A Guide To Enterprise Software Design

There isn’t a magic formula that will enable you to come up with the ideal Enterprise Software Design the first time. But once there, the right solution can help you effectively communicate with team members, provide critical updates, swiftly address consumer inquiries, and keep track of all crucial business activities – all under a single roof!

In recent years, the development of enterprise apps has accelerated significantly. For 71 percent of businesses, investing in enterprise mobility solutions is the most important thing they can do to stay competitive. This is caused by the widespread use of workplace apps as tools to increase productivity and reduce costs.

The enterprise software should be designed to support the business goals and objectives. It should also be able to accommodate the ever-changing needs of the business. Promising enterprise software can be easily customized and upgraded per the business’s changing requirements.

What is Enterprise Software Design?

Enterprise UX design is the cornerstone of enterprise software development. Simply put: Enterprise software needs to be designed with the user in mind, not the technology.

A great enterprise software experience will make users more efficient and productive in their jobs. It will also foster collaboration, reduce errors, and increase customer satisfaction. Designing enterprise software with these goals requires a different approach than creating for consumer apps.

What is Enterprise UI?

Business-to-business (B2B) digital products are built and scaled using tools, strategies, UI patterns, and components collectively referred to as enterprise UI. 

Enterprise UI is a design system that helps product teams quickly design and build digital products that solve complex problems at scale.

Building an enterprise UI involves assembling a library of reusable UI patterns and components that can be used to build new features quickly and efficiently. This design system should be tailored to the specific needs of the enterprise and should be easy to use and extend.

Challenges of Enterprise UI UX Design

1. Enterprise software manages complex processes

Expertise in designing software, tools, and services specific to large organizations is critical in enterprise UI/UX design. However, the needs of customers and businesses are not always the same. For example, a large organization may have different requirements for enterprise software than a small business. This makes it challenging for enterprise UI/UX designers to find the perfect balance between customer needs and business requirements.

2. The enterprise UX design process is iterative

The enterprise design process is often iterative and ever-changing. This means that enterprise UI/UX designers need to be flexible and adaptable in their approach. They also need to understand the latest enterprise design trends and technologies. For example, today’s enterprise apps increasingly use artificial intelligence(AI). This requires enterprise UI/UX designers to understand how AI works and how it can improve user experience.

3. Customers are not users

Generally, for enterprise software, buyer are not the users. In these cases, the enterprise UI UX designer needs to consider the needs of both the customer and the end user. This can be challenging, as the two groups often have different objectives. For example, the customer may be focused on features that make the software easier to sell, while the end user may be more concerned with usability.

A unique set of challenges must be overcome when conducting UX research to understand enterprise users, legal intellectual property issues, sales associates who control the client relationship, and more.

4. The contexts of usage are different from the needs of the enterprise

The context in which the product or service will be used, and the specific issue must be created for present challenges when working on corporate UX design. For example, applications for enterprise UX are made with a particular setting (the workplace) and user demographic in mind (the employees of an organization).

Therefore, it’s crucial to satisfy their needs and consider the environment during the design process. This challenge becomes more apparent when developing a design that multiple organizations need to access simultaneously. This calls for a little more customizing space and design versatility. Doing this gives the businesses greater power and control so they may modify the tool as necessary.

5. Existing enterprise market

Even if the market for enterprise UX design is extensive, it is nonetheless cutthroat. Businesses seek precise solutions to their issues. Thus, they always choose reputable and well-established tools. A fresh solution will therefore struggle to establish that reputation and outcompete the established ones!

Sometimes, this can lead to a “race to the bottom” on price. And since businesses are so risk-averse, they tend to go with tricks that has worked. This makes it hard for new products to get a foothold in the market.

Vital Elements Of UI/UX Design For Enterprise Software

1. Examine the market’s competitors

It’s essential to research the capabilities of your competitors’ designs while laying the framework for your own. Not only does this give you insights into what works well for them, but it also allows you to find any gaps in their offerings.

This knowledge is valuable as you develop your enterprise software’s unique selling proposition (USP). By examining your competitors, you can discover what they’re doing right—and wrong. You can then use this information to improve your enterprise software’s design.

Answer questions like:

– Do the competitors’ features make life easier for their clients and employees?

– How do you enhance those aspects and introduce something special and pertinent to your audience?

– What does the competition lack that you could provide?

– Where can you make your design more user-friendly than theirs?

2. Know your customer requirements

Your software’s success depends directly on how well you understand the end users. In this most cases, this would mean digging deeper to grasp departmental cultures better and identify the employees’ actual needs.

Even while you may already have some ideas, it’s still necessary to validate your assumptions with feedback from real users. Once you have this information, it’ll be easier to design a solution that they’ll want to use.

Answer questions like:

– What tasks do they need to complete?

– Which processes do they need to follow?

– What information do they need to access?

– How often do they need to use the software?

– What are their pain points?

3. Develop a strong, yet simple UX strategy

Designing an intuitive user interface for your app is one thing, but you must consider how it works alongside the user experience. This is what will take your enterprise software from good to great. After all, what’s the point of having a user-friendly interface if the user experience is confusing and frustrating?

