignment. UX discovery is the “what and why” that frames the entire early-stage product exploration.

Think of discovery research as the tactical execution within the strategic framework of UX discovery. A comprehensive UX discovery process will include multiple types of discovery research methods. It also considers business constraints, technical limitations, and market opportunities.

For SaaS product teams, this distinction matters because it clarifies roles and expectations. UX researchers lead discovery research activities, while product managers typically orchestrate the broader UX discovery process that incorporates research findings into strategic decisions.

Understanding this difference helps teams avoid the common mistake of treating research as a checkbox activity rather than a strategic input that informs product direction.

Benefits of discovery research

Discovery research delivers tangible benefits that extend far beyond the research team, directly impacting product success and business outcomes.

Reduces development risk and waste

The most immediate benefit of discovery research is risk reduction. By understanding user needs and the specific problems before development begins, teams avoid building features that miss the mark. This is particularly critical for SaaS teams where failed features mean ongoing maintenance costs and technical debt that compound over time.

Enables data-driven product decisions

Discovery research transforms product decisions from opinion-based to evidence-based. Instead of stakeholder preferences driving priorities, user insights guide development resources toward the highest-potential impact opportunities.

Uncover hidden opportunities

Discovery research often reveals unmet user needs that aren’t obvious from analytics or existing feedback channels. These insights can become the foundation for innovative features that differentiate your product in the market.

Improves cross-team alignment

When discovery research findings are shared across product, design, and development teams, everyone gains a shared understanding of user priorities. This alignment reduces conflicting opinions and streamlines the development process.

Accelerates time-to-market for successful features

While discovery research requires upfront time investment, it actually accelerates the development of successful features by ensuring teams build the right things from the start.

Enhances user satisfaction and retention

Products built on solid discovery research foundations better meet user expectations, leading to higher satisfaction scores and improved retention rates. Users feel heard and understood when products solve their actual problems rather than perceived problems.

This is essential for SaaS businesses where discovery research can identify the difference between features that drive daily engagement versus one-time usage, directly impacting churn rates.

When to use discovery research

Discovery research is best leveraged as part of a continuous research strategy.

Teresa Torres, expert and author of Continuous Discovery Habits, recommends weekly conversations with customers. “Continuous discovery means weekly touchpoints with customers by the team building the product, where they conduct small research activities in pursuit of a desired outcome.”

The goal is to take research from something you pause to do, into something you always do.

Many leaders will have experimentation rituals that allow quick and consistent feedback on ideas/products, but it’s rarer to see teams prioritize discovery on a frequent cadence.

When you manage discovery in batches or isolated sprints, it can mean you miss out on opportunities or delay solving urgent problems for customers.

Common discovery activities in UX

Effective discovery research employs multiple methods to build an understanding of the problem landscape and market conditions. Not all are required, but a combination will give a better picture to work off.

Diary studies

For understanding user behavior over time, diary studies ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and interactions over days or weeks. This method is particularly valuable for SaaS products where user needs evolve or vary based on different use cases and timeframes.

User interviews

One-on-one conversations with users can be a great pillar of discovery research. The key to successful interviews in discovery is asking open-ended questions that help explore user motivations, frustrations, and workflows. A good foundation is to conduct 6-8 interviews per user segment to get a picture of current challenges and behaviors.

Field studies and contextual inquiry

Observing users in their natural environment provides insights that interviews alone can’t capture. Field studies reveal the environmental, social, and technical factors that influence user behavior, uncovering needs that users might not articulate in interviews.

Competitive analysis and market research

Understanding the competitive landscape helps identify opportunities for differentiation. It also uncovers whether user problems are being adequately solved by existing solutions. This desk research complements user-facing research methods.

Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) research framework

JTBD research helps frame what job users are “hiring” your product to do. It can help you think beyond features to understand the fundamental progress users are trying to make in their lives or work.

Card sorting

This method helps teams understand how users categorize information and conceptualize problem spaces. Card sorting is particularly useful for discovering how users naturally group features or content areas.

Survey research

While qualitative methods provide depth, surveys can help uncover findings across larger user populations. Use surveys to quantify the prevalence of problems discovered through qualitative research.

Leveraging discovery research for better outcomes

In an era where 83% of designers, product managers, and researchers agree that research should be conducted at every stage of product development, it’s critical to understand discovery research in UX.

Discovery research is a tool that helps you dig into current user needs and prioritize the problems worth solving. It provides the user insights needed to build theme-based roadmaps, prioritize high-impact features, and avoid costly development mistakes. Most importantly, it ensures that every dollar spent on product development addresses real user needs rather than perceived problems.

Ready to make discovery research work for your product team? The Good specializes in helping SaaS companies uncover the user insights that drive product success. Our team combines deep research expertise with practical product strategy to ensure your research translates into features that drive growth.

Get in touch with The Good to discuss how discovery research can accelerate your product development and improve user satisfaction. Let’s turn your user insights into your competitive advantage.

The post What Is Discovery Research in UX? appeared first on The Good.

This thinking is not only wrong, but also expensive and potentially harmful to your product strategy.

Today’s SaaS products exist across multiple “surfaces,” not just desktop and mobile apps, but also mobile web, browser extensions, widgets, and even smart TVs. Each surface represents a different way users can interact with your product, and each can serve a distinct purpose.

After working with dozens of scaling SaaS companies and analyzing surface strategies across hundreds of products, we’ve discovered that the most successful companies don’t aim for feature parity. Instead, they make deliberate, strategic decisions about which surfaces serve which purposes in their ecosystem.

Here’s the framework that’s helping product leaders at companies like Adobe, Slack, and emerging SaaS startups rethink their entire multi-surface strategy.

Organic growth spurs feature parity

The pressure to achieve feature parity stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of how users actually interact with different surfaces. Product teams often default to replicating their experience across surfaces without considering the strategic implications.

“Most products start with just one surface,” explains Natalie Thomas, Director of Strategy & UX at The Good. “Adobe started with a desktop app, and YouTube started on the web. Then they often bleed into other surfaces. The family of surfaces is likely to grow over time, and they are of different strategic importance.”

This organic growth pattern creates a dangerous assumption that every surface should eventually do everything the original surface does. But here’s what we’ve learned from analyzing successful SaaS ecosystems: the most strategic approach isn’t about matching features. It’s about defining distinct purposes.

The four strategic surface types every product leader should know

Rather than thinking in terms of feature parity, successful SaaS companies categorize their surfaces based on strategic purpose. This categorization is based on our analysis of high-performing SaaS ecosystems.

1. Replica surfaces

These are true feature-parity experiences where users expect identical functionality across platforms.

Example: Workplace productivity tools where users frequently switch between devices. Slack exemplifies this perfectly. You can upload documents, chat, huddle, and access virtually every feature across web, desktop, and mobile.

For collaboration tools, inconsistent experiences create friction in team workflows. Users expect to pick up exactly where they left off, regardless of device.

2. Utility surfaces

These platforms fundamentally can’t work without each other. One surface serves as a critical utility that supports the primary platform.

Example: TLDV’s Chrome extension functions as a utility for their web-based recording platform. “In this situation, we’re not really looking for feature parity in the Chrome extension because it really does serve as a utility that adds a lot of functionality and depth to what we are able to get out of the web experience,” notes Natalie.

Don’t waste product development resources building standalone functionality in utility surfaces. Their entire value comes from integration with the core platform.

3. Accessory/companion surfaces

These add value to the main platform but can’t function independently.

Example: Figma’s mobile app serves as a companion to their desktop design tool. Users can’t create designs on mobile, but they can preview prototypes and test user flows on actual devices.

You can’t do anything without the main surface, but the accessory/companion adds value. The mobile app enhances the design process without attempting to replicate the full desktop experience.

4. Growth lever surfaces

These exist primarily to acquire new users, not to provide comprehensive functionality.

Example: Adobe’s free web tools, like online PDF converters, serve as growth levers. Users get limited functionality for free, experience the brand value, then convert to paid desktop or mobile experiences.

“A surface, especially one with very, very limited capabilities, can exist solely as a strategic growth lever. It doesn’t have to exist just to get feature parity or to add value to an existing platform. It can exist just to try to get new customers in the door,” explains Natalie.

What it looks like to intentionally limit feature parity

One of the most instructive examples of strategic surface limitation comes from Instagram’s deliberate choice to restrict posting capabilities on desktop. While it can frustrate users, it actually reveals Instagram’s strategic genius. By limiting posting to mobile, they:

• Maintain their mobile-first brand identity
• Prevent the platform from becoming a business publishing tool
• Keep content creation spontaneous and authentic
• Reduce operational complexity

Mobile-first continues to dominate 2025 SaaS trends, with companies prioritizing mobile user experiences over desktop feature replication.

The lesson? Sometimes the features you don’t build are more strategically important than the ones you do.

How to start building a surface strategy that avoids the feature parity trap

So, with all of this in mind, how do you build a great surface strategy? Instead of blindly building features across all surfaces, successful SaaS companies have a few strategies in common to make smarter surface decisions.

