How to Raise Business Performance with a Great Enterprise UX Design

written by Vitaly Kuprenko on September 5, 2018

Any experienced entrepreneur knows that for a successful business every detail matters. Taking care of customers is a must, but you should not forget about the reverse side of the coin – your employees.

A person works efficiently if he or she feels appreciated. A positive experience of the company members promotes well-being at work. How to achieve this? In addition to comfortable working conditions and friendly team environment, you should pay attention to the software your employees use every day. Further, in this article, we are going to find out the importance of UX for enterprise products which directly influences the enterprise app development process and defines the efficiency of the product.

Increasing tendency of using enterprise UX design in 2018

First, let’s define what the enterprise experience is all about. Actually, this is nothing more than the experience of users who run a web or mobile application. The only distinctive feature is that the users are the employees and the application is a corporate product that runs exclusively within the enterprise (for example, CRM-system). Therefore, an effective UX design is focused on the positive experience of the staff when working with a corporate application. Below, you can see a few cases in point of enterprise UX design.

Just several years ago nobody was paying a proper attention to this sphere. The main goal of the entrepreneur was to stay within a given budget. Now, corporate design gathers speed rapidly. The leaders of the world’s companies understand that the high-quality UX design of the corporate app pays off. It contributes to improving the efficiency of work, and hence – to increased profits.

Just take a look at the chart below. You can clearly see that the shares of some organizations climbed by leaps and bounds. What they have in common is the design-oriented approach. This is the balance of advantage over companies that neglected the design.

How to design an excellent user experience for enterprise

As you can see, delivering a convenient and functional product for your employees is an important part of a successful business.

So, how to succeed in UX design of an enterprise application? Which way to organize complex business processes of the company in an app? What points to pay attention to?

Next, we will try to resolve these questions.

Basic enterprise needs

Each organization is unique, so it is impossible to give a universal recipe for creating an ideal UX design. Nevertheless, there are basic things that are essential for any software. Here is what you should consider when designing for an enterprise.

Data model
Behind each interface, there is a data model. It combines discrete objects with attributes or parameters that are based on specific actions. These actions start or do not start depending on the logical interrelationship in an app. Data models are usually multi-level. If you do not have a special knowledge you will need to make efforts to understand them. In the final total, it pays off with the great opportunity to avoid mistakes.

Customization
An important aspect of a high-quality application is the ability to easily adapt to specific user requirements. For business owners, it is much easier to pay for a multifunctional product than collect different tools that cover business processes partially.

Ecosystem
The users may need to configure the app to work with external systems of vendors, brands, retailers, etc. You should make your product interactive and flexible. Think of Apple or Google and the way your devices and accounts synchronize with each other. This is the simplest example that you can take as a basis for creating the right ecosystem.

Sales channel
This is when you should think of reliable cloud-based solutions and proper structuring of sales, marketing, and engagement processes of the organization. At this stage, it is important to communicate and receive information from technical specialists, sales managers, marketing experts, and a support team. All together, they will help you create effective UX design.

Target audience

Undoubtedly, excellent UX design brings positive results to the whole enterprise. Nevertheless, there are departments that win the most:

Product
Effective UX design allows employees to perform their routine tasks faster, better, and with greater enthusiasm. A good corporate application is stimulating and motivating users to a vigorous activity.

Marketing
Marketers toil at a task to create and promote the brand. They are responsible for the image and reputation of the company. A robust enterprise application is to inspire and contribute to the productive activity.

Operations
The operating team responsible for customer relations will work much more efficiently if it is provided with high-quality hardware and software that is easy to understand and that works without interruption.

For an example, let’s look at a typical situation that customers often encounter. Let’s imagine that your company provides an online product with a paid subscription. If a user changes the card number, he or she is forced to contact the support service to restore the subscription.

The client managers process hundreds of various requests per day. Updating the card data manually takes a lot of time. If you automate this process, it will significantly reduce the workload, minimize the risk of making mistakes, and allow employees to concentrate on other non-trivial tasks.

Here is how a minor, at first glance, detail may bring a vast improvement in business performance.

Polishing UX design

Each of us has ever encountered a bad service and knows how annoying it can be. Low-grade mobile applications lose customers quickly. On the other hand, users are ready to turn a blind eye to minor shortcomings in the first-class apps and wait until the bugs get fixed.

Users of enterprise applications are no different. Perhaps they are even more interested in a top-rate product because it affects their work.

In order to develop an excellent design, you can use the so-called Design Success Ladder.

With this method, you can evaluate the pros of your app at the given moment and determine what to add or improve in the near future. You should make adjustments taking into account the suggestions of users who speak for one or another option. In such a manner, you can see how close you are on your way to creating a perfect app.

Some entrepreneurs decide to buy ready-made solutions or create their own without asking the opinion of the employees. This way may lead to significant drawbacks instead of bringing benefits. You are likely to encounter the following problems:

• Unsatisfactory job performance
• Difficulties in goals to be achieved
• Frustration of employees
• Unjustified waste of money and energy that does not bring the desired result

If you give pride of place to enterprise UX design you gain the following advantages:

• Improved productivity
• Personnel comfort
• High KPI rate

How to establish well-tuned processes for enterprise software

A great UX design can become a real magic wand, which makes both business owners and employees happy. Such design cannot arise from anywhere. It is a result of well-established processes. If you are not entirely familiar with this subject, take a look at some ideas below.

Experience the enterprise lifestyle

The best way to understand what users need is to try walking in their shoes. If you can come to an enterprise and observe how employees work, this will bring you huge benefits.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to choose this way always. For many reasons, designers and other development team members can not physically attend the enterprise. In this case, it is necessary to organize a detailed research where you should reveal the following aspects:

• What problems the users encounter most often
• What solutions you can provide to solve them
• What result you expect to receive at the output

Don’t forget about time-honored design techniques, such as creating personas, conducting interviews, investigating user journeys, etc.

Prioritize the tasks

Studying business processes and users needs, you will receive huge amounts of information. In order not to get lost in them, take time to organize the data. Select 2-3 the most priority tasks and determine the terms of their implementation. Sort all subsequent tasks according to importance and urgency.

Analyze the resources that will be involved in implementing the idea and evaluate the effect that users will receive the finished product. Decide on the expediency of certain actions.

Get creative!

Well, business processes are studied, the users are interviewed, the necessary material is collected. It seems everything’s ready for starting a great project. Go ahead!

If you need any help, you can always hire professional developers that will make a great enterprise software for your special benefit.