What Services Do Saas Design Companies Include?

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The success of a SaaS product doesn’t rely on features alone—it depends on how well those features are designed and delivered to users. Unlike traditional software, SaaS products are built to serve diverse audiences, work seamlessly across devices, and evolve continuously with updates.

This makes design not just a surface-level task, but a critical driver of adoption, retention, and business growth.

SaaS design agency specialize in solving these unique challenges. They go beyond creating appealing interfaces and focus on designing experiences that simplify complexity, improve usability, and align with business goals.

Whether you’re building a new SaaS product or scaling an existing one, understanding what services these companies offer can help you choose the right partner and set your product up for success.

In this Design Journal article, we’ll break down the key services SaaS design companies typically include—covering everything from research and strategy to design systems and user retention flows—so you’ll know exactly what to expect when working with one.

Why SaaS products need specialized design services?

Designing for SaaS is very different from designing a simple website or a mobile app. SaaS products are often feature-rich, complex, and serve a wide range of users—from first-time visitors to power users who rely on them daily.

This creates unique design challenges that require a specialized approach.

First, SaaS products demand clarity in complexity. Users interact with dashboards, analytics, workflows, and integrations that can quickly become overwhelming if not structured well.

A SaaS design company ensures these complex systems are simplified into intuitive flows so users can achieve their goals without friction.

Second, design plays a crucial role in adoption and retention. Unlike one-time-use apps, SaaS products rely on long-term engagement and recurring subscriptions.

A well-designed onboarding flow, clear navigation, and engaging interactions directly influence how quickly users find value—and whether they stick around.

Finally, SaaS businesses evolve continuously. New features are rolled out, existing ones are updated, and user needs change over time.

This requires a scalable design system that keeps the product consistent while allowing it to grow. Specialized design companies understand this lifecycle and build frameworks that can adapt as the product matures.

Core services offered by SaaS design companies

A SaaS design company typically offers a full spectrum of services that go beyond creating screens and visuals. Their role is to understand business goals, study users, and craft experiences that improve usability and growth. Let’s break down the core services:

User research & discovery

Before any design work begins, SaaS design companies invest time in understanding the users. This involves interviews, surveys, competitor benchmarking, and persona creation.

For SaaS products, where user needs can vary widely across roles (admin, manager, employee, or customer), research ensures that the design supports every type of user. By identifying pain points and expectations early, companies can design products that fit real-world needs.

Product strategy & UX consulting

A good SaaS design isn’t just about visuals—it’s about aligning the product with business outcomes.

Design companies often collaborate with founders or product teams to define a roadmap: what features to prioritize, how to structure user journeys, and how to balance business goals with user experience. This strategic foundation ensures that design decisions aren’t random but serve a long-term purpose.

UI/UX design

UI UX designing services is the core of what most people think of as “design.” It covers:

• Wireframing & Prototyping: Mapping user flows and building clickable prototypes.
• Visual Design: Creating an interface that is clean, accessible, and consistent.
• Experience Design: Ensuring interactions feel smooth and logical.

For SaaS, this means designing screens like sign-up pages, dashboards, billing systems, reports, and more—keeping simplicity and usability at the center.

Information architecture (IA)

SaaS products often deal with large amounts of information, from data-heavy dashboards to complex feature sets. Information Architecture is about structuring this information logically—so users don’t feel lost.

A SaaS design company creates navigation structures, menu hierarchies, and categorization systems that guide users effortlessly through the product.

Interaction & motion design

Microinteractions like a subtle animation when saving data or a progress indicator during uploads—make SaaS products feel more human and engaging.

Motion design also helps guide user attention, reduce cognitive load, and make complex processes feel simpler. This small layer of design often has a big impact on user satisfaction and efficiency.

Onboarding & user retention flows

The first impression of a SaaS product often determines whether users stay or churn. That’s why onboarding is a specialized design service.

Companies craft walkthroughs, tooltips, and empty-state screens to help new users quickly understand value.