1. Let platform economics shape your strategy

Understanding how users discover and purchase your product should directly influence your surface strategy. The path differs dramatically between mobile apps and web/desktop experiences.

Mobile considerations:

• App store optimization becomes critical
• Apple retains approximately 30% of subscription revenue
• Updates require user opt-in and are often batched
• Attribution becomes increasingly difficult

Web/desktop considerations:

• Direct-to-payment journeys possible
• Immediate updates without user intervention
• Better attribution tracking
• More flexible pricing models

These fundamental differences should influence not just your pricing strategy, but also which surfaces you prioritize for different user segments.

2. Build where your users engage

How users engage with surfaces could shape your strategy. For example, mobile users are significantly more likely to opt into push notifications than desktop users.

While working on surface strategy for a leading SaaS company, our client shared, “Opt-in rates for push notifications on desktop are so low that the only avenue to do outreach to those existing dormant customers is through emails.”

In this case, the ideal was to build any push notification functionality into mobile because on desktop it was practically useless. The learning can be applied across the board. Build your retention features on surfaces where users actually engage, not where you think they should engage.

3. Design for authentication, not attribution

Cross-device attribution is getting harder thanks to privacy changes and cookie deprecation. Instead of fighting this trend with complex tracking, design surface experiences that get users logged in quickly.

“Once someone is logged in, all bets are off; we’ve got good information about them. But until then, they are anonymous and we’re generally not able to attribute data,” says Natalie.

This means prioritizing authentication flows over extensive anonymous functionality. In this case, depending on your growth initiatives, your surface strategy may prioritize guiding users toward logged-in states rather than providing comprehensive experiences for guest users.

4. Match your tools to your strategy

Most SaaS companies default to familiar tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar because they’ve historically focused on web experiences. But scaling to multiple surfaces requires different technology approaches.

Web-Focused Tools:

• Google Analytics
• Hotjar
• Traditional A/B testing platforms

App-Optimized Tools:

• Amplitude: Combines analytics and testing specifically for app experiences; allows product managers direct data access
• Pendo: Integrates surveys, heat maps, and onboarding flows for mobile apps
• Adobe Journey Optimizer: Enables in-product testing across surfaces

Choose tools that support your surface strategy rather than forcing your strategy to fit your existing tool stack. Surface strategy is a business decision that should be driven by user needs, revenue models, and competitive positioning, not technical capability.

5. Define success differently for each surface

A growth lever surface shouldn’t be measured the same way as a full-featured replica surface. Define success metrics that align with each surface’s strategic purpose:

• Growth surfaces: Conversion rate to core platform; cost per qualified lead
• Utility surfaces: Integration success rate; core platform usage lift
• Companion surfaces: Feature adoption in main platform; user satisfaction
• Replica surfaces: Cross-device workflow completion; feature usage parity

Stop measuring everything the same way. Different surfaces serve different purposes and should be evaluated accordingly.

6. Start with purpose, not capability

The wrong question: “Can we build this feature on mobile?” The right question: “Should this feature exist on mobile given our strategic purpose for this surface?”

Before building anything new, clearly define what strategic purpose each surface serves:

• Growth lever: Limited functionality to drive awareness and conversion
• Utility: Essential support that makes the core platform more valuable
• Companion: Unique value that leverages platform-specific capabilities
• Replica: Full feature parity for seamless cross-device workflows

Once you’re clear on purpose, feature decisions become much easier to make.

Building everything, everywhere, isn’t the answer. Many product teams default to feature parity because it feels “fair” to users. In reality, this often creates mediocre user experiences across all surfaces instead of excellent user experiences where they matter most.

Getting started with a surface strategy that doesn’t over-emphasize feature parity

The companies winning in the multi-surface SaaS landscape aren’t the ones with the most features across the most platforms. They’re the ones making the smartest strategic decisions about where to focus their development resources.

If you’re struggling with where to start, here are a few ideas:

• Start with one surface audit. Pick your least strategic surface and honestly evaluate whether you’re over-building functionality that doesn’t serve your business goals or user needs in the name of feature parity.
• Question your assumptions about user expectations. Users might actually prefer a focused, excellent user experience over a comprehensive one that is mediocre.
• Align your team around surface strategy. Make sure product, engineering, and growth teams understand the strategic purpose of each surface, not just the feature requirements.

The goal isn’t to build less, it’s to build more strategically.

Ready to optimize your SaaS surface strategy? At The Good, we help scaling SaaS companies make smarter product decisions through data-driven audits and optimization. Our team has guided companies, from Adobe to emerging startups, in creating multi-surface user experiences that actually drive growth, rather than just checking feature boxes.

Schedule a strategic consultation to discover which surfaces are driving growth and which are consuming resources without strategic return. Let’s turn your multi-surface challenge into your competitive advantage.

The post Why Feature Parity Isn’t Always the Goal: A Guide to Cross-device SaaS Strategy appeared first on The Good.

The org chart isn’t what it used to be. As hierarchies flatten and teams are stretched thin, the traditional mentorship model (where wisdom flows from senior to junior) is shifting.

Maybe you find yourself as the most senior person in your function, surrounded by brilliant colleagues who work in completely different disciplines. Or maybe you’re managing a team while still figuring out your own career trajectory. The old playbook of “find a mentor who’s two levels above you” doesn’t apply when there are only three levels total.

We spoke with three product professionals navigating these workplace realities to gain a deeper understanding of what mentorship looks like today. From their perspective, mentorship isn’t disappearing. It just takes a little creativity to find these days.

Their stories show that finding mentorship requires intention and a willingness to look beyond your immediate team. And those who crack the code on developing in a community with a mentor, despite flat, resource-constrained environments, see higher job satisfaction and better retention.

A great mentor understands your why

If you’re lucky enough to have a manager with expertise in your discipline, managers can be a great source of mentorship, but according to Brittany Lang, UX Research Manager and proud mentor, growing talent can be an overlooked aspect of management. “ I think a lot of times there’s just not a lot of energy put into growing people,” says Brittany. “It’s extra effort, but it’s important if you wanna keep people.”

For Brittany, her approach to growing people starts with understanding their “why.”

“It's the most important thing to do as a research leader—to understand who my people are and what they want out of this job.”

Understanding her team members’ driving purpose helps her keep her team motivated to cross the finish line.

“If I'm asking them to do something and I can't give them an explanation of why or how it connects to those goals they have and their ‘why,’ then I'm losing them—and they're losing out. It's a lose-lose, and it should be a win-win situation.”

Beyond understanding their why, Brittany ensures that each team member has had opportunities to grow by keeping track of what they've accomplished and what they still need to do. It’s a part of how she keeps her team motivated. And the way she sees it, when her team is intrinsically motivated to do the work, it’s mutually beneficial to the company and the employee. “That's the dream,” she says.

Manager ≠ mentor

Not everyone is so lucky to have a manager like Brittany.

Sumita Paulson, UX Designer & Strategist, who has been both a mentor and a mentee throughout her 15-year career, says not all managers are mentors. “In a period of 15 years, I’ve only had two real mentors,” says Sumita.

Sumita notes that while it might be your manager's job to make sure you have work, “they don’t always make it their job to make sure it’s rewarding and tee you up for your next big success.” Whether due to the time pressures of their role or the lack of organizational structure to support it, managers don’t always see it as their job to tend to their employees’ careers.

“It’s not often that you find someone who aligns with your goals and wants to help you get there. A mentor is someone who is first amenable to and interested in helping you grow, then takes a proactive role.”

Sumita has found that managers who have taken a proactive approach understanding her goals and interests are the ones who created fertile ground for a mentor-mentee relationship. “Being interested in you as a person is the key thing.”

To spot a potential mentor, Sumita advises paying attention to who shows earnest interest in your goals.

“If they’re asking broader and more intentional questions beyond the job, that’s a sign that they want to get a better sense of who someone is as a person and what is interesting to them. They are starting to invest in your story.”

Mentorship can come from anywhere

Managers sometimes demonstrate a willingness to mentor. But where should you look for mentorship if your organization is relatively flat?

At one startup, Data Analyst and UX Researcher Anton Krotov was the sole research expert among a team of experts, without a research manager. “I was working with people outside of my field completely. So I was a senior person, and there was nobody else with a more senior expertise to ask advice from.”

Anton found himself as the sole researcher among a team of extremely talented and senior colleagues whom he needed to confidently serve—developers, product managers, designers, etc. That’s when he embarked on finding mentors outside of his company.

He leveraged outside mentors to help him upskill on new methodologies related to his role and to understand the ethical considerations of working with children.

“When I started to work with educational products oriented for very early school-aged kids, like primary school kids, I needed to do some in-person research, like focus groups. But I came with experience mostly in usability studies with adult people who articulate their wants and needs very differently. So what I needed to do was to find an anthropologist-slash-psychologist who was working with kids and could really explain to me how to do that right.”

Key to that relationship's success was working with a mentor who gave him homework, which Anton explained “could expand their value beyond our 30-minute time slot.” The value went beyond education and included accountability and reflection.

