Customers recommend rave about products
that are a joy to use. In other words, for those SaaS companies,
their product is their competitive advantage.
Is the same true for your SaaS?
I'm guessing your SaaS saw its early success like most did: You solved a problem well and early adopters were willing to look past the rough edges in your product. An MVP and lots of customer support can go a long way!
Now your next wave of customers are on their way. But they expect more.
They need your product to fit like a glove. It needs to be intuitive. Customers don't want to sift through your help docs. They don’t want to contact support. It’s easier for them to hop over to one of your (many) competitors at the first sign of friction.
Your back-end developers are excellent. But they'll be the first to admit: Sure, they can build the “full stack”, but the (not-so-secret) truth is that for a back-end developer, coding the front-end (what your customer sees) is a slog.
Tools like TailwindCSS are wonderful. JavaScript libraries work like magic. Starter templates can speed up an MVP build in the early days.
But today's tooling only gets your product to "good enough". The UI feels slapped together (and yes, your users feel it).
Your app looked fine on day one, but how about day 1000, after many more features were bolted on? This is how “clunky” happens.
So how can we take your product’s experience from “good enough” to growth lever?
Three steps:
I (Brian Casel, hi ) created Tailor-Made UI to fill the product gap that I still see in too many SaaS products today.
Think of Tailor-Made UI as your product’s secret weapon aimed at eliminating “clunky” and converting your customers into raving fans.
Your Tailor-Made UI gives you:
Tailor-Made UI is just one (of many) options you have when it comes to delivering the best version of your SaaS product. I may be biased, but I think it's your best option ;)
Let's break it down...
I love to "build in public"—and if we work together, I'd love to share your UI project too! (With your permission, of course).
Today we launched Appointment Scheduling in Clarityflow 🚀
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) September 16, 2024
Sync your calendar. Share booking links. Set availability & rules. Sell appointments. Team appointments. Reminders. Async messaging before & after appointments.
Seamlessly built-in for your client comms in… pic.twitter.com/TxvtcWL2zc
Built the private podcast show page with threaded discussion between subscribers and host. https://t.co/do1P5hv3km pic.twitter.com/ntVPcCCdGG
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) July 27, 2024
Here's a look at a project I've been working on with the folks at MemberVault.
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) June 7, 2024
A custom set of views and components that their back-end team ( @mikecodemonkey ) can use to ship their refreshed customer dashboard.
UI/UX design + TailwindCSS & AlpineJS pic.twitter.com/6k8XEfpZhS
Here's a project I just wrapped up with a SaaS:
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) June 11, 2024
They're giving users a way to import many complex products to improve onboarding.
I designed a table interface with a custom set of UI components that their back-end team will need to ship it.
Rails, TailwindCSS, StimulusJS. pic.twitter.com/0lkh9ovMB3
Today I designed this comparison table for the 'Tailor-Made UI' (my consulting service).
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) June 20, 2024
HTML, TailwindCSS, AlpineJS.
Hoping to launch the full page tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/fc5cDRURbc
Bar Graph + List = Bar Graph List.
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) June 13, 2024
(a UI component I'm working on for a client's SaaS) pic.twitter.com/J0uITsvZVN
We're introducing the option for "minimized" vs. "full" sidebar.
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) February 22, 2023
Full (default) accommodates more robust navs & sub-navs, including our new folders UI.
Collapsed gives you access to essentials & stays out of your way.
Tiny arrow to toggle. Your browser remembers your setting. pic.twitter.com/vwlSNDCvSR
On deck to ship this week: Workflows.
— Brian Casel (@CasJam) January 30, 2023
This one's a game-changer. Can't wait to share all of what you can do with it. pic.twitter.com/M9RvHISJl4
That would be me, Brian Casel ( Hi ).
I'm a multi-time SaaS founder, product designer and full-stack developer. I'm also the co-host of the Bootstrappd Web podcast, a long-running show that fellow SaaS founders seem to like :)
After years of grinding on my own products, I decided to open up this consultancy so that I could collaborate on other products and sharpen my chops in the process.
Rates change from time-to-time so you'll need to get in touch to request a quote.
But here's a bit more info:
By default, we'll assume your UI designs will be delivered in cleanly coded HTML and TailwindCSS . Where interactivity is needed, we'll likely use AlpineJS or StimulusJS .
If your app is Ruby on Rails , then I can spin up a simple Rails app and deliver your UI as rails views, partials, and configueable components for easy portability into your production app.
Using Laravel ? Then your UI can be delivered in a simple Laravel app with Livewire components.
Most projects begin with a straightforward redesign of your app's dashboard or a particular feature and view.
But the real value comes when we assemble your collection of UI components (menus, forms, panels, modals, popovers, and more...), which can be re-used throughout our app.
Each component is designed to keep your app's UI consistent, while offering sensible configuration options to work in whichever context a component is used in your app.
The key: Your UI library is tailor-made for your SaaS. Not everyone else's too.
In most cases, it's best to have me deliver your UI designs in its own standalone codebase, separate from your production application. That's the cleanest way to maintain your UI. It's also the most time and cost efficient.
Think of this UI codebase as your SaaS' internal UI library, where your developers can grab the code snippets that they need to implement features in your production app.
Of course! The goal is to make it as easy and efficient as possible for your devs to use your Tailor-Made UI to implement features in your app. Brian is happy to communicate with anyone on your team to ensure a smooth delivery every step of the way.
For the most part, your UI is designed and coded in the browser (in code) so that it's crafted in its final form throughout the process.
However, for more complex interfaces, I'll often mock up rough wireframes in Figma to help ensure we're aligned on the funcntional direction of things.
In some cases, clients prefer to have designs delivered in Figma-only and leave all of the coding to their internal team. That's totally fine too, in which case, your UI will be delivered as detailed Figma mockups.
Yes -- Brian and his team also offer full stack SaaS app development.
That's offered in a dedicated service. Learn more about it onemonth.app
Yes — Having designed, written and launched many SaaS product brands in my career, marketing site design is something I love to work on too. It's a great use-case for Tailor-Made UI.
In most cases, a 1-pager (or 2 or 3) with some well-crafted copy that hones in your product's positioning is what you need to hit the mark with customers. The brand design and components we create here should be useful for months or years to come.
We can start with a live call, but almost all communication after that happens asynchronously.
In fact, Brian is the founder (and product designer) of Clarityflow , a SaaS specifically made for async messaging using video, screen, and texts. My clients and I love the flexibility and efficiency of async. Prefer Loom? You can record and embed Looms right inside Clarityflow too.
I'm not against the occasional live call too.
Send Brian an email to inquire about a project or ask any other questions.
Availability is limited and I often book projects out at least a month in advance. Get in touch to discuss current availability.
Contact Brian to inquire about getting started with Tailor-Made UI.
Availability is limited and projects are often booked at least a month in advance. Let's chat to discuss :)