If you think internet comics are just for vibes and procrastination, think again. The explosion of relatable, bite-sized comics on Instagram, X, and TikTok is quietly reshaping how SaaS products are designed, branded, and shipped.
With teen creators like the 16-year-old behind the “relatable everyday situations” comics going viral, and artists like Haley Drew This turning mental health comics into full-on online communities, product teams are watching closely. Why? Because the same hooks that make these panels mega-shareable are the exact hooks that keep users inside your app.
Let’s break down how this new wave of ultra-relatable, hyper-visual content is rewriting the rules for modern software—and what your SaaS needs to steal ASAP.
UX Is Becoming a Comic Strip (And That’s a Good Thing)
Relatable comics win because you “get” the story in 0.5 seconds. No setup. No explanation. Just: “Oh, that’s me.” SaaS products are racing in the same direction. Long onboarding tours and walls of text are being replaced with snackable, comic-like flows: one action, one punchline, one obvious next step.
Teams are rebuilding dashboards to feel like panels in a story—clean, framed chunks of information instead of chaotic data dumps. Just like a comic guides your eye across the page, smart UX is guiding the user through their workflow with visual hierarchy, bold cues, and micro-illustrations. The goal isn’t just “simple”; it’s “instantly readable,” the way a three-panel meme is. In 2026, if users need a paragraph to understand a feature, that feature is already dead.
Product Tours Are Turning Into Story Arcs
Look at how mental health creators like Haley Drew This build mini-story arcs across posts: same characters, recurring jokes, subtle growth over time. Product-led growth teams are starting to treat onboarding and feature adoption the exact same way.
Instead of a one-and-done product tour that everyone skips, SaaS is shifting toward episodic onboarding: short, recurring, narrative-style nudges that feel like “part 2” and “part 3” of your journey with the tool. Animated walkthroughs, illustrated tooltips, and character mascots are turning into the recurring cast of your app’s “series.” The playbook: start with something funny or painfully relatable (“your dashboard after vacation”), then reveal how the feature fixes it. Users don’t just learn the product—they follow a story they recognize themselves in.
Microcopy Is Going Full Meme-Brain
Scroll any viral thread of “worst work emails” and you’ll see why people are over stiff, robotic language. At the same time, comics shredded by the internet are usually the ones that try too hard to be quirky. The SaaS sweet spot is right in the middle: human, bold, but not cringe.
Borrowing from comic panels, product teams are tightening microcopy to be punchy and emotionally aware: “We saved this for you” instead of “Record successfully stored,” “That didn’t work—but we can fix it” instead of “Error 500.” Error states, loading screens, and empty dashboards are becoming prime real estate for tiny, comic-like moments: one line, one feeling, one clear path forward. The best SaaS products are starting to read less like corporate PDFs and more like the captions under the internet’s favorite relatable comics—short, sharp, and weirdly comforting.
Visual Identity: Mascots, Minimalism, and “Screenshot-Bait”
The comics that blow up hardest online have a few things in common: instantly recognizable style, bold shapes, and layouts that look amazing in a screenshot. SaaS brands are catching on.
We’re seeing a new wave of “screenshot-bait” UI: clean color blocks, thick dividers, subtle character doodles, and layouts that look like they could themselves be a comic panel on X or Reddit. Mascot-driven branding—once dismissed as “too playful for B2B”—is back in a big way, inspired by webcomic characters that people emotionally latch onto. Designers aren’t just asking “Is this usable?” anymore; they’re asking “Would someone share this screen in a Slack thread and say ‘lol, this is us’?” If the answer is yes, that screen is doing more than its job.
Community-Led Roadmaps Are Copying Creator Fandoms
Look at the online groups built around fluffy cat pics, mental health comics, or relatable life doodles: people don’t just consume; they comment, remix, and request. SaaS is sprinting toward that creator-fandom model.
Product teams are opening up roadmaps inside the app, letting users “vote” with emoji-style reactions, and even shipping features with comic-style changelogs that tell the story of why something was built. The same way fans DM artists ideas for the “next comic,” power users are sliding into feedback channels to pitch their pain points—and getting public shoutouts when their idea ships. The line between “audience” and “product team” is blurring. The winning SaaS of the next few years will treat users not as buyers, but as collaborators and co-writers in an ongoing, very public story.
Conclusion
Relatable comics and viral panels aren’t just internet background noise—they’re a live A/B test for how humans process information, emotion, and attention in seconds. The creators blowing up in 2025–2026 are proving that simple visuals plus sharp, honest storytelling can move millions of people with almost zero friction.
If your SaaS still feels like a manual instead of a story, you’re leaving serious growth on the table. The future of software looks a lot less like a spreadsheet and a lot more like a comic strip: clear frames, loud emotions, small jokes, and big relatability. Build your product like something people would screenshot, share, and say: “This is SO us”—and you won’t just have users. You’ll have fans.
Key Takeaway
The most important thing to remember from this article is that this information can change how you think about Software Trends.