“That real value person-to-person mentorship gives to you is reinforcement. You come back to your mentor, bringing the results of your first try, second try, and you discuss that. That is the most valuable tool in upskilling.

I haven't found anything yet that would've beaten mentorship in terms of result, return on investment, confidence, and the feedback of my colleagues who saw me now more capable than before.”

Making mentorship work—in any org structure

Whether you're a manager looking to develop your team or an individual contributor seeking growth, mentorship might mean finding creative places to establish and develop relationships.

Mentorship doesn't have to look like the traditional model. It can be cross-functional, external, or even peer-to-peer. What matters is the intentionality behind the relationship and the commitment to growth on both sides.

Developing talent isn't just about individual growth; it's about organizational resilience. As Brittany noted, when team members are intrinsically motivated and growing in their roles, everyone wins.

The post What Mentorship Looks Like In Today’s Flat, Lean, And Growing Orgs appeared first on The Good.

Most SaaS companies approach these upgrade opportunities with the same basic playbook: add an “Upgrade Now” button and hope for the best. But the companies exceeding their conversion goals understand something different: every upgrade scenario requires its own conversion-centered design strategy.

What is conversion-centered design?

Conversion-centered design is the practice of building digital experiences by making design decisions that serve a specific conversion goal. Unlike traditional user experience design, which prioritizes general usability and user satisfaction, conversion-centered design focuses on guiding users toward specific actions through strategic design choices.

In the case of SaaS upgrades, it’s about understanding the user behavior behind different types of SaaS upgrade decisions and crafting experiences that remove friction at precisely the right moments.

Beyond free-to-paid: the full spectrum of SaaS upgrades

Before we dive into design principles, let’s map the actual upgrade landscape most SaaS companies navigate:

Free trial to paid subscription

Free trial to paid subscription is the classic conversion challenge, where users evaluate whether your product delivers enough value to justify ongoing payment. Users typically weigh their decision based on factors such as feature completeness, onboarding success, and competitive alternatives.

Freemium to premium plans

In a transition from freemium to premium plans, users already love your basic offering, but need to justify paying for advanced features. This involves different psychology than trial conversions. You’re asking satisfied users to spend money, not preventing churn.

Plan tier upgrades

In tiered pricing plans, existing customers hit limits or need additional capabilities when considering an upgrade. These users are already paying, so the decision typically involves budget approval and feature value demonstration, rather than product evaluation.

Usage-based expansions

When customers exceed included allowances for API calls, storage, or monthly active users, they will often consider a usage-based upgrade. The decision here is often reactive rather than strategic, requiring different messaging and strategy.

Feature unlock purchases

In this scenario, individual premium features are available for one-time purchase rather than as part of a plan upgrade. Examples include advanced reporting, integrations, or compliance features sold separately.

Seat-based growth

In order to get tool access for the whole team, a user may need to purchase additional user licenses or a team account. This decision involves both the original user and new team members, creating complex decision dynamics.

Annual vs. monthly billing

Convincing users to commit to longer-term contracts for discounts is tricky. This upgrade isn’t about features, it’s about cash flow and commitment.

Each of these scenarios requires a different conversion approach because the user psychology, decision-making process, and friction points vary significantly. Let’s explore how conversion-centered design principles adapt to these diverse upgrade contexts.

The 7 principles of conversion-centered design for SaaS upgrades

Principle 1: Context-driven focus

Traditional conversion design emphasizes “creating focus” around the action you are leading users towards. In SaaS applications, that focus must be contextual. A user who has reached their storage limit requires a different focus than someone exploring premium features during onboarding.

How this works in practice:

For usage-based upgrades, focus should be immediate and solution-oriented: “You’re running low on API calls. Upgrade now to avoid service interruption.” Remove all other navigation options and make the upgrade path the primary action.

For feature exploration, focus should demonstrate value: “See how advanced analytics helped Acme Corp increase conversions by 34%.” Here, you can include secondary actions like “Learn More” or “See Example Report” because the user isn’t facing immediate urgency.

The key is recognizing where users are in their usage journey and matching your design focus to their mental state.

Here is a good example from Lovable. After creating a design, when you attempt to share it with your team, you are contextually prompted to “upgrade to collaborate.”

Principle 2: Progressive value architecture

Instead of dumping all premium features on users at once, structure your upgrade experience to build conviction progressively. This principle is especially important for complex SaaS products with multiple upgrade paths.

How this works in practice:

Design upgrade flows that reveal features progressively based on user engagement rather than showing everything upfront. Track which users click “Learn More” vs “Upgrade Now” to understand where additional information helps vs. hurts conversion. To implement, you can consider an upgrade architecture like:

Level 1: Immediate benefit

Lead with the single most compelling reason to upgrade based on the user’s current context. If they’re hitting usage limits, start with expanded capacity. If they’re in a specific workflow, highlight features that enhance that workflow.

Level 2: Supporting benefits

Once users engage with the primary benefit, introduce 2-3 supporting features that reinforce the upgrade decision. These should be directly related to their demonstrated usage patterns.

Level 3: Full feature set

Only after users show continued interest should you present comprehensive feature comparisons. Most users never need to see this level; they convert based on the immediate benefit alone.

Principle 3: Consistency across touchpoints

SaaS upgrades happen across multiple touchpoints, like in-app prompts, email campaigns, billing pages, and feature gates. Consistency across messaging, timing, and value presentation will support upgrade conversions.

How this works in practice:

• In-app feature gates: When users encounter locked features, the messaging should match what they’ll see on upgrade pages. If your feature gate says, “Unlock advanced reporting,” your upgrade page shouldn’t suddenly talk about “premium analytics.”
• Email upgrade campaigns: Match the urgency and tone of in-app experiences. If your app uses gentle nudges, don’t send aggressive “Last Chance!” emails. The psychological approach should feel consistent.
• Billing-triggered upgrades: When users approach usage limits, the upgrade flow should feel like a natural extension of their current experience, not a disruptive sales pitch.

Grammarly excels at this with its “writing update” emails, which share your usage statistics and include personalized upgrade benefits. They also maintain the same helpful, educational tone as their in-app suggestions. Users receive consistent value messaging whether they encounter upgrade opportunities in the app or via email.

Principle 4: Outcome-focused benefits

SaaS users don’t buy features, they buy outcomes. But different upgrade scenarios require different outcome framings. A user exploring premium features during onboarding has different priorities than someone hitting usage limits.

How this works in practice:

Use outcome language that matches your user segmentation research. Different user segments care about different outcomes, even for the same features. Your “productivity tools for SMBs” messaging should differ from “enterprise compliance solutions,” even if you’re selling similar capabilities.

Depending on the upgrade scenario, here are some examples:

• Trial-to-paid: Focus on productivity and competitive advantage outcomes. “Close deals 40% faster with advanced pipeline analytics”
• Freemium-to-premium: Focus on elevated capabilities and professional outcomes. “Transform from good to exceptional with premium design tools.”
• Plan upgrades: Focus on growth and scale outcomes. “Handle 10x more leads without adding headcount”
• Usage expansions: Focus on continuity and momentum outcomes. “Keep your growth trajectory without interruption.”
• Feature unlocks: Focus on specific workflow improvements, “Cut monthly reporting time from 8 hours to 30 minutes.”

Perplexity does this effectively by emphasizing the advanced capabilities you’re missing out on if you run out of your five free pro queries per day.

Principle 5: Friction-aware CTA design

Not every upgrade decision carries the same level of friction. Annual commitments create more friction than monthly upgrades. New feature adoption creates more friction than usage expansion. Your CTA design should account for these friction differences.

How this works in practice:

• Low-friction upgrades (usage expansion, monthly plan changes): Use direct, immediate CTAs. “Upgrade Now,” “Add More Storage,” “Increase Limit”. These can be prominent, high-contrast, and positioned aggressively because user resistance is low.
• Medium-friction upgrades (plan tier changes, feature unlocks): Use value-reinforcing CTAs: “Start Free Trial of Pro Features,” “See Premium Features,” “Try Advanced Tools”. Provide trial options or demos to reduce commitment anxiety.
• High-friction upgrades (annual contracts, major plan changes): Use progression-based CTAs: “See Pricing Options,” “Calculate Savings,” “Talk to Sales”. Focus on information-gathering rather than immediate commitment.
• Advanced CTA strategy: Implement dynamic CTAs that change based on user behavior. First-time feature gate encounters might show “Learn More,” while repeated encounters show “Start Free Trial,” and high-engagement users see “Upgrade Now.”

Principle 6: Social proof and trust building

The social proof that convinces someone to try your free trial won’t necessarily convince them to upgrade to enterprise features. Match your trust-building elements to the specific upgrade decision and user context.

