How We Increased a SaaS App’s Conversion by 37% Through UX Redesign

Introduction

Most SaaS products don’t have a traffic problem — they have a UX problem. If users can’t onboard smoothly, trust your interface, or find value fast, they leave. In this breakdown, I’ll show how our UI/UX design agency rebuilt a struggling SaaS product’s experience and lifted conversions by 37% in 90 days — and how you can apply the same principles today.

Why This Matters for Businesses in 2025 Competition in SaaS is exploding. Users expect zero friction, lightning-fast onboarding, accessible interfaces, and AI-enhanced workflows. In 2025, UX is no longer a “nice to have” — it’s a profit lever. A strong UX can mean:

Higher trial-to-paid conversions
Lower churn
Increased feature adoption
Faster activation time
Greater customer lifetime value

UX is now the differentiator. The companies that win are those that design for clarity, trust, and flow.

1. The Problem: High Traffic, Low Conversions A B2B SaaS client approached us with a familiar issue: Traffic was growing, but paid conversions were stuck at 7%. We mapped the user journey and found friction points:

Confusing onboarding steps
Overwhelming dashboards
Hidden primary actions
Poor mobile optimization
No UX writing to guide decision-making

These issues weren’t technical — they were UX fundamentals causing revenue leakage.

2. Why It Happened: Cognitive Load + Ambiguous Value Most SaaS interfaces accidentally force users to “figure things out.” But users don’t want to think — they want to accomplish. We identified three core reasons behind the drop-offs:

Reason 1: High Cognitive Load The dashboard displayed 14 primary actions on the first screen. Users froze.

Reason 2: No Clear Value Communication The onboarding flow explained features, not benefits. Users didn’t know what problem the product solved.

Reason 3: Broken Feedback Loops Success states, progress markers, and micro-interactions were missing. Without these UX cues, users felt lost and disengaged.

3. The Solution: A Structured UX Redesign Strategy We implemented a full UX transformation built around three steps:

Step 1: Reduce Cognitive Load with a Simplified Information Architecture We re-organized the entire product around a primary goal: Help users achieve value in under 3 minutes. Changes included:

A cleaner, card-based dashboard
One primary action (instead of 14 competing buttons)
Smart defaults to eliminate manual setup
Contextual tooltips during first-time use

Result: Bounce rate on the onboarding screen dropped from 41% to 18%.

Step 2: Rewrite the UX Copy for Clarity and Trust We replaced technical jargon with clear, outcome-driven UX writing:

“Create workflow template” → “Start your first automated workflow”
“Manage integrations” → “Connect your apps in one click”

We added short benefit explanations under each feature to reduce uncertainty. Result: User confusion decreased, and support tickets for onboarding fell by 23%.

Step 3: Introduce Micro-Interactions & Progress Indicators Humans need feedback to stay motivated. We added:

Smooth transitions between steps
Success animations
Progress bars during onboarding
Empty-state illustrations with calls to action

Result: The onboarding completion rate increased from 52% to 81%.

4. Case Study: 37% Conversion Lift in 90 Days After the full redesign, the results were clear. Based on Mixpanel data and in-app analytics, trial-to-paid conversions increased from 7% to 9.6%, marking a 37% lift. Onboarding completion jumped from 52% to 81%, while first-week feature adoption rose from 34% to 55%, a 61% improvement. Additionally, onboarding-related support tickets dropped by 23%, reducing friction for both users and the internal support team. The ROI was immediate — better UX directly translated into measurable revenue growth.

5. What You Can Learn From This Redesign Here are the core principles any SaaS team can apply: ✔ Put one primary action on each screen Users act faster and more confidently when the next step is obvious. ✔ Tell users the benefit, not the feature UX copy should answer: “Why does this matter for me right now?” ✔ Build for speed — users expect immediate value Every extra step increases drop-off. ✔ Use empty states as onboarding tools Turn “nothing here yet” screens into guided mini-tutorials. ✔ Add micro-interactions for trust Even subtle animations improve clarity and user comfort. ✔ Validate everything with analytics Let data, not opinions, guide UX improvements. Actionable Checklist for Improving SaaS Conversions Use this list during your next UX review:

☐ Map your entire user journey
☐ Identify top 3 friction points
☐ Simplify the dashboard hierarchy
☐ Rework UX writing for clarity and benefits
☐ Add progress indicators + success feedback
☐ Test all flows on mobile
☐ Implement AI-assisted assistance (if applicable)
☐ Run A/B tests on onboarding steps
☐ Measure changes with product analytics

Small UX improvements often create disproportionate conversion gains.

Read the full article here: https://medium.com/@design.sphere/how-we-increased-a-saas-apps-conversion-by-37-through-ux-redesign-d6e0fb73e2ae