Products that are simple and enjoyable to use are always a hit with consumers. While the UI refers to how an app looks, the UX is how users feel while interacting with the app. Creating a strategy that balances both aspects is essential to success.

Answer questions like:

– What steps do you need to take to make the app user-friendly?

– What’s the best way to streamline the user experience?

– What can you do to make the interface more visually appealing?

– How can you make the app more intuitive to use?

To develop a successful design strategy, it is essential to understand the needs and expectations of the target user group, and to consider factors such as usability, accessibility, and aesthetics. To recruit participants for a UI/UX design research, it can be helpful to identify specific user groups and target recruitment efforts towards them. By carefully planning and executing the recruitment process, it is possible to assemble a diverse and representative group of participants who can provide valuable insights and feedback on the design strategy.

4. Prevent data transmission that isn’t secure

Encryption plays a critical role in keeping data secure during transmission. Using excellent encryption techniques is one way to ensure that your enterprise software is as secure as possible.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) can provide another layer of security. A VPN encrypts all data transmitted between your enterprise software and the user’s device. This makes it much more difficult for hackers to intercept and steal data. Developers should minimize data cashing and associated risks because hackers can readily obtain cached data. One way to accomplish this is by requiring users to input passwords every time they access the app. Doing this can guarantee that data is automatically removed from the entire cashed data each time the corporate application is restarted.

Answers questions like:

– What type of data do you need to encrypt?

– What’s the best way to encrypt data in transit?

– What’s the best way to encrypt data at rest?

– How can you ensure that only authorized users have access to the data?

5. Decision on Native Vs. Hybrid apps

The native app option may not be your best choice if you want to reach a larger audience. Moroever, while using a hybrid app effectively resolves the issue of lower app penetration, it is expensive and requires a lengthy development process. After considering end-user preferences, take your decision on Native Vs. Hybrid Apps.

In the modern digital workplace, employees utilize three devices on average to complete tasks. Therefore, creating a hybrid app (write once, deploy everywhere) that can function well on Android, iOS, and Windows is preferable.

Answer questions like:

– What type of devices do your users prefer?

– What types of devices are most popular in the workplace?

– What’s the best way to reach a larger audience for your use case?

– What’s the cost and development timeline for each app type?

6. Goal-oriented ROI optimization

Deciding on the software’s monetization strategies early in your project is critical. Moreover, you need to consider how the enterprise software will generate revenue and what type of return on investment (ROI) you expect.

There are many ways to monetize enterprise software. The most common include:

– Freemium: Offering a free software version with premium features that can be unlocked for a fee.

– Subscription: Charging a recurring fee for access to the software.

– Pay-per-use: Charging a fee for each use of the software.

– One-time purchase: Selling the software for a one-time fee.

Each of these will involve overcoming a different set of UI/UX challenges. The goal is to find the right balance of features, price, and convenience to maximize ROI.

Answer questions like:

– Which monetization model is most popular with users?

– What type of ROI are you expecting?

– How can you optimize your software for maximum ROI?

7.  Setting a long-term UI UX Strategy

Once the software is ready-to-use, the job doesn’t end there. You must continuously monitor how users interact with the software and make changes accordingly.

It’s essential to have a long-term UI UX strategy to ensure that the software meets the ever-changing needs of users. This includes regularly adding new features and making changes to the existing ones.

User feedback can help take decisions about the software’s future. Additionally, A/B testing can compare different software versions and see which one performs better.

Answer questions like:

– What’s the best way to collect user feedback?

– How often should you add new features?

– What’s the best way to compare different versions of the software?

– What changes do you expect to see in the business landscape over time?

– How can you ensure that the software stays ahead of the curve?

The State of UX In 2022

Even though the pandemic is still going on, the last two years have felt like forever. Designers in 2022 have a rare opportunity to practice with a new perspective, embracing what they have learned since the pandemic’s beginning, as 70% of online businesses fall through because of bad UX. This includes rethinking remote work regulations and acknowledging the unintended consequence of the products we build.

Companies are beginning to grasp UX designers’ potential to better their brands and products, and UX specialists are beginning to experience the same demand as software engineers. Today, UX designers are prioritized for recruiting by 87 percent of hiring managers, according to an Adobe survey.

A robust enterprise UX design is crucial for corporate software and the products that run our lives.   Design sprints, which have been on the rise pre-pandemic, will continue to grow in popularity as they allow for faster iteration and decision-making around product design.

Conclusion

If you believe that good design is expensive, you should consider the price of poor design. A well-designed workplace software handles the real concerns of real users via impeccable research. Today, the usability and performance of enterprise applications are expected to match those of consumer apps, without a doubt. Internal apps are being revisited from the group up as businesses continue to search for methods to improve productivity.

And whatever the case, changes and redesign are critical in enterprise software design. The features and usability can’t be determined all at once. Nevertheless, enterprise UX design has a bright future, and we’ll see some truly unique solutions in the years to come.