How this works in practice:

• For security-conscious upgrades (compliance features, enterprise plans): Emphasize security certifications, enterprise customer logos, and compliance badges, “Trusted by Fortune 500 companies with the highest security standards”.
• For performance-driven upgrades (advanced features, professional tools): Highlight usage statistics and performance improvements, “Pro users complete projects 3x faster on average”.
• For team-based upgrades (collaboration features, multi-seat plans): Show team success stories and collaboration outcomes, “Marketing teams using our collaboration tools report 50% better campaign coordination”.
• For usage-based upgrades (expanded limits, additional capacity): Display growth-stage social proof, “Over 10,000 scaling companies choose our unlimited plan”.
• Trust-building implementation: Position trust elements where conversion anxiety is highest. For high-commitment upgrades, prominently display customer logos and testimonials. For usage expansions, emphasize reliability and uptime statistics.

Suno, an AI music creation platform, includes new feature upgrade options on the same page as featured creators, so you can see how popular artists are using features.

Principle 7: Conversion path optimization

Remove every unnecessary step between the upgrade decision and upgrade completion. However, “unnecessary” depends on the type of upgrade and user psychology. Some upgrades benefit from additional information, while others suffer from any delay.

How this works in practice:

• Immediate need upgrades (usage limits, access blocks): Minimize to single-click upgrades where possible. Pre-populate billing information, default to current payment methods, and confirm changes without additional steps.
• Exploratory upgrades (feature discovery, plan comparison): Allow for investigation without requiring immediate commitment. Provide detailed feature comparisons, trial options, and clear pricing information before asking for upgrade decisions.
• Team decision upgrades (enterprise features, multi-seat plans): Build in consultation and approval workflows. Provide team trial options, detailed ROI calculators, and easy sharing tools for decision-making groups.
• Budget-conscious upgrades (annual plans, major tier changes): Include savings calculators, payment plan options, and clear cancellation policies to reduce financial anxiety.
• Advanced optimization: Implement progressive profiling where users provide information gradually rather than all at once. For complex upgrades, break the decision into smaller commitment steps rather than requiring full upgrade commitment immediately.

The future of SaaS monetization design

SaaS upgrade optimization requires more than applying basic conversion principles to billing pages. The most successful companies understand that different upgrade scenarios require different psychological approaches, design strategies, and optimization metrics.

The 7 conversion-centered design principles are a great way to start doing just that.

But it’s not a one-and-done process. Iterate your designs and conduct user testing to figure out which upgrade paths are working and which aren’t.

As SaaS markets mature, upgrade optimization becomes increasingly sophisticated. Successful companies will move beyond the basics and:

• Embrace usage-driven monetization: Move beyond simple tier-based pricing to value-based and usage-responsive pricing models that require more nuanced upgrade design approaches.
• Implement AI-driven personalization: Use behavioral data to personalize upgrade timing, messaging, and pricing presentation for individual users rather than broad segments.
• Develop ecosystem-based upgrades: Create upgrade opportunities that span multiple products or services within a broader platform ecosystem.
• Focus on revenue expansion: Prioritize existing customer upgrade experiences over new customer acquisition as markets become more competitive.

Ready to optimize your SaaS upgrade experiences across every monetization touchpoint? The Good’s Digital Experience Optimization Program specializes in helping product-led companies design sophisticated upgrade experiences. Check it out and learn how you can take your business from product-market fit to sustainable scale with conversion-centered design techniques customized for your business and users.

The post Conversion-Centered Design: 7 Principles That Drive SaaS Upgrades appeared first on The Good.

Product managers (PMs) play a crucial role in defining product vision and strategy, but to truly create products that resonate with users, they must understand UX fundamentals.

We’ve seen this time and time again with our SaaS clients. When PMs incorporate UX principles into their decision-making, they ensure their products are not only functional but also intuitive, engaging, and aligned with user needs.

If you aren’t upskilled yet, don’t worry. In this article, we’re diving into the fundamentals every product manager should know.

What is UX?

The term user experience, or UX for short, describes the overall experience of using a product (e.g., website, digital application, etc.). It covers all aspects of a user’s interactions, including perception.

The key components of UX are, intuitively, elements that impact a user’s experience with a product. This includes:

• Interactions: The various ways that users directly and indirectly interact with a product or service.
• Perceptions: The subjective experiences a user has with a product or service, including their emotions and personal beliefs.
• Context: How and where users interact with the product or services. The general environment impacting the experience.
• Usability: The practical elements of an experience like accessibility and task completion.

Why do product managers need to know UX fundamentals?

As a product manager, understanding UX fundamentals is crucial for creating products that are both functional and delightful for users. This is true whether or not you have an internal UX team.

Knowing UX fundamentals enables you to be a better collaborator. Even if you have specialists on your side, knowing the fundamentals of UX allows you to converse, collaborate, and incorporate the user into all product decision-making.

If you’re working on upskilling your PM role to include UX fundamentals, good for you. You’re doing the work that will not only deliver better business outcomes but will also make the internet a better place.

Here are some key UX principles and practices that every product manager should know.

UX research

The core pillar of UX that can’t be ignored is: always start with research.

UX research is fundamental to successful product development and optimization. It uncovers how your customers interact with your site and the journeys they take to purchase.

Beginning to understand the experience means digging into data and leaning on UX research methods to discover how users feel when they’re on your site. Here are a few important ones to keep in mind.

Discovery research

Discovery research helps you understand use cases and user needs. It can ground you in what problems to solve and what is going on in the market.

Example: Desk research is a type of discovery research that collects material or data from public sources like reports.

Generative research

Generative methods are great for understanding what’s happening on a website and forming hypotheses about what would work better. It helps you ideate problems that need to be solved and what product interventions could support users.

Example: Interviews, surveys, and market research are all forms of generative research.

Generative research is great for ideation, but in order to move forward with confidence that your solutions will actually work, you need evaluative research.

Evaluative research

Evaluative research helps you understand task completion, satisfaction, and whether users are able to accomplish core tasks within your app.

Example: Task completion analysis and user testing are evaluative research methods that offer insight into how your experience is working.

Evaluative research also helps you test treatments against the current experience, understand if core user needs are met, and if the solution will generate positive outcomes for the business.

Example: A/B testing is a form of evaluative research that delivers validation on changes.

Competitive analysis and journey mapping

Competitive analysis and journey mapping help you understand if your app delivers on value promises better or worse than other solutions. Map out the customer experience for your product and that of competitors to uncover where you excel and where you might fall short.

These are the fundamentals. You can learn more about the UX research process here, but by understanding these pillars, you’re already on your way to a more effective product.

User-centered design

Along with UX research, another core fundamental of UX is user-centered design.

User-centered design is the iterative process of putting users at the center of the entire product design and development process. It leans on empathy and a core understanding of user needs to create experiences that align business goals with user needs.

Visual design

Before we dive into the tools used to keep design user-centered, it’s important for PMs to understand the principles of visual design in general.

Visual design is a combination of both graphic design and user experience (UX) design that uses aspects of the site, such as brand identity, internal consistency, and visually communicated goals, to provide a unified, cohesive experience to its users.

A strong visual design doesn’t detract from the site’s content, usability, or conversion potential. Instead, it enhances these functions by creating an engaging and trustworthy experience for users.

You can explore the principles (with examples) in this visual design deep dive.

Now, with visual design in mind, how do teams make sure beautiful visuals actually keep the user as the priority? User-centered design leverages tools like wireframes and prototypes to get user feedback throughout the design process.

Wireframing

A wireframe is an illustration of an application or website page. It is a simple (often greyscale) visualization. Wireframes outline components of the page (like text, images, navigation, etc) in a hierarchical format. They are an early blueprint that UX designers can then validate against user needs and business goals before committing to a final design.

Designers create wireframes to visualize and evaluate core flow and features. Those basic designs are then leveraged in user testing, and put in front of real or look-alike users for feedback.

Prototyping

Prototyping is an essential part of the UX design process and can unlock your team’s ability to validate ideas before you send them to development.

In literal terms, a prototype is a first or early model of a proposed design passed to the development team before being coded onto the website. For product teams, prototypes are early samples of a product intentionally designed for testing. It is a quick way to get something to evaluate with users.

They can range from simple pen and paper sketches to highly interactive mockups in tools such as Figma. With prototypes, you can get user feedback on pages or app elements, which can be used to iterate your way to a better digital experience for your users.

To illustrate the idea, you may use a prototype when redesigning your website’s landing page. You may sketch ideas out in a wireframe and get either internal or external feedback before layering on your brand design and sending it to development for implementation.

Inclusive design

The last fundamental of user-centered design that is important to understand is inclusivity.

Not all users are the same, and therefore, it’s crucial to design a product that is functional and helpful regardless of the user’s personal circumstances.

Inclusive design is about providing an equitable experience for everyone. The goal is to never sacrifice the experience of one community of users for another. The implementation of an inclusive feature should address the needs of a minoritized community without negatively impacting mainstream users.

User-centered design is for all your users, so don’t ignore a subset that may need special accommodations or features.

Usability

Usability is a measure of how well a user can achieve specific goals within a product. It is the product’s ability to deliver an experience that a user can efficiently and easily navigate.

