We show that the Lyapunov function used in backstepping feedback designs for uncertain nonlinear systems leads to unnecessarily ’hard’ control laws having undesirable high-gain properties. We present a new Lyapunov function and use it to design ’softer’ control laws which exhibit the high-gain properties to a much lesser extent. We show that the ’soft’ designs eliminate the chattering exhibited by the ’hard’ designs and achieve the same or better performance with less control effort.