How SaaS is changing the web design industry
As the latest developments in SaaS are rolled out, even more changes are expected in the web design industry, making the future of web design brighter than it is today.
28 November, 2022
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a versatile business model that allows both software users and software creators to benefit from better and faster tools. This means that with SaaS tools, users do not need to buy a specific application, program, service, or package, but get access to these features through a subscription.
The software programs are not installed on a user’s device but are hosted on the provider's servers. SaaS product design has been driving how many web-based industries are evolving—and web design is no exception.
SaaS solutions include web design tools like Squarespace, Webydo, and Adobe Dreamweaver.
How SaaS helps web design
In the year 2000, there were approximately seventeen million websites and 255 million in 2010. The number grew to over two billion in 2022. While the advancement of technology and the internet have played an important role in the growth of the web design industry, SaaS is one of the key factors behind the explosion.
Here’s how SaaS is changing the web design industry:
Making web design easier
Before SaaS tools were available, web designers needed to understand the basics of certain programming languages. Today, there are SaaS web builders that allow people with no programming experience and little design knowledge to create functional websites. All the user needs is to understand how the platform works.
Easy access to quality web design tools
Not only does SaaS make web design easier to do, but there are also web builders that offer high-quality templated designs. With these website-building tools, designers can put together a functional and aesthetically pleasing website in a short period of time.
Empowering streamlined web designs
SaaS tools transformed the tedious and slow-moving traditional web-design process that involved creating mockups of the finished website before coding them, often from scratch. If changes needed to be made, the web designer would create a new mockup for the changes before manually making the needed changes to the code.
Improvements to SaaS application design streamlined the process, with codes now automatically created by the software when changes are made.
Flexibility
SaaS also brought more flexibility to the web design industry. With traditional software, you initially needed to install it on all your devices to work, and it is often not possible to synchronize your work across all devices. However, because SaaS hosts web builders on their servers, all you need to do is log in to any device and pick up from where you left off with your design.
Reduced difficulty of implementing advanced features
Another major change SaaS brought to the web design industry is that it reduced how difficult it was for users to implement advanced features. While most website-building tools offer simple websites, advanced features can be implemented without coding. There are other solutions, as well, that allow more sophisticated web designers designing enterprise SaaS to check the codes behind their sites.
Reduce the cost of web design
Because the bulk of the design work is handled by an SaaS application, a single web designer can now work on projects that involve coding and UI creation. This makes it possible for small and medium businesses to access top-quality web designs without breaking the bank.
Upgradability
Another major appealing benefit of SaaS over on-premise software solutions is that it offers upgrades and new features as part of a subscription agreement, without requiring any change to the hardware. When traditionally installed software is outdated, websites can slow down, some functionalities become disabled, and plugins can pose a significant security threat. However, SaaS product design solves this problem because it doesn’t rely on a user to manage upgrades.
Most web-builders integrate content management modules that make it easy for websites to publish content. Users don’t need to always reach out to a designer because the SaaS tool makes it easy to publish and organize content.
Summary
Despite the enormous changes SaaS has already brought to the web design industry, it is a field that continues to evolve. This means that as the latest developments in SaaS are rolled out, even more changes are expected in the web design industry, making the future of web design brighter than it is today.