Another UX fundamental, usability includes elements like learnability, error prevention and recovery, memorability, and efficiency.

Learnability

This considers how easily a new user can understand and start using a system effectively. A highly learnable interface has clear cues, intuitive navigation, and minimal need for instructions or prior experience.

Error Prevention and Recovery

Error prevention and recovery is a system’s ability to minimize user mistakes and help them recover quickly if they occur. This includes designing intuitive workflows, providing clear error messages, offering undo options, and preventing irreversible actions.

Memorability

Understand how easily users can remember how to use a system after a period of inactivity. A memorable interface reduces the need for relearning and allows users to quickly regain proficiency when they return.

Efficiency

Efficiency in this context refers to how quickly and easily users can complete tasks once they are familiar with the system. High efficiency means fewer steps, minimal friction, and optimized workflows that reduce time and effort.

Iterative testing and feedback

PMs should consider the importance of iterative testing and feedback as one of the fundamentals of UX.

Similar to UX research, this incorporates forms of evaluative research like rapid testing and A/B testing to validate ideas but also includes simpler elements like feedback loops. Setting up systems with sales and customer success that send you user feedback. When you make changes, send those back to the user or teams to make sure they accomplish what they set out to.

An ethos of UX is never let timing hold you back from staying user-centered. The best product launches consider UX even on tight timelines. If you feel the need to launch quickly, you should at least perform what Emma Leyden, human-centered product leader, calls a “gut check.”

“Your ‘gut check’ can be done in low-effort ways. It won’t give you the most confident answer, but something as simple as showing a design to like friends and family before you launch can teach you a lot.”

As a good rule of thumb, Emma encourages having some kind of user research scheduled every week, even if it’s as simple as letting someone see or use the prototype of a product and voicing their thoughts aloud. You can learn a lot about the usability of a product with this kind of approach.

For more sophisticated companies, a best practice is to conduct regular UX audits on your product to encourage iterative improvement. Another good strategy is to create theme-based roadmaps that center around the user experience.

UX metrics of success

UX success metrics vary based on the goals of your company and your product. To get your footing on what kind of metrics are used for UX success, consider this framework.

Google, a UX leader, created a simple methodology to track progress toward goals that aren’t directly related to business outcomes. Called the HEART framework, it measures the quality of the user experience via five metrics:

• Happiness: Measures of user attitudes, often collected via survey. For example:
  • Satisfaction
  • Perceived ease of use
  • Net-promoter score
• Engagement: Level of user involvement. For example:
  • Number of visits per user per week
  • Number of photos uploaded per user per day
  • Number of shares
• Adoption: Gaining new users of a product or feature. For example:
  • Upgrades to the latest version
  • New subscriptions created
  • Purchases made by new users
• Retention: The rate at which existing users are returning. For example:
  • Number of active users remaining present over time
  • Renewal rate or churn rate
  • Repeat purchases
• Task Success: Efficiency, effectiveness, and error rate. For example:
  • Search result success
  • Time to upload a photo
  • Profile creation complete

You can apply HEART to a specific feature or the entire product and help to identify goals, signals, and metrics for each of the five categories.

The HEART framework is a good starting point for keeping teams on track to deliver better user-centered products.

The goal is to integrate user-centered metrics into the decision-making process across the organization.

How PMs and UX teams can work together for better products

Now that you know the fundamentals of UX, as a PM, you are set up to successfully do your job more effectively and with the user in mind.

By embracing UX principles, product managers can ensure their products are not only functional but also delightful and effective. Integrating user-centered design, research, and continuous testing into product development leads to better outcomes for both users and businesses.

For product managers with internal UX teams, you can collaborate by doing things like:

• Hold a kickoff meeting with both PMs and UX designers to outline objectives, assumptions, etc.
• Conduct joint research sessions (e.g., customer interviews).
• Develop shared documentation outlining key findings.
• Regularly review prototypes together based on feedback loops.

If you don’t have the internal resources for UX research and design, you can hire an unbiased perspective and receive actionable recommendations. Get in touch with The Good if you’re ready to get started.

The post The UX Fundamentals That Every Product Manager Needs To Know appeared first on The Good.

As the creator of a tech product, potential users expect an intuitive and polished digital experience on your marketing site. If they get lost or confused, run into friction, or fail to find what they need, they’ll assume your product has the same problems.

So, it’s imperative that you build a seamless experience that connects with your customers, answers their questions, and shows them how to take the next step.

Before you embark on a SaaS website design journey of your own, it helps to explore the web for inspiration. We don’t recommend copying any of the best SaaS websites, but we encourage you to study them to get ideas, learn what’s possible, and see what works.

15 Examples of Great SaaS Website Design

Before we look at some SaaS website examples, let’s be clear about one thing.

The SaaS digital journey doesn’t always begin or end with your website. For instance, your users’ journey might start when they read a recommendation on another site and end when they have a conversation with a salesperson.

But for the sake of this article, we’re sharing examples of SaaS websites from the perspective of anonymous users who arrived on the site with the mindset of signing up for a free trial.

1. Petal: Clear and Simple

Websites in the banking and payments industries are notoriously complex. They usually offer complex products and have to use specific language to comply with regulations. But Petal is a breath of fresh air!

Petal’s site architecture is super simple. There are only a few pages to explore. The details for each credit card are laid out visually in easy-to-understand tables. It’s clear that you’re expected to use the application form to use the service. And the application form itself is simple and unintimidating.

Petal uses great language, as well. They speak directly to people who need to build their credit with phrases like “Welcome to credit, no experience necessary” and “Cards for every type of credit builder.”

2. Gemnote: Unique Aesthetics

Gemnote uses a clean, intuitive design that walks you right down the path of starting a project. We love how the pages “unfold” as you scroll through them. You always know what to look at next.

The aesthetics are especially unique. The site uses a memorable style that’s still functional. They don’t sacrifice usability for design, but it’s not a style you’ll see anywhere else.

The project creator is also simple. Creating merchandise for your brand only takes a minute. You know what your products will look like because they’re plastered all over the site. The scrolling bar of customers is excellent social proof.

3. Draftbit: Action Imagery

Draftbit uses a sleek SaaS website design with lots of open space and tight copy. Phrases like “Create any app, 10x faster,” “simple interface,” and “templates” are designed to reach people who want their own app without the hassle of coding it themselves.

The page smartly opens with a GIF of the tool in action. This is a great way to show non-technical people that they don’t have to write their own code.

The same technique is used on the features page. Each feature includes a GIF that shows how it actually happens in the app.

Their pricing is complex because they offer a variety of ways to build apps, all with different features and team sizes, but everything is laid out nicely, so it’s easy to understand. The feature table is particularly helpful. You can identify the features you need and pick the corresponding plan.

4. Basecamp: Refreshingly Simple

Basecamp is a project management tool that uses a refreshingly simple SaaS website design. It’s simple, bold, and uncluttered. It doesn’t bother with unnecessary design elements that take up space. Instead, it focuses on great copywriting, product imagery, and social proof.

Their pricing page also has a clean design. They offer only two pricing plans: one for freelancers and small teams and another for larger businesses.

The pricing page also has a unique feature that we don’t see often: an explanation of how much Basecamp will save you by replacing other commonly used apps. Brilliant!

Finally, we love the content on the features page. Instead of using abstract images for each feature, they give a screenshot from the app. This is a great way to help users decide if the feature will meet their needs.

5. Mailchimp: Pricing Calculator

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing platforms, so it’s no surprise they have one of the best SaaS websites.

In terms of design, the site is amazing. The imagery and clean typography are simple but elegant. The top of the page smartly offers the platform’s main tools with good product verb language. If you came for a specific tool, you know you’re in the right place right away.

The copywriting is excellent as well. “Turn emails into revenue,” “up to 25X ROI,” and “$1.7K per campaign” are evidence that they know exactly what their users want: to generate money from their email marketing program.

We also love their pricing calculator. You can input the size of your email list, and the calculator will tell you how much Mailchimp will cost. This is a great way to be clear about your pricing structure. More pricing details (including the specific features you get access to) can be found on the pricing page.

6. Webflow: Focused on Their Audience

As a website design product, the bar is pretty high for a site like Webflow. This sleek, interactive site with bold typography knows exactly who it’s talking to: no-code designers who want to build sites visually.

Throughout the site, you’ll see plenty of images, GIFs, videos, and interactive elements that show how the app builds websites. Users know what they’re getting. Every section pushes you in a clear direction: start a project.

The nav bar is one of our favorite elements. It’s a robust but intuitive map of the entire site. There’s a lot of information here, but it’s presented in a way that’s not overwhelming.

The pricing page is another superb element. It’s simple and clear, and all of the key features are laid out nicely. The frequently asked questions are a nice touch as well. This is a great way to overcome objections and convince people to buy.

7. ClickUp: Quick Product Exploration

ClickUp’s site combines bold and vibrant colors with an open layout. It feels friendlier than other project management apps, but it clearly has all the right features to make work easy.

