Stamped ✕ Alexunder Hess

SaaS eCommerce and Design Trends Case Study

SaaS platform design trend I don't care for. Why? And my solution to that.

The goals of this case study

• Share my opinion on design trends, specifically in SAAS

• Highlight my knowledge and skills related to Design trends and their impact in the eCommerce industry

• Communicate it in an easy-to-digest format

Main thoughts of the case study

• Design trends shouldn't drive the decision-making process
  

• Research and focus on the current Users or Customers provide the best results. It doesn't matter what I think, the most important is what Customers and Users want and need

• Clarity, familiarity, simplicity, performance and accessibility are much more important than any trend

• eCommerce consists of 3 components: Attract, Convert, Come back (Acquisition, Engagement, Retention). Design trends can be helpful for attraction.

Design trends and my opinion on them

I believe that any trend is the result of an experiment, and there are 3 drivers of any trend: Art, Design and Technology.

A trend that lasts long enough becomes the fundamental principle, a foundation for the following experiments.

It’s like having that incredible piece of clothes in your closet bought after a "everyone-is-wearing-it-today" but still wearing jeans and a t-shirt in most of the cases.

→ Trends are being created as an internal exploration idea
→ then, shared with the world
→ if it's something new/innovative and viral or it simplifies the current experience — the idea becomes a trend.

Once the trend is accepted by the mass, it can be spread to

• most likely, marketing materials (including websites)
• potentially, digital products (including SaaS platforms)

What I believe makes a good design

clarity · function · aesthetics · simplicity · familiarity · performance · readability · legibility and accessibility

I'm open to experimenting and playing with any design trends,
but for the actual project I work with
↓
I will focus on Jakob's Law (Users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know)
and proper User Research

3 types of design trends

In my opinion, there 3 types of trends caused by 3 main drivers: Art, Design and Technology

Visual trends

Neumorphism
Glassmorphism
Blur gradients
Neo brutalism
Notepad style / Drawings
Graphic design influence
Space design

Contextual (Industry) trends

Bento grid
Parallax sections/images
Video background
Stripe effect
Dashboard for everything
Dark theme

Technology trends

VUI
Chatbot
Personalization
AI recommendations
Augmented / Virtual reality

I can provide examples of all of these trends during the interview if required.

Design Trends. Marketing Website and Platform UI

There is a huge difference between Marketing Websites and Platform UIs.
Most visual design trends are applied to marketing websites, keeping the platform UI clean and easy to use.
Contextual or Technology design trends can be seen in both marketing and UI products.

Wope Marketing Website

Wope Platform UI

The design trends I don't care for and why

I can play with any trend but don't take into work anything that competes with any principle of a good design

Neumorphism. New skeuomorphism. Different, attracts attention, but lacks accessibility and requires a high level of design skills to make it work properly. I have seen some good marketing design examples and none Platform UIs.

Glassmorphism. Immersive, connects digital worlds with reality, but again - lack of accessibility, plus poor performance. Performance, the speed of load and trust, need or desire, lack of layout shifts are the top priorities in eCommerce.

Space style. Innovative, bright, interesting, but often lacks clarity and significantly reduces the performance, plus poor accessibility in most of the cases.

Dark theme for the sake of trend. Dark theme became very popular in the last few years. Application without a proper understanding of different cases can increase the bounce rate reducing the conversions.

Neubrutalism. Bold, high contrast, highlighted, sharp. It looks powerful and impactful, but it also increases the cognitive load through too many "noisy" design elements. That can reduce the engagement and conversion rates.

Overuse of Parallax and Microinteractions. I understand the power of Motion UI design. Any kind of UI animation should improve user experience. When they don't, they overload users, making them leave.

How I would improve the Platform UI that uses the Neubrutalism design trend

Most of the SaaS product platform UIs I've ever seen and used follow contextual or technology design trends and provide a good user experience.

As we are talking not about Marketing websites but about the Platform UI, the only Platform UI that comes to my mind that follows design trend (based on their brand identity) but I'd improve is Gumroad.

They follow the Neubrutalism design trend, which is different from other companies (it's good), but it may also negatively impact the overall user experience through overwhelming contrast and an excessive number of unnecessary design elements.

Gumroad Platform UI Today

Visually heavy (too much attention to every single piece of information)
Overwhelming (cognitive overload)
Intimidating (because of high contrast)
Cluttered (lots of unnecessary design elements)

Gumroad Platform UI Redesign

Visually light and focused on what's important
Strong differentiation between a menu and the main content
Clear and easy to read, keeping the brand colours and fonts in place
Clean, simple and accessible
Hypothesis: will increase the retention and engagement rates

I don't include platforms like Airbnb, Twitter, and Dropbox in this case study, as the first two are not SaaS, and all three follow the principles of clarity, simplicity, and accessibility.

Design trends to be careful with

I can play with any trend but don't take into work anything that competes with any principle of a good design

Skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism was popular in 2008–2012, when elements from the real world found their representation in the digital one. There is nothing wrong with it if it doesn't negatively impact accessibility and performance.

Dark theme. Research has shown that people prefer to read long pieces of copy and argue that the design is more accessible in a Light theme. However, a Dark theme provides a better user experience in a dark environment and works perfectly with short pieces of information.

Graphic Design Impact. Illustrations, typefaces with a strong personality, arrows and script writing add personality to a website or platform. If they don't ruin customer experience, keeping information clear and interaction elements easy-to-access, this design trend can increase conversions significantly.

Material Design 3.0. I love the concept and the entire idea behind Material Design. Material 2.0 was easy to implement, develop, perceive, and understand. Material 3.0 brought dynamic colors, overrounded corners and vibrant illustrations making this style closer to a young generation but further from accessibillity. When implement right, provides great results in UI for better UX.

Bento Grids. This style exists for years but became a trend in 2023 when Apple implemented it on their website. It's also widely used in e-commerce as well as on SaaS marketing websites. Pros: easy to digest information in small portions, great responsiveness. Possible cons: cognitive overload due to too much competing for attention information at a time.

Design Trend I care about — Clarity, Simplicity, Accessibility

Example, Stripe. There is always room for improvement, but don't change (much) it if it's not broken.

Stripe Landing Page for SaaS solutions

Stripe Dashboard. Clean, clear, simple

Personalization + User Experience

Design Trends, and How Stamped Platform can benefit from them

Understanding the design trends can help attract new customers to the Stamped Platform, providing a great experience for e-commerce company owners and their customers.

On a platform UI level, Stamped follows the Jakob's law and provides clear information in the most accessible way.

Deeper research of the platform and customers would give a better understanding of what to focus on to reduce the churn rate and increase acquisition, engagement and retention rates.

Contact me at:

alex@alexunderhess.design

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Alexander Hess Gasiul

 Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