What is SaaS (Software as a Service)?

      

Software as a Service (SaaS) is cloud-based software that allows cloud providers to develop and maintain applications, provide automatic software updates, and deliver software to customers over the Internet. Vendors take care of all traditional hardware and software including middleware, application software, saas UI UX design, and security. This allows SaaS customers to significantly reduce costs, deploy, extend, and upgrade business solutions faster than maintaining in-house systems and software, with a more predictable total cost of ownership.

History of SaaS

In the old days, mainframes connected to simple terminals that shared software. As computer prices began to fall in the 1980s, many companies developed their version of local area distribution, called local area networks (LANs). However, the company itself (not the technology provider) was directly responsible for the installation, and management of the equipment and the network. With the rapid rise of the Internet in the 1990s, digital service providers hosted software and made it available to consumers over the Internet. However, this SaaS predecessor called the Application Service Provider (ASP) model, had significant limitations. For example, each user needed their version of the software. For this, certain software is installed on the user’s computer. Implementation was expensive and time-consuming. ASP solutions generally did not provide an efficient way to collect and analyze important data.

The first SaaS solutions appeared in the late 1990s when the term SaaS was first used. This new model is significantly more efficient than the ASP model. Due to the multi-functional architecture, an application instance can be used by many users. You no longer need to install software locally. It also provided a way to collect, aggregate and centralize valuable data. While delivery models have been stable since the early 2000s, SaaS has gained greater enterprise visibility than test solutions due to key integrated engineering solutions such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, chatbots, and SaaS digital technologies.

Key benefits of leveraging the power of SaaS

SaaS solutions provide scalability, additional features, and the ability of cloud storage to perform many typical tasks, such as painstaking infrastructure management with the ability to make important changes to various business processes. It’s also important in terms of bridging the innovation gap that IT leaders often rely on. Reduction of financial costs and efficiency accelerate the development of cloud applications, modern SaaS applications have become revolutionary platforms for the challenges of the digital era, they have provided the opportunity to expand the functionality of applications for joint work on various business processes. This allows small businesses and startups to innovate and go to market at an unprecedented speed. Armed with social media, consumers have more choices and more information than ever before.

UX vs. UI – Capabilities and What’s the Key Difference?

The idea of creating all digital products is based on the concepts of UX and UI. Despite the fundamental importance of these two concepts, many developers and designers do not fully understand their essence. Cieden experts thoroughly understand the concept of UX/UI design and can create a quality project for you. Developers of web interfaces (pages, applications, programs) like to develop digital products that make life easier for their users. The design should be convenient, practical, and intuitive. This is where the concept of UX and UI design comes into play. UX stands for User Experience. UX describes the experience people have when interacting with digital products. Thus, UX design is a comprehensive process of developing simple and user-friendly web interfaces. Specialists in this field are often called UX architects or UX engineers. User interaction is often boiled down to the simple term “ease of use.” It is important to understand that UX is a complex model for making various design decisions. UX includes the study of information architecture, design, content, and usability as common components. The list of tasks set before professionals from Cieden will help to better understand the essence of this concept. The main questions of UX design:

  • Defining goals – what the team wants to achieve by developing a specific web product. As part of comprehensive training, they research competitors in their segments, analyze specific target customers and develop effective product development strategies;
  • Selection of important UX tools necessary to achieve the set goals;
  • Creation of useful, understandable, and thoughtful digital products for a specific target audience;
  • Analysis of the results – whether the user interface meets expectations.

UX designers not only create web products but also participate in thorough analysis before and after a digital product is brought to market. A good user experience is the key foundation of any website. Define everything from high conversion rates to successful search campaigns and optimizing user behavior.

It is important to follow the basic design principles

Good user interface design does not depend on the beauty of your site. There are more important things. In addition, psychology refers to the study of the human mind and brain.

Contrast – elements cannot be mixed. Each should have its place without interfering with other elements.

Hierarchy – Elements should have different key priorities depending on their task.

Spacing – Space should be left between elements to improve the readability of content.

Alignment – elements must be aligned relative to each other.

Some rules can be sacrificed, especially when creating creative solutions. But only if you know exactly what you are doing.

UI stands for User Interface. In very simple cases, user interface design is responsible for how the UX engineer’s ideas are implemented. Choose the best button colors and sizes, respect the margins, use all the margins, and make the text as readable as possible for users. In other words, it is important to make the space functional and intuitive. Regardless of the type of product (website, app, application), the user interface always follows the rules of the basic user interface, which improves the user experience. Correct construction of interface elements is extremely important. They should be well structured and logically interact with each other. Group the objects. Logically related interface components should be grouped according to common functions (menus, forms, etc.).

Align all elements. Perfectionists and other users refuse to deal with poorly designed interfaces. An important aspect is the consistency of the unified design. Style makes your web product comfortable and branded, attractive and recognizable. Important elements of the interface are spaces and shifts between information blocks. Space allows you to understand what each block contains, it can improve the perception of information. Compliance with these and other rules is the responsibility of the user interface developers who provide their high-quality services at Cieden.

A good user interface is not a chaotic collection of blocks and buttons, but a logically tested work that organizes all the elements of a website/app/program. These tasks belong to Cieden designers in the field of UX and UI design. It’s planning how users will interact with the user interface and what key steps need to be taken to create the most useful and understandable digital product. In addition, the UI designer at Cieden is responsible for the visual implementation of the UX architect’s ideas. It specializes in buttons, colors, and fonts. When working on a web product, Cieden specialists first focus on user interaction, and then on painstakingly designing the user interface. Because before you can create beautiful buttons, and experiment with fonts and other important design features, you need to have a clear understanding of the interface logic and how users move from one action to another. Something that looks good but doesn’t work is an example of a good UI but a bad user experience.