We particularly like the tab-based product tour on the homepage hero row. You can explore the product quickly by selecting the corresponding icon. This is a great way to pack a lot of information in a small space.

The row of customer testimonials is genius. By using large, high-quality images of real people, the site helps visitors make a real human connection with the product. The vertical layout makes it seem like we’re chatting with a friend on our phone.

Pricing is clearly laid out on the pricing page, and the table format is easy to understand quickly. We like how they pepper the page with social proof phrasing like “Join over 10 million users” and “25,000+ reviews.” The cost savings row is super smart as well!

8. Homerun: Strong Directional Guidance

This is a great example of a well-designed SaaS website design for sites with simple product offerings.

Homerun uses a simple and easily scannable website to drive home the point that hiring can be simple. They don’t clutter their site with unnecessary pages or unnecessary design elements.

Everything on the site drives you toward starting a free trial. The sign-up button is always available, stuck to the top. It’s also at the bottom of every page.

We like that the navigation menu offers feature-specific pages as well as pages for different use cases. This helps users understand how the product fits their needs.

The pricing page is about as simple as you can get. We like how features that don’t come with the plan are grayed out as if to say, “This is what you’re missing.” The FAQs at the bottom are great tools to overcome objections.

9. Lattice: Superb Copywriting

Lattice uses great copy and direct language throughout its site. Their sections start with a simple and clear benefit for HR professionals, then follow up with corresponding key features and a relevant piece of data or social proof. This is a great 1-2-3 copywriting punch!

The navigation menu has a lot of information, but it’s laid out well, so it’s easy to understand. Using unique landing pages for different industries and company sizes is a great idea.

The pricing page is unique. Not only does it lay out the pricing scheme well, but you can also click different elements to tally the actual cost to your organization.

Finally, we like how all of the calls to action push visitors to request a demo. Since Lattice serves larger organizations, they know the buying cycle is longer than most SaaS businesses deal with, so a signup button wouldn’t be appropriate.

10. Kajabi: Personal Touch

Kajabi is a bold and powerful website that offers a variety of tools for creators. There are a lot of products offered here, but Kajabi uses smart organization to keep it ordered.

Kajabi obviously knows who they’re talking to. The copy and high-quality images are laser-focused on new creators who are just starting to build their brands.

The scrolling images of creators who use the platform are a great way to make a human connection with their audience of creators. Notice how each panel offers some compelling evidence of success, like “1 million followers” or “built an eight-figure business.”

You would think all of these products would make pricing a nightmare, but Kajabi organizes everything into four product tiers. They boost conversions by showing customer testimonials from real people and some FAQs.

11. Welcome: Transparent Pricing

Welcome is an award-winning virtual event platform. It’s an elegant site that uses powerful imagery to put the product right in front of your face.

We love that the site branches into three categories: create, engage, and repurpose. These are powerful verbs in the creator space. It allows users to explore the features that are most important to them.

Welcome is a premium product, so its pricing isn’t publicly available. You have to schedule a demo and speak with someone on their sales team. Nevertheless, they give you a starting figure of $625/month, so no one’s time is wasted if the visitor can’t afford a high price. This is a great example of being as transparent as possible, even when you can’t give an exact figure.

Like many of the best SaaS websites on this list, there’s plenty of social proof in the form of customer logos and testimonials.

12. Butter: Simple and Bold

Butter is a remarkably simple SaaS website that uses bold elements and bright colors to make its app seem friendly and fun.

The content of this site is simply remarkable. The masonry-style boxes lay out the features in an organized way. The Bold imagery gives you a good look at the product. And the FAQs on the home page help you overcome objections.

The navigation bar is particularly good for several reasons:

• All product features are broken out so you can explore what matters to you.
• Use cases help you decide if the product can meet your needs.
• Comparison pages help you make an informed purchasing decision.

The site also uses great directional guidance. Everything leads you to signing up for a free trial.

13. Spline: Community Focused

Spline is a 3D design and animation tool that knows its audience well. The entire site, from the copy to the imagery, is geared toward designers. The product videos and playful illustrations are powerful examples of what the app can do.

In fact, clicking many of the links takes you directly into the app, so you can try it yourself. That’s a brilliant way to make potential customers feel the app’s value. At this point, exploring other apps feels like going backward!

We like that they also promote the community aspect. Designers love to connect, share ideas, and even pass each other templates. If users feel like they are part of a community, they are less likely to leave the app for a new one.

14. Linktree: Strong Social Proof

Linktree is a simple app, so it deserves a simple website with generous white space. The bold colors and striking visual elements are exactly what social media users are looking for.

This well-designed website also offers great directional guidance. The calls to action are always visible (including one in the sticky header) and drive users to the signup page.

Social proof is used well on Linktree’s site. Phrases like “Join 50M+ people using Linktree” and the slideshow of celebrities who use the app are powerful motivators for users.

15. BILL: Smart Organization

BILL is a complex site with countless features, so keeping all of the content organized is a challenge. They manage this by dividing the site into two categories: 1) AR and PR and 2) Spend & Expense. This is a clever solution that marries marketing and product design, as otherwise, the site would be overwhelming.

The “Solutions” drop-down in the navigation bar is also well-optimized. A user can view pages by company size and industry to learn if the product fits their needs.

BILL’s white color scheme and simple design aren’t unique, but that’s actually a benefit for a business like this. We don’t need a financial app to be flashy, but it must be intuitive and reliable. What it lacks in aesthetic appeal, it makes up for in functionality.

For all the site’s complexity, the pricing is refreshingly simple. There are three simple out-of-the-box plans and a custom enterprise option.

The Fundamentals of SaaS Website Design

Creating a well-designed SaaS website requires a strategic approach. It’s important to focus on several key fundamentals that enhance user engagement and customer satisfaction. These fundamentals will help you create a SaaS website that not only attracts and engages users but also converts them into customers.

1. Start by Understanding Your User

Begin by identifying your target audience’s needs, behaviors, and pain points. These are key to good product design. This understanding will guide the design and content strategy, so your website serves your users well.

2. Keep Your Content Compelling

Engaging content is crucial for capturing and retaining user interest. Use clear, concise, and persuasive language that speaks directly to your audience’s needs and highlights the benefits of your SaaS product. Use imagery and videos that help visitors learn about the product.

3. Use Directional Guidance to Help Users Find What They Need

Directional guidance is an umbrella term that encompasses anything put on a user’s path to help them find what they want. It includes intuitive navigation menus, clear call-to-action buttons, and strategic use of ample whitespace. The goal is to help users find the necessary information and tools.

4. Deliver a Seamless Customer Experience

Ensure an enjoyable and smooth user experience by optimizing the website’s performance, responsiveness, and usability across all devices. Fix anything that’s broken or introduces friction into their experience. Consider every step of the user journey, from initial visit to conversion and beyond.

5. Design with Your Product Verbs in Mind

Focus on action-oriented language that emphasizes the core functionalities of your product. Use verbs that convey the actions users can take, such as “create,” “manage,” “track,” and “analyze,” to make the benefits of your product clear.

6. Be Clear About Pricing and Plans

Transparency in pricing and subscription plans builds trust and aids in the decision-making process. Clearly present all available options, including features and costs, to help users choose the plan that best suits their needs.

7. Test and Validate With Your Audience

Regularly test your website with real users to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement. Use A/B testing, user surveys, and analytics to validate your design choices, ensure they meet user expectations, and produce a user-friendly design. You may need the help of a design agency to manage this.

8. Keep Iterating on Your SaaS Website Design

A SaaS website should evolve based on user feedback, technological advancements, and changing market trends. Continuously update and refine your design to enhance user experience and stay ahead of your competitors.

9. Ensure Mobile Optimization

With an increasing number of users accessing websites via mobile devices, it’s crucial to ensure your SaaS website is fully optimized for mobile. This includes responsive design, fast loading times, and intuitive navigation on smaller screens for a smooth experience across devices.

10. Focus on Accessibility

Design your website to be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Implement features like alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and color contrast to make your site inclusive and compliant with accessibility standards.

11. Leverage Social Proof

Incorporate customer testimonials, case studies, and reviews to build credibility and trust. Social proof can significantly influence potential customers’ decisions by showcasing real-world success stories and positive feedback from existing users.

Looking for a SaaS Website Design Firm?

Designing a SaaS website is more than just making it look pretty. Visual appeal is important, but it’s important to remember that websites are made to be used.

SaaS website design is about creating a user experience that clicks with your target audience. That’s why every wireframe and design should be validated with real feedback and tests from your ideal audience before you start building.

At The Good, we specialize in making sure your SaaS website is aligned with your users and provides an engaging experience. We do this through rapid testing—a powerful tool for SaaS companies looking to improve their website design or navigate a redesign.

Rapid testing involves quick, iterative cycles where we test different design elements with real users. This gives us invaluable insights into what works and what doesn’t so we can make data-driven decisions backed by user feedback. For SaaS companies, this means faster improvements, less guesswork, and a website that resonates with their audience.

