Enterprise UX refers to the user experience of enterprise products, i.e, software used by employees in the enterprise. This means that users of enterprise products are in the enterprise and not the usual consumers. Enterprise software facilitates the process required to smoothly run an organization. They help deliver all the necessary tools that HR staff, IT administrators, analysts, and other engineers use daily to do their jobs.

In this comprehensive guide, we will demonstrate the best design practices to perfect enterprise UX design. Read on to learn how to improve productivity by implementing the essential design principles and developing the perfect user experience that you or your employees have wanted for a long time.

Why is enterprise UX important?

Enterprises all over the world are no strangers to terrible UX. This is because there are so many boxes to check to ensure a good UX consistent with the customer and enterprise needs!

Let's start with the basics and find out why enterprise UX is crucial in this digital age. First, managers and employees everywhere understand that their user experience facilitates a better enterprise. They realize that with good UX design, they can comprehend and process data and other information quickly and effectively.

Here are a few other reasons why enterprise UX is imperative:

- First, it caters to the needs of the people that matter most – the employees.
- It affects and influences the culture of an enterprise.
- Enterprise UX solves unique and challenging problems
- Improves ROI considerably.

The importance of good enterprise UX design can be summed up in 3Ps- Profits, Productivity, and People. We can all agree that the final destination of any enterprise is to add value in terms of financial gain. Then comes productivity, without which no enterprise can manifest profit. Last but not least, people or, in this case, employees, deserve good enterprise design to streamline their workflow. No employee will ever be a fan of poor enterprise UX.

Skill Set Required for Designing Enterprise UX

Even with the growing popularity of enterprise UX, there is still a tendency to downplay the importance of UX and limit the skill set to the "design" part only. This is simply not true. There are varied skills that every enterprise UX team requires and your designers should be proficient in these skills.

Listed below are a few key skills that enable UX designers to put forth their best work:

- User research and Profiling: The ability to understand the requirements of your users and to design accordingly is a crucial skill that every designer must have.
- Collaboration: Collaborating with your team members is crucial because no single person, however talented you are, can do everything simultaneously.
- Interaction Design: Interaction design skills are always underestimated. However, designing how users interact with your product is crucial to any UX designer.
- UX writing: Another important skill to have if you want to develop brilliant user experiences is to use perfectly crafted words.
- Coding and Analytics: Brush up on your rusty coding skills as they may come in handy more often than you may think. Also, having the ability to test your prototype will inform you how your product will perform. Analytics skills are highly rated for this reason.

Challenges in enterprise UX

As it's the case with everything good, there's a catch in enterprise UX as well. At the end of the day, we design UX with our employees in our mind- the key users of the enterprise software that we design. So what could possibly go wrong? Apparently, many things. Some of them include:

- Misunderstanding UX: When you design enterprise UX assuming it is all about making the software look good, you go horribly wrong in so many places!
- UX is not UI- Now read that again. Believing UX is the same as UI is a false notion. Beware of falling into that trap.
- Collaboration is not easy as it may seem- Collaboration in an enterprise with multidisciplinary teams is no easy feat. However, lack of collaboration may lead to poor communication, which may further lead to bad design, mistrust, and the gradual collapse of the UX design process.
- Complicated legacy system: There is a high chance that you may get stuck with a legacy system when designing UX for the enterprise. Unfortunately, enterprise bureaucracy is still a thing, and when designing for big organizations, you may need approvals from many departments. Waiting for such approvals could cost you your precious time and resources.
- Giving more importance to features than UX: Since there is no effective way to measure UX efficiency, designers automatically go for a feature-centric approach than a UX-centric approach. Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword because while features add value to your software, UX may still get affected if your employees don't approve of them or do not benefit from them.

Overcoming Enterprise UX Challenges

Follow these tips to overcome the challenges listed above:

Realize that UX design is far more purposeful than just making software look good. This way, you won't misunderstand the UX in any form or manner. The sole purpose of enterprise UX design is to help its users achieve their goals and needs.

UX is so misconstrued that people see no distinction between UX and UI. This will change if we demonstrate the spectrum that is enterprise UX.

Building trust at an inter-organizational level by being open to suggestions and opinions could go a long way in improving collaboration. But unfortunately, the user and the customer are rarely the same people, which may create friction in usability.

The legacy systems have to be updated frequently to ensure proper UX design. However, an outdated system will create resistance to change; therefore, you need to earn the trust of both employers and employees to bring change to the system's design.

If you are after feature-rich software, make sure your end-users approve of it. The ultimate goal of the software is the ease of use and user satisfaction. So find a way to balance a good user experience and rich features.

The Optimal Process for Enterprise UX Strategy

What is a UX strategy process? Why do we need it? The enterprise software development industry is gaining popularity unlike ever before- all because of the newfound love towards design and user experience by enterprises worldwide. Industry giants such as Amazon, IBM, etc., have hired thousands of UX designers and plan to hire even more in the coming years.

So, what is the optimal process for enterprise UX strategy that a UX design company should adopt? Begin by asking yourself where you are now, and why you need a strategy. What resources would you need to reach your destination? Answers to such important questions lie in the UX strategy. So let's take a detailed look at how to create a solid enterprise UX strategy and what it looks like:

Step 1: Understand and define the UX strategy- Prior to developing any product, map out your process and define the business strategy. Get all stakeholders involved in this process.
Step 2: Conduct extensive research- Once you have a strategy plan, it's time to conduct competitive research and analysis; determine where your digital product lies in the marketplace. Without ample research, you cannot achieve a strong UX strategy.
Step 3: Focus on specific design objectives- Using the data collected from the research on users and stakeholders, set specific design goals on what you want and how you plan to achieve it.
Step 4: Run UX tests- The testing phase is very crucial and often involves continuous and iterative testing steps. This lets you work on your design, eliminate potential issues, and ultimately validate your UX design.

Design considerations for enterprise software

Designing for enterprise solutions and consumer-facing solutions are two entirely different ball games. There are several things to keep in mind while designing for enterprise UX. Let's take a look at some of the key design considerations.

- Be aware of the "essentials": You need to know what is absolutely necessary and what is okay to eliminate. Prioritize according to the customer and stakeholder goals and needs.
- Data Audit: Remove any data that may seem obsolete on screen. While conveying information to the users is important, we do not want to include redundant or iterative information.
- Take it easy on the visual specs: Enterprise UX design is not the place for unleashing creativity. It’s best to keep the visual specs familiar and simple.
- Intelligent use of CTAs: Colors and typographical elements must be highlighted intelligently to attract attention to crucial information on your app or website.
- Ensure efficient usability: While it's okay to strip some elements to accommodate essentials, you have to ensure that usability is not affected by this move in any form or manner.

Conclusion

Enterprise UX really matters. Many employees are forced to operate with software that provides terrible UX and are expected to work around the complex navigation. While it's certainly a challenge to design a perfect enterprise UX, it is definitely worth the effort. Huge organizations deal with massive amounts of data and complex information, and it is not fair for the employees to work with bare minimum tools and software. Better productivity is directly related to happier employees! Always remember: bad UX is bad for business as well!