Hey, I’m Simon.

A dad, a Geordie, and a designer who helps B2B SaaS teams turn confusing products into experiences people actually enjoy using.

I’ve worked on 30+ products, collaborating closely with founders, product managers, and engineers to fix the UX problems that cost customers and revenue.

I don’t do long research reports or get hung up on processes for the sake of it.

My approach is flexible and pragmatic: we figure out what the problem is, wireframe solutions, iterate to high-fidelity prototypes, and launch fast.

Always keeping the user front and centre.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

- 25% uplift in paid conversions + 2X ACV (SendX)
- 30% revenue increase (SiteGuru)
- Upsold existing clients + converted new customers (RealTyme)
- Faster launch to win early customers (Ring4)

I love the variety of projects I get to work on: from payroll to email marketing software. And I love seeing founders and teams get excited about their product again.

It’s rewarding to know that the work I do not only improves the product but rejuvenates the entire team.

When I’m not designing, you’ll find me in Newcastle with my family, following football (I’m a recovering Manchester United fan), testing new tech, or spotting great, and sometimes terrible, UX in the wild.

If you want to fix your UX and create a product that actually converts and retains customers, DM for a chat.

Simon McCade

Canva’s done an incredible job democratising design, but this dashboard is crying out for a spring clean. Cut the clutter, bring back the personality, and give users more control.

It’s busy, repetitive, and oddly impersonal for a brand that prides itself on creativity and clarity. 

Here’s where it could do with a serious tidy-up. 👇 

𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱.
If Canva wants teams to collaborate, why hide the button in grey? Make it loud and proud.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸.
For a tool that’s all about speed and flow, one button for everything is a pain. Split it out so users can jump straight into the right type of design.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰.
What will you design today? is fine, but where’s the warmth? A simple greeting with a name would make it feel like Canva actually knows who I am.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲’𝘀 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀.
Doc? Sheet? What do they actually do? A few hover tooltips would fix that in minutes.

𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗼𝘂𝘁.
Why can’t I reorder the top design types? It’s 2025 people work differently, let them customise it.

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝘀. 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀.
I shouldn’t have to squint to work out what’s mine and what’s shared. It’s confusing and slows people down.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗯𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀.
A static question mark buried in the corner isn’t helping anyone. Make it contextual, make it useful, or remove it entirely.

Canva’s a great product, no question. It’s slick, it’s powerful, and it’s made design accessible to millions. 
But let’s be honest: the dashboard feels like it’s been designed by committee.

It’s not about changing what Canva is, it’s about helping it live up to its own promise of being beautifully simple.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments: 👇 
__

Hey, I'm Simon!
I'll help you fix your UX, so trial users convert and customers stick.
Follow me, Simon McCade, for regular design tips
📌 Repost if you found this useful
📌 DM me for a chat

The SaaS UX guy | Turn more users into long-term paying customers

Everyone thinks good design comes AFTER growth. But, in my experience, good design CREATES growth. This client is the perfect example of that:

A few years back, RealTyme got in touch. 

They’d built a secure communication platform used by some of the most security-conscious organisations in the world. Governments, global enterprises, defence teams. 

But as the platform grew, so did the challenge of keeping everything clear, consistent, and easy to use. 

It’s something I see quite often, a great product that’s evolved quickly, and now needs to bring the design up to the same level as the tech.

So we took it one step at a time. Over three and a half years, I worked closely with their team to:

🔸Redesign the product experience end-to-end
🔸Establish a new visual language so everything felt consistent
🔸Build a design system to help their engineers move faster and more confidently
🔸Gradually shift the product from being sales-led to product-led

None of it happened overnight. But bit by bit, the experience started to feel purposeful, cleaner, and more connected.

The result was a product that not only looked better, but worked better. 

Users could get started faster, support requests dropped, and RealTyme saw a real commercial impact. Happier customers, stronger retention, and more conversions.

As their CEO, Onur, said afterwards:
'We not only gained competitive advantage but also increased customer satisfaction which started to pay off commercially by upselling through existing clients and converting new ones.'
__

Hey, I'm Simon!

I'll help you fix your UX, so trial users convert and customers stick.
Follow me, Simon McCade, for regular design tips
📌 Repost if you found this useful
📌 DM me for a chat

I’ve never seen a discount fix a value problem in SaaS. 
Yet every November we give it another go... 🙄 

Every year around this time I see the same thing happen across SaaS. 

Big Black Friday discounts like this one from Adobe start flying about and for a moment it all feels a bit frantic. 

I get why teams do it. It brings people in the door quickly and it gives the numbers a short term lift. The trouble is what happens next.

When someone signs up because of a heavy discount, their expectations rarely match what the product is actually worth. Retention becomes harder. The relationship starts off on the wrong foot. 

One SaaS company that seems to understand this better than most is Notion. 

They never run Black Friday sales. They hold the line on their pricing because they know the value they deliver and they stick to it. 

For SaaS founders this is worth thinking about. When you start cutting money off the price, even with the best intentions, you might be training customers to wait for the next offer rather than building a stable long term relationship. 

Holding your ground on price can feel uncomfortable in the moment but it often pays off in the quality of the users you attract and keep.

__

Hey, I'm Simon!
I'll help you fix your UX, so trial users convert and customers stick.
Follow me, Simon McCade, for regular design tips
📌 Repost if you found this useful
📌 DM me for a chat

Founders often come to me feeling stuck. They’ve reached the  ‘Something feels off but we can’t put our finger on it’ stage. Design has become a bottleneck. Here’s why:

The front-end engineers are doing their best to make it look good and make it work, but design isn’t really in their wheelhouse. 