Ready to take your SaaS website to the next level? Let The Good help you create a user-friendly, conversion-boosting design that stands out.

Contact us to get started on transforming your website into a powerful tool for growth.

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The post SaaS Website Design: 15 Examples to Inspire Your Redesign appeared first on The Good.

A trail to home is a simple tool, but it offers a profound benefit. When you know the way home, your anxiety abates, and you’re far more likely to explore.

On websites and apps, breadcrumbs work the same way: They provide a clickable path up the site’s or app’s architecture back to the homepage. Visitors use breadcrumbs to orient themselves and navigate the site, always confident that they can find their way back to something familiar.

Mobile breadcrumbs are similar to traditional breadcrumbs, but they require a slightly different approach in order to function well on smaller screens without sacrificing usability for mobile users.

What are Mobile Breadcrumbs?

Mobile breadcrumbs are a navigational aid used in mobile websites and apps to help users understand their current location and how to navigate back to previous sections. They orient users within the overall structure of the app or website, thereby reducing confusion.

While a breadcrumb path can enhance the user experience on all digital properties, they are particularly useful on complex sites (like ecommerce sites) or applications with multiple levels of hierarchy.

Using Mobile Breadcrumbs to Support Wayfinding

Wayfinding is the process of navigating and orienting oneself in digital spaces. It’s bigger than just providing directions. It involves creating an intuitive journey that helps mobile users reach their desired destinations with ease and confidence.

Think of wayfinding like the signs on the highway. They tell you which exits are next, which roads intersect, and how far until you reach a major destination. They facilitate the user journey so your customers always know what to do next. This makes it a crucial tool for guiding users through complex digital environments.

Wayfinding is one piece of a bigger concept called directional guidance. If wayfinding is road signage, directional guidance is an atlas.

Wayfinding has four main components:

1. Orientation: Where am I right now?
2. Route decisions: Can I find my way to my destination?
3. Mental mapping: Do my experiences let me predict where I should go next?
4. Closure: Can I recognize when I’ve arrived?

Mobile breadcrumbs play an important role in two of wayfinding’s components: route decisions and mental mapping. They familiarize users with the site’s structure, which helps them understand if they’re in the right place. Through extrapolation, they can find additional content that meets their needs.

Other elements, like page titles and images, help mobile users with the orientation and closure components of wayfinding.

We have seen the power of mobile breadcrumbs firsthand. In true “test and learn” spirit, we once tested removing them from a site, and it completely bombed. Of course, every site is different, but more often than not, mobile breadcrumbs are a crucial tool in helping users find what they need.

The Four Types of Mobile Breadcrumbs

Not all breadcrumb paths are the same. Let’s explore the different types of breadcrumbs.

1. Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs

Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs trace a page’s location within the website’s logical hierarchy. They are hard-coded and make a straightforward path back to the homepage. They work well on mobile devices because they typically don’t crowd the screen.

While the primary function of breadcrumbs in the past was just to help you navigate back within a website, today’s websites don’t operate like a series of folders that users have to successively open to get to their destination. They can go right to their destination without having a trail.

So, hierarchy-based breadcrumbs can be used to inform them what other categories they can view that might have similar or related items to the one they are looking at.

2. Path-Based Breadcrumbs or History-Based Breadcrumbs

Path-based or history-based breadcrumbs are dynamic and users have come to expect them from a website. The breadcrumb is literally a trail from where they came to where they are now. This type of breadcrumb is most faithful to the trail of breadcrumbs in the Hansel and Gretel story.

While generally advisable for mobile, they do have some shortcomings. Because they reflect a historical path, they won’t be useful for brands that have a substantial amount of traffic that lands on product pages (from a Google Shopping ad, for example). In this case, hierarchy-based breadcrumbs are a better choice.

3. Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs

Attribute-based breadcrumbs are dynamic paths that track the user’s choices on a page or within a category.

For instance, suppose a user is in the “Shoes” category and selects product filters for “Sneakers” and “Size 10.” All of this information would appear in the mobile breadcrumbs so the user could undo it quickly.

4. Application Breadcrumbs

Application breadcrumbs are navigation aids used within software applications to help users understand their current location and navigate back to previous sections or higher levels within the app.

For instance, an application breadcrumb within a project management app might let the user travel backward from a task to a project and then to the main dashboard.

7 Mobile Breadcrumb Design Guidelines (with Examples)

Now that you understand how mobile breadcrumbs work, let’s walk through some design guidelines to make sure yours are effective at helping users navigate your site.

1. Mobile Breadcrumbs Shouldn’t Replace the Main Navigation

The purpose of mobile breadcrumbs is to help users navigate to places they’ve been. It only includes a selection of destinations. Important destinations, but only a selection. Your main navigation bar, however, is the highway that takes users everywhere on the site.

Naturally, this means that your breadcrumbs should not replace your main navigation bar. These tools should work in tandem to give users total control over their experience.

2. Include the Current Page, But Not as a Link

Include the current page as the last item in the breadcrumb list. This helps the user orient to the page and understand how the breadcrumbs element functions.

That said, the current page list item should not be a link. If it were linked, it would point to the same page the user is currently on. Effectively, this isn’t a link at all. It would only confuse the user.

Use a visual cue to differentiate between the breadcrumb items (which are links) versus the current page (which shouldn’t be a link). For instance, you might underline the links and leave the current page without styling.

A slight caveat: You can avoid using the current page as the last item if the breadcrumb trail sits just above the page heading. This makes it appear like the heading is the last item in the list. Users get the idea.

3. Don’t Use Breadcrumbs for Short or Flat Hierarchies

Breadcrumbs are not an appropriate wayfinding device for sites with hierarchies that are only one or two levels deep. The architecture is far too simple to require anything more than the main navigation.

In fact, using breadcrumbs on simple sites can actually confuse users. It might make them think there’s more to the site than they see.

4. Keep Your Breadcrumbs Concise and Meaningful

Long breadcrumb trails don’t just take up the limited space on mobile devices. They’re also overwhelming for users. So, it’s important to make your mobile breadcrumbs as concise as possible without stripping away their meaning.

Here are some ways to keep your mobile breadcrumbs concise:

Overflow Menu

If your mobile breadcrumbs have too much information to fit on one line, consider using an overflow menu to hide some of the links. This saves screen space while still giving users access to the entire trail.

It’s best to use your overflow menu at the start of the breadcrumb trail since users are less likely to interact with links that far back. Just make sure to leave the root link (which is usually your homepage) because it helps users understand how the trail works.

Truncated Labels

Another method is to truncate your labels to fit within the limited screen space. This keeps the breadcrumb concise without disrupting the path, even when a category name is long. Just make sure users can understand whatever portion is left.

Truncation is typically used for the last item in the list, which is often the longest label due to its specificity. For instance, you might truncate “Diving Watches Under $500” to simply “Diving…” But don’t be afraid to truncate midlayers (parent categories) if they need it.

REI’s default state is to truncate their midlayers (first image). When tapped, the breadcrumbs trail expands to display all parent categories. This is a great way to respect the limited space until users specifically request more information.

Horizontal Scroll

In a horizontal scroll breadcrumb, the trail runs off the right side of the page. Users can swipe the breadcrumb trail in either direction to expose more of it. Keep in mind, however, that some users with accessibility challenges may not be able to swipe.

If you opt for this method, it’s important to use visual cues on either side of the breadcrumb so users know it scrolls into horizontal space. Without indicators like arrows or fading edges, users may be confused.

One Level Only

In some cases, it makes sense to only display the previous destination in a breadcrumb list instead of the whole path. This avoids a crowded breadcrumb trail that might distract users from moving forward in the conversion funnel.

For instance, on an article page, a newspaper might only display a link to the article’s parent category.

5. Keep Them Visible at the Top of the Page

Mobile breadcrumbs only work when they’re easy to locate at a glance. This means they should be positioned near the top of the page, ideally right below the primary navigation menu or above the page’s heading.

Use contrasting colors to make your mobile breadcrumbs appear separate from other elements. Choose a font that differs from your body copy.

Size is also important. Don’t be tempted to make it smaller by shrinking the text. Your text size should be similar to the rest of the body copy on your site. Since these are links, they should be at least 1cm x 1cm.

6. Use Icons to Shorten Your Breadcrumb Trails

Icons are a great way to save space on mobile devices without sacrificing meaning. For instance, you might use a house icon to represent the home page.

That said, don’t use icons for every link, as it would take up too much space.

7. Don’t Wrap Breadcrumbs to Multiple Lines

On mobile sites and apps, breadcrumbs can consume a lot of space on a crowded display. That’s valuable real estate that can be used for other purposes.

If your breadcrumb trail is too long, it might span multiple lines. Avoid this at all costs. Trails that span multiple lines are hard to tap, especially when one item inhabits two lines. You could add additional line height to accommodate fingers, but that just pushes your content further down the page.

Mobile Breadcrumb Design Mistakes

Before you start optimizing your mobile breadcrumbs, let’s go over some common mistakes brands make with this element. Avoid these errors to ensure your user experience is simple and frictionless.

