SaaS Interface Design - SaaS exists in between desktop and web

In late spring of this year, I received an email from M.T. Hoogvliet, a student of Interaction Design in the Netherlands.  He was writing a thesis on SaaS Interface Design with a goal to develop a set of user interface guidelines for Software-as-Service web applications.  He was proposing to answer some interesting questions:

• How to define a SaaS application?
• What are the key elements in designing general web-based software?
• How does a SaaS application differ from general web-based software?
• On what points does a SaaS application typically need to appeal to a user?

Hoogvliet noted that “SaaS and web application design falls somewhere in between existing guidelines for designing interfaces because two previously separate disciplines (desktop and web) are merging together in SaaS.” He also lamented the dearth of articles or literature on the topic. He contacted Catalyst Resources to ask us to identify the best practices we use for designing SaaS applications.

We shared some of our initial work around the customer life cycle approach to SaaS strategy and design. Hoogvliet integrated this with his other research to produce a comprehensive thesis offering a set of web-based design principles along with specific guidelines for designing a profitable SaaS.  As a real world case study, he also developed a SaaS application to design, develop and use a CMS.

Mr. Hoogvliet has given Catalyst Resources permission to make the thesis available for download. I strongly encourage user experience and interaction designers, as well as ISVs and enterprise application developers, to review this work. The thesis will be a valuable component for a strategic analysis of your own SaaS applications plans.  (Note: I recommend that anyone with an MTV-generation attention span, should jump straight to chapter 4.5 - around page 37 - to begin).

Download SaaS Interface Design - Designing web-based software for business purposes (3 MB pdf).

Feel free to comment about the ideas in the thesis or offer extensions to Hoogvliet’s analysis.

Going Green (and increasing profitability) using SaaS and RIAs

Several years ago, we developed a web collaboration application, primarily for use by our own distributed teams and a few select clients.  This application allowed us to share project files, and coordinate team activities online. One immediate benefit was that it cut down on the volume of email back-and-forths.  All documents that required review or approval were simply posted online in a team or project workspace. This also made it feasible for employees to telecommute.

In the last year or so, we have been making an active effort as a company (and individuals) to go green and reduce our impact on the environment. We are working to be certified by the City as a green business, doing the standard reduce/recycle/reuse things including using CLFs, buying recycle paper, composting, using low-toxic cleaners, encouraging public transportation, etc.

As part of this green effort, we started tracking how our our web collaboration solution was reducing our carbon footprint by replacing the need for air travel and local commuting. The initial results, based on just our own staff and a few clients, were so encouraging that we decided to enhance the web collaboration solution and provide it to our entire client base.

We knew that our clients would be intellectually supportive of a green initiative. But reality was that they were already familiar and comfortable with email, face-to-face meetings and hard copy documents. If we were going to be successful at getting them to adopt web collaboration as a preferred way of doing business with Catalyst, we would have to provide a better user experience and enhanced productivity as compared to the incumbent solution.

We redesigned the application as a multi-tenant SaaS giving each client their own team space, with 24-hour, anywhere access.  We also developed a user-validated RIA interface that minimizes the training requirements, provides high performance, and is natural to use. Clients can configure their team space to incorporate their own branding, as well as their own industry-related terms and language.

We deployed this to seven clients located throughout the US, as well as our own employees. Then we tracked our travel, monthly expenses and billable hours compared to previous months.

After implementing the new SaaS RIA web collaboration solution, Catalyst was able to reduce business travel and commuting across seven clients to achieve an average CO2 reduction of 21,000+ lbs per month. (roughly the amount produced by 3 US households in one year). In addition, in one month alone, Catalyst saved 70% in travel costs and increased billable activities by 20%.

We are excited by this initial data and will continue to enhance our web collaboration/team space solution.  Needless to say, we will use it automatically with all new clients as well as our growing staff. 

SproutCore adds to the list of tools for RIAs and SaaS

There was plenty of coverage the past week about the new SproutCore HTML/JavaScript framework that was used by Apple to develop their MobileMe site.  “A SproutCore application is a JavaScript application that runs entirely in the web browser. It can often run on its own, without even needing support for a web server except when it makes sense for the application. This frees the server developer to focus on the things the server can do very well such as saving, restoring and aggregating data and performing expensive operations. Meanwhile the ‘thick’ client running in the web browser can handle the task of presenting the user with a friendly interface that is fast and intuitive,” from the SproutCore Web site.

What is interesting is that the description of SproutCore applies to any RIA stack - HTML/AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, Curl or any new flavor that comes along.  RIA is now the defacto standard for web application deployment.  This applies to applications ranging from simple e-commerce sites, to desktop widgets, to full blown enterprise applications delivered as SaaS.  The particular application develop platform an organization should choose should depend on two things:

1. The core technology for your application (typically .Net or Java). The core technology is driven by a much broader set of issues than just the presentation layer. If you already know what the core technology will be, put a stake in the ground to constrain your evaluation of RIA platforms. We have seen very few teams be successful in delivering an application within the required scope and schedule requirements when the team had to change to an entirely new technology base.
2. The primary device and platform where you plan to deliver your application (e.g. public web, in-house, iPhone, desktop widget, combined off-line and on-line interaction)

Lately we’ve done a lot of work with Adobe Flex because it met specific client needs (e.g. bidirectional network sockets), it is very good at media handling, it is fast to prototype and develop, and it is scalable. For SaaS, we can build smart, adaptive, and reusable interface and data handling components. These can be used in the core application as well as with all the supporting services delivered in software (e.g. billing, provisioning, configuration and support).

Most of our financial services, insurance and banking client work has used GWT and BackBase.

As we develop more applications specifically targeting mobile devices in the enterprise, we will be adding SproutCore to our list of AJAX/HTML solutions.

Regardless of the platform or technology, this is an exciting time to be developing enterprise applications.  The business value of user experience is no longer a hard sell.  Companies get it!  The success or failure of an enterprise web application or SaaS deployment is dependent on using RIAs to deliver compelling, addictive and productivity-enhancing user experiences.