Things slow down. Progress stalls.

If you’re running a SaaS, but growth is slowing, design isn’t just about polish. It’s a growth lever.

And by the time I get involved, it’s usually reached the ‘stuck’ stage.

Here’s what I’ve learned after 12 years of helping teams through this:

📌 Early design decisions compound. 
What starts as a quick fix can turn into design debt that’s hard to unravel later.

📌 Founders put off design for too long. 
It feels non-essential at first, but once you’ve got users, design is growth. 

It’s what reduces friction, shortens time-to-value and helps turn trial users into paying customers.

📌 Calm comes from clarity. 

Once we map out the product experience, founders go from feeling “stuck” to feeling in control again.

Make your product easier to use, quicker to learn, and it’ll start doing more of the heavy lifting for you.
__

Curious if you’ve felt that same “bottleneck” moment?
What helped you move past it?

Hey, I'm Simon!
I'll help you fix your UX, so trial users convert and customers stick.
Follow me, Simon McCade, for regular design tips
📌 Repost if you found this useful
📌 DM me for a chat

Pavle Lucic

Senior UI/UX Designer @ Toptal | Prototyping, Branding, UI Development

I am a Senior UI/UX Designer at Toptal, a network of the world's top 3% of software engineering, design, and finance talent. With over 10 years of experience in the design industry, I have a proven track record of creating visually engaging and user-friendly interfaces for in-car navigation systems, SaaS apps, and marketing websites.

My background in business and economics gives me a unique perspective on how to design UX and UI that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also functional, efficient, and user-friendly. I am passionate about solving complex problems, collaborating with diverse teams, and learning new skills. I am also Adwords Search Certified, which demonstrates my ability to optimize the online presence and performance of my clients. My goal is to help tech companies increase their revenue by improving the user experience of their products.

Senior UI/UX Desiger

A lead designer once told me, “We don’t have time for UX research.”

I said, “Then you’ll make time for rework.”

Because that’s the tradeoff.

If you skip qualitative research, your next sprint will be filled with fixes.
If you skip quantitative research, your next decision will be based on vibes.

I’ve seen this mistakes with every single design team I’ve worked with. 

Zero exceptions. 
Myself included.

Here’s the cycle that works:

Qualitative → Design → Quantitative → Refine.
Talk → Build → Measure → Repeat.

Let me explain:

Qualitative research makes people care.
Quantitative research makes people act.

Together? They make decisions make sense

Through numbers, you measure behavior.
Through stories, you understand it.

My process allows me to:

1. Design with confidence, not assumptions
2. Balance empathy with research evidence
3. Build products users actually want

Every great product you admire was built this way.

Skip a step and you’ll build twice.

(Repost ♻️ if this hits home.)

P.S. Which step do you usually skip first talking or testing?

Senior UI/UX Product Designer | UX Strategy | Figma

I once told a junior designer:

“You are better than me.”

She froze.
Then shook her head.

But I meant it.

Her instincts fast.
Her ideas were fresh.
Her courage fearless.

We spend so much time chasing recognition that we forget how powerful respect can be.

Better designers don’t diminish you.
They define what’s next for you.

When you respect greatness without envy, you create room for your own.

Respect over recognition. Always.

P.S. Who’s one designer you quietly respect more than anyone else? Tag them.

If I could go back 10 years…

I wouldn’t change the tools I used.
I wouldn’t change my niche.
I wouldn’t change my style.

Instead?

I’d only change one thing.
I’d start designing badly… sooner.

Because every “ugly” design, every failed concept, every 3-hour layout that still looked wrong…all of it built the instinct I have now.

That instinct?
It’s why I can deliver a clean result in 20 minutes today.

The minutes are visible.
The decade is invisible.

And that’s the part that matters most.

Stop trying to be perfect.
Start trying to build your years.

Because once your decade is strong…
your 20-minute magic becomes inevitable.

(Repost if you wish you started earlier ♻️)

P.S. What’s the earliest design software you ever used?

I rarely write posts like this. (Please read.)

Because this one… hits deep.

There’s a quiet suffering in the design industry nobody talks about enough.

Designers with years of practice… still feeling invisible.
Designers with real talent… still apologizing for their prices.
Designers with serious skill… still losing work to “someone cheaper.”
Designers who give everything… still fighting imposter syndrome daily.
Designers with burning ambition… still wondering if they’ll ever be seen.

Let me keep this short:

If you’re a designer, feeling undervalued right now you’re not alone. 
Every good designer has been there.

If you’ve ever questioned your worth you’re also not alone. 
Every great designer questions themselves.

If you’re silently hurting because your talent isn’t seen please know: 
the world is full of clients who will see you.

The pain is real. But it is not permanent.

You’re building a career people don’t understand…
until they desperately need you.

Stick around. Your breakthrough is coming.

(Repost if someone needs this reminder ♻️)

P.S. Leave a comment not for engagement, but for solidarity.

Every designer eventually realizes this:

You don’t need more tools.
You don’t need more plugins.
You don’t need more fancy software.

You need a better eye.

And your eye is shaped by principles of design.
Not by features.

Once I understood that, everything changed:

• My work finally had rhythm
• Spacing started to make sense
• Visual decisions became intentional
• Layouts stopped feeling “accidental”

And suddenly… my work looked cleaner without adding anything new

The day I stopped chasing trends and started studying why designs work…
Was the day my growth finally clicked.

Your career changes the moment you stop decorating
and start designing with principles.

P.S. Did you have a moment when design suddenly started making sense?

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