Overcrowded Breadcrumbs

Displaying too many breadcrumb levels can clutter the mobile screen, making it difficult for users to read and interact with the links. It’s essential to keep breadcrumbs concise and limited to essential levels for the sake of clarity and usability on small screens.

Tiny Tap Targets

Breadcrumb links that are too small can be challenging to tap accurately. This is a quick path to user frustration. Ensure that breadcrumb links are large enough to be easily tapped without errors.

Inconsistent Placement

Breadcrumbs placed inconsistently across different pages or sections can confuse users. Consistent placement helps users know where to look for navigational aids, improving the overall user experience and navigation efficiency.

Non-Clickable Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs that are not clickable defeat the purpose of providing a navigational aid. Make sure each breadcrumb link leads users back to the associated page.

Hidden Breadcrumbs

Hiding breadcrumbs behind menus or requiring additional actions to view them makes them ineffective. Breadcrumbs should be easily visible and accessible without extra steps.

Ignoring Responsive Design

Failing to adapt your mobile breadcrumbs to different screen sizes can result in misaligned links on smaller screens. Ensure the breadcrumbs are responsive, adjusting layout and spacing to fit various devices seamlessly.

Excessive Breadcrumb Lengths

Using overly long text for breadcrumb links can cause them to wrap onto multiple lines, reducing readability and increasing visual clutter. Keep breadcrumb text concise.

Missing Current Page Indicator

Not clearly indicating the current page in the breadcrumb trail can confuse users about their location. Highlight the current page using a different style to provide a clear sense of position.

Mobile Breadcrumbs Optimization is Crucial for High-Performing Sites and Apps

Why is mobile optimization so important? Because many users are engaging with your website or app through mobile devices. If you aren’t optimizing your mobile experience, you’re leaving money on the table. We saw this first hand when we worked with Munchkin, a baby and toddler ecommerce store.

By redesigning the site’s mobile navigation, we created a more straightforward shopping experience that gave users directional guidance rather than a free-for-all, open-ended, browsable shopping aisle. The new navigation decreased the bounce rate and improved engagement.

Mobile breadcrumbs are one way to optimize your mobile experience, but there are plenty of other tactics that could be useful depending on your particular customer. Contact us to learn how you can unlock the full potential of your website, app, or digital product.

The post Mobile Breadcrumbs Design Guidelines for a Frictionless User Experience appeared first on The Good.

What you consider “easy to use” could be completely unintuitive for your audience. That’s why user research and identifying common behavior patterns is so important. Ease of use is about more than just clean layouts and fast load times; it’s about understanding human behavior and anticipating needs before users even realize them.

You can do exactly that by leveraging the ease heuristic. Ease is one of the six Heuristics for Digital Experience Optimization, a tool developed at The Good to theme common optimization issues and opportunities with the user at the center of analyses.

In this article, we’re sharing everything you need to know about the ease heuristic and how to leverage it to create a better website or app. Keep reading to learn:

• How the ease heuristic manifests
• How to identify when your website violates the ease heuristic
• Five ways to improve ease (with examples)

What is ease in UX?

The ease heuristic focuses on making a website, app, or digital product “easy to use.” It ensures users won’t abandon a digital property due to its complexity and offers better accessibility to diverse audiences. It includes aspects like information architecture, navigability, and seamless functionality.

Let’s check out these three pillars of ease in more detail.

What is information architecture?

Information architecture (IA) is the practice of structuring content on digital products (websites, apps) to make it easy for users to find and understand the information they need. It focuses on things like:

• Content grouping that is intuitive
• Navigation design to help users find what they need
• Labeling systems that are clear and consistent
• Search systems that find things efficiently

Effective information architecture enhances the overall user experience by reducing cognitive load, preventing user frustration, and ensuring that users can complete their tasks with ease.

What is navigability?

Navigability refers to the ease with which users can move through a website or application to find what they need (information, features, etc.). Key aspects include:

• Intuitive structure that follows a logical pattern
• Clear labels indicating current location and options for next steps
• Consistent design of uniform patterns to avoid re-learning
• Responsive elements with immediate feedback
• Accessible paths that accommodate all users

Good navigability of elements such as menus, links, buttons, and search bars increases satisfaction by minimizing the effort required to find information and complete tasks.

What is seamless functionality?

Seamless functionality refers to the uninterrupted operation of a digital product, where all features work together for a smooth user experience. Key characteristics include:

• Smooth interactions (clicking, scrolling, swiping) with minimal load time/delays
• Consistent website performance
• Error handling with feedback and recovery options
• Integrated features that update as needed
• User-friendly interfaces that don’t require extensive instructions or support.
• Optimized load times

Achieving seamless functionality ensures that users can accomplish their goals efficiently and without distraction.

How does violating the ease heuristic impact the user?

As mentioned, heuristics are tools used to identify optimization issues or opportunities. Information architecture, navigability, and seamless functionality work together to improve the “ease” of use on a website or app. But how does it impact a user when the ease heuristic is violated?

High Interaction Cost

Violating the ease heuristic can often come at a high interaction cost. For example, a task or interaction requires significant time/effort, creating frustration and resulting in abandonment.

Heavy Cognitive Load

Another way lack of ease impacts a user is by putting undue mental effort into accomplishing a task. This may cause analysis paralysis or frustration, leading to abandonment.

Content Fatigue

Excessive textual/visual content on the page can overwhelm users, hindering their ability to find relevant content for successful task completion.

Unclear System Status

If the interface doesn’t provide enough cues, semantics, or timely feedback to keep users informed, the system status is unclear. This results in stress, uncertainty, and likely abandonment.

Identifying opportunities with user research

If you want to understand where and when your website violates the ease heuristic, the best way is with user research.

While patterns related to violation of the ease heuristic can appear in plenty of user research methods, such as heatmaps, user testing, etc., here are a few examples of how they might specifically show up in session recordings or observational analysis.

• Halted scrolling: The user pauses on the site to possibly engage with content/reorient themselves, which could imply that the user perceives a false bottom. This indicates a heavy cognitive load.
• Hunting and Pecking: The user bounces around the site from page to page, sometimes back-navigating, looking for specific content without finding products of interest. This may indicate unclear system status.
• Scanning: Users scroll over content (text or images) at a higher scroll rate on mobile, while on desktop, they might hover over some words or phrases or completely skip over content altogether. This could indicate a high interaction cost.

Look for this behavior to identify violations of the ease heuristic. Then, you can prioritize opportunities to improve it for a better digital experience.

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Five ways to make it easy for users (with examples)

Once you know your website violates the ease heuristic and you have identified areas of opportunity, you can hypothesize and test improvements. Here are some ideas for increasing ease on your website.

1. Group products by attributes

When products are not intuitively grouped, users can experience decision paralysis or confusion. Grouping products by shared attributes can reduce frustration and support user wayfinding.

It is especially beneficial when a brand has a large selection of products, like mattress brand Casper.

2. Collapse or expand relevant dropdowns

Content hidden in accordions can cause users to miss critical information in a purchase decision, leading to frustration and abandonment.

Prioritizing relevant drop-downs by expanding them on PDP or category pages can help users better differentiate products and increase the likelihood of purchasing.

Note that it is sometimes necessary to bring in a copy expert to rewrite product copy entirely, focusing on decreasing cognitive load and increasing the user’s value.

3. Refine product grid layout

Users can become overwhelmed with product listings on category pages, especially if there are many SKUs or a large amount of content.

Refining category page layouts to be more scannable may improve shopper experience, easing product discovery and encouraging visits to PDPs.

Specifically, we’ve found success testing on mobile with a 2-up layout so users see more products when they land on a category page. We iterate on category page layouts based on test outcomes and look for opportunities to test things like CTA colors, language, and selector options within product grids.

4. Improve add-to-cart feedback

A lack of notification that a product has been successfully added to the cart can cause users to be unsure of the status, leading to frustration and cart abandonment.

Improving add-to-cart feedback guides users to checkout, increases purchase intention, and reduces uncertainty.

5. Increase the visibility of tooltips

Many tooltips can be hard to see or hidden on a page, which can lead to a lack of understanding and confidence.

Emphasizing tooltips can ease directional guidance and help users understand how a product functions or explain an element on the page in an unobtrusive way, which can lead to better understanding and increase confidence.

Common tooltip use cases include interactive walkthroughs, secondary onboarding, instructions, upsells, feature adoption, and new product updates.

Improving ease (and beyond) in digital experience optimization

Ease is only one of the six Heuristics for Digital Experience Optimization. These heuristics can guide your strategy and help you build digital journeys that feel familiar, do what they say, and function intuitively.

The six heuristics are:

1. Priming & Expectation Setting
2. Trust & Authority
3. Ease
4. Benefits & Unique Selling Points
5. Directional Guidance
6. Incentives

To learn more, or if you’d like our team to review your website for opportunities to improve based on these themes, get in touch.

The post What Is The Ease Heuristic? (And How To Leverage It To Improve UX) appeared first on The Good.