Beyond onboarding, retention design ensures users keep discovering features that deepen engagement—turning one-time users into long-term subscribers.

Dashboard & data visualization

Dashboards are at the heart of many SaaS products. The challenge is to present complex data in a way that’s not overwhelming.

Design companies focus on creating intuitive dashboards with clear hierarchies, visual charts, and interactive elements. Good visualization allows users to derive insights instantly, without struggling to interpret numbers or reports.

Design systems & style guides

Consistency is critical for SaaS products, especially as they scale. Design systems act as a blueprint—covering typography, color palettes, UI components, and interaction patterns.

This ensures every feature and new module feels part of the same product. It also speeds up development, since designers and developers can reuse components without reinventing them each time.

Usability testing & iteration

No SaaS product is perfect on the first try. That’s why usability testing is baked into the process. Design companies test prototypes or live products with real users to identify friction points.

Based on feedback, they iterate and refine the design. This cycle of testing and improvement ensures the product remains user-friendly and competitive in a fast-changing market.

Front-end development support (Sometimes)

While not all design companies code, many ReactJS development company offer front-end support to bridge the gap between design and development.

This includes preparing developer-friendly assets, writing design specifications, or even building UI components in frameworks like React or Angular.

This collaboration ensures the final product matches the design vision without losing quality during handoff.

Additional value-added services

Beyond core design, many SaaS design companies offer complementary services that add value to the product and help businesses stand out in competitive markets.

These services aren’t always mandatory but can significantly boost brand presence, adoption, and growth.

Branding & identity design

For SaaS startups, branding goes hand-in-hand with product design. A strong identity—logo, trending color palettes, typography, and tone of voice—creates consistency across the product and marketing channels.

Design companies often help SaaS businesses establish or refine their brand identity so users instantly recognize and trust the product.

Marketing website & landing page design

A SaaS product needs more than just a great app—it needs a compelling website to convert visitors into users. Design companies often create high-performing marketing websites, product pages, and campaign-specific landing pages.

These are optimized for conversions, making sure messaging and visuals communicate value clearly to prospects.

Growth design (A/B testing & conversion optimization)

Once a product is live, continuous growth depends on fine-tuning user experiences. SaaS design companies help run A/B tests on features, sign-up flows, or pricing pages.

By experimenting with different design variations, they uncover what drives higher engagement, lower churn, or better conversions—turning design into a growth engine.

Accessibility & compliance

Accessibility is no longer optional, especially for SaaS platforms with global reach. Specialized design companies ensure compliance with WCAG and other accessibility standards.

This means designing interfaces that are usable for people with disabilities (e.g., screen-reader support, color contrast checker and optimization). Not only does this expand the user base, but it also reduces legal risks.

How to choose the right SaaS design company?

Choosing the right SaaS design company isn’t about finding the “best-looking portfolio.”

It’s about selecting a partner who understands the nuances of SaaS, can adapt to your business goals, and creates designs that drive adoption, engagement, and retention.

Here’s a deeper breakdown of what to look for:

Relevant SaaS experience

SaaS design is very different from designing a mobile app or an e-commerce site. A company that has worked specifically with SaaS businesses will already know the pain points of multi-role systems (like admins vs end-users), subscription-based models, and data-heavy dashboards.

They will also be familiar with design patterns that encourage long-term engagement, such as onboarding flows, notifications, and feature discovery. Without this background, even a talented design company might deliver a product that “looks good” but doesn’t work for real SaaS users.

Proven design process

Design without process often results in inconsistency and rework. A good SaaS design company should have a clear methodology—usually starting with research and discovery, moving into wireframes and prototypes, validating with testing, and then refining into polished designs.

Ask them to walk you through their workflow: Do they conduct user interviews? Do they create journey maps? Do they run usability tests before finalizing designs? A structured process ensures that design decisions are backed by evidence, not just personal preference.

Focus on user-centered design

In SaaS, where products serve thousands (or millions) of users, putting users at the center of the design process is non-negotiable. Look for a design company that prioritizes user research, testing, and continuous feedback loops.

