User Experience Trends: Creative Ways To Enhance UX

You’re always looking for ways to improve your software’s user experience, but you come across the same advice time and time again. Well, not here!

As Product Designers, we work day in, day out, on improving the user experience of our clients’ products, making sure they stay up-to-date with UX trends.

We’ve come up with six unique and creative ways that you can do the same, beyond the typical methods you’ve already implemented.

6 Ways to Enhance Your UX

1. Gamification Elements

Firstly, consider introducing gamification elements to make the user experience more interactive. Incorporate features like progress bars, achievements, badges, or leaderboards that encourage users to explore different features, complete tasks, or compete with others. This increases user engagement and motivation.

Why you should consider gamification for your user experience

Gamification is a well-known technique, however, its application within SaaS platforms is still unique. By incorporating game-like elements, you can infuse a sense of fun and competition into the user experience, setting your SaaS product apart from competitors.

2. Voice-Enabled Interactions

Another key feature you can consider integrating into your software is voice commands or voice assistants. These allow users to perform tasks, navigate the application, or retrieve information using voice input. Plus, this offer a hands-free and intuitive experience, particularly for tasks that involve multi-step processes or data entry.

Why consider voice-enabled interactions for your user experience?

Although voice assistants have gained popularity, integrating voice-enabled interactions within a SaaS application isn’t very common yet. By implementing voice commands for performing tasks or navigating the application, you can provide a more hands-free and intuitive user experience, which is less commonly seen in SaaS products.

3. Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) Integration

Explore the use of AR or VR technologies to provide a unique user experience. Depending on the nature of your SaaS offering, you can leverage AR/VR to visualise data, create immersive training experiences, or enable virtual collaboration. This can add an element of excitement and interactivity to your product.

Why consider AR or VR?

While AR and VR technologies are being adopted in various industries, their application within SaaS platforms still is considered unique. Utilising these technologies to visualise data, create immersive training experiences, or enable virtual collaboration can offer a distinctive user experience that sets your SaaS product apart from competitors.

4. Contextual Help and Guidance

Move beyond traditional help documentation and provide contextual help and guidance within the SaaS application. Use tooltips, interactive walkthroughs, or embedded video tutorials that appear at relevant moments to guide users through specific features or workflows. This can reduce user frustration and improve the overall learning experience.

How rethinking your help documentation improves your UX

Obviously, contextual help and guidance are common UX practices, however, the emphasis here is on delivering assistance within the SaaS application itself, rather than relying solely on external help documentation. By providing tooltips, interactive walkthroughs, or embedded video tutorials at the right moments, you can enhance the learning experience and differentiate your product.

5. Social Collaboration Features

In order to reach more people with your product, make sure to incorporate social collaboration features.This helps foster a sense of community among users. Not only can users connect with each other, share insights, ask questions, but also they can collaborate on projects. This can encourage user engagement, knowledge sharing, and even lead to user-generated content that enhances the overall value of your product.

Why invest in social collaboration to enhance your user experience?

While social collaboration is not new, integrating such features directly within a SaaS platform may be less common. By enabling users to connect, share insights, and collaborate on projects within the application itself, you create a unique community-driven experience that promotes engagement and knowledge sharing.

6. Adaptive and Predictive Features

Leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to create adaptive and predictive features. Make your SaaS application learn from user behaviour and provide personalised recommendations, predictions, or automated suggestions. This can streamline workflows, save time, and offer a more tailored user experience.

Why AI and ML are key for your user experience

While adaptive and predictive features are not entirely unique, their implementation within a SaaS application can still be distinct. By leveraging AI and machine learning to learn from user behaviour and provide personalised recommendations or automation suggestions, you create a more tailored experience that stands out from the standard static workflows.

Key Takeaways

Remember, the key to improving the user experience is understanding your target audience, their pain points, and their specific needs. 

While some of the ideas mentioned align with common UX principles, their uniqueness lies in their specific application in SaaS. By adding some of these elements mentioned, you will help differentiate your SaaS product and provide a more enjoyable and original user experience for your customers.

Need a hand?

For SaaS Founders who want to create a fast-growing software that users love

UserActive provides a team of SaaS design experts and a proven process, because to create an exceptional product, we know you need designers who also understand your business.

Click here to book a no-obligation call to see if we’re a good fit to help you and your team!