They should show you how they balance business goals (like reducing churn or increasing sign-ups) with user goals (like saving time, simplifying tasks, or reducing errors). A truly user-centered design partner won’t just ask “what do you want built?”—they’ll ask “what do your users need?”

Cross-functional collaboration

SaaS products sit at the intersection of multiple teams: product managers define the vision, developers bring it to life, marketers position it, and designers tie it all together.

If your design partner isn’t comfortable collaborating across these functions, silos and misalignment can creep in.

The right company will work hand-in-hand with your engineers to ensure smooth design-to-development handoff, share insights with product managers to refine feature priorities, and even support marketers with assets for go-to-market campaigns.

Ability to scale with you

Designing a SaaS MVP is very different from scaling a platform for enterprise clients. Early-stage products need speed and simplicity; later-stage products need design systems, accessibility compliance, and support for complex workflows.

Choose a company that can grow with you, offering scalable solutions like reusable design components, modular dashboards, and adaptable style guides. This way, you won’t have to start over with a new design partner every time your product matures.

Communication & transparency

Design projects can fail not because of bad work, but because of poor communication. The best SaaS design companies establish clear channels (Slack, email, project management tools), set realistic timelines, and give frequent updates.

They explain why a particular design decision was made and actively involve your team in discussions. Transparent communication ensures there are no surprises, no wasted time, and no disconnect between what you envisioned and what’s delivered.

Portfolio & testimonials

Portfolios show creative ability, but testimonials and case studies show problem-solving ability. When reviewing a design company’s portfolio, don’t just look at pretty screens—ask about the story behind the project.

How did their design improve user onboarding? Did the redesign reduce churn or boost conversion rates? Testimonials from past SaaS clients give you confidence in their reliability, professionalism, and ability to deliver real business impact, not just aesthetics.

Conclusion

SaaS products live and die by their user experience. A great feature set alone isn’t enough—if the design is confusing, adoption stalls, and retention drops. That’s where SaaS design companies step in.

They bring a specialized mix of research, strategy, design, and testing to simplify complexity, create intuitive workflows, and build scalable systems that evolve with your product.

Whether you’re building an MVP or refining an enterprise SaaS platform, understanding the services these companies provide helps you choose the right partner.

From user research to dashboard design, and from onboarding flows to growth-focused design, each service adds a piece to the bigger picture: a product that users trust, enjoy, and keep coming back to.

In short, SaaS design companies don’t just make products look good—they make them work, grow, and succeed.

Frequently asked questions

What are the services provided by SaaS?

SaaS (Software as a Service) itself is not a design service—it’s a software delivery model where applications are hosted online and accessed via subscription.

However, SaaS providers typically include services like user management, data storage, updates, security, and customer support. When we talk about SaaS design companies, their services include user research, UI/UX design, onboarding flows, dashboards, data visualization, and design systems.

What is SaaS in UX design?

SaaS in UX design refers to creating user experiences specifically tailored for subscription-based, cloud-delivered products. It involves designing workflows, dashboards, and retention strategies that ensure users can easily adopt the product, find value quickly, and continue engaging with it long-term.

Unlike other apps, SaaS UX design focuses heavily on onboarding, subscription flows, and scaling experiences for diverse user roles.

What does a SaaS company do?

A SaaS company develops and delivers software applications over the internet. Instead of users downloading or installing the software, it’s hosted in the cloud and accessed via a web browser or mobile app.

Customers typically pay on a subscription basis (monthly or yearly). Examples include Slack, HubSpot, and Dropbox. SaaS companies handle everything from hosting and updates to security and customer support, so users only focus on using the software.

Is Netflix a SaaS or PaaS?

Netflix is a SaaS (Software as a Service) company. It provides a subscription-based streaming service where users can access movies, series, and documentaries over the internet.

Netflix hosts and maintains the platform, while users simply subscribe to access the service. PaaS (Platform as a Service), on the other hand, provides tools and frameworks for developers to build applications—something very different from Netflix’s business model.