Navigating Social Enterprise Software: A Look at the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) A valuable social networking platform relies on a good marriage—that is, the union of good user interface (UI) and good user experience (UX). User interface is the structure that enables a user to interact with a software system. Excellent UI must enable users to navigate and perform the functions they wish, easily and intuitively. Good UI Is User-Friendly Building successful user interface requires staying on top of technological advances to produce a seamless, enjoyable user experience. A social enterprise platform works best when its functionality serves both the administrator level and the end user level. Recently, Enterprise Hive, a cloud-based social business software developer, released an update of their HiveSocialTM platform, with completely reworked user interface design (UI) and user experience (UX) features. Taking cues from leading-edge technology, plus extensive customer feedback, they made changes to the UI for both administrative and end-user needs, to achieve true “user-friendliness.� Administrators of social business software can now configure and adapt programs for their specific communities more easily with features like drag-and-drop capability. Social Enterprise Software Marries UI and UX Colleges and universities can use social enterprise software to accomplish some of their institutional goals, just as businesses do. Business goals will include growing customer loyalty and branding. College goals focus on building communities among students, faculty, and others, to increase learning success, and ultimately, to raise student retention levels. Good user experience (UX) helps support these institutional goals, thanks to the many ways students can engage in the system. First, there must be an appealing, familiar online environment (the result of an effective UI) that attracts students accustomed to using social media. Conditioned by Facebook and Twitter (the ultimate in UX simplicity) to simple page layouts that use minimal colors and limit clutter, students engaging in an online community powered by an engagement platform like HiveSocial will recognize a similar social media environment. Navigation is made easy with clear, simple graphics and uncomplicated user interactions. Enriching the User Experience Participants in both business and student communities become active when they truly enjoy the user experience. Successful programs are designed to enable successful interactions that reinforce confidence while teaching new skills and building connections. Computer and online games are as important and familiar a landscape as social media, for this generation of students. They are at home using gamification tools that emphasize short-term
goals and quick feedback. The college environment is often the opposite, given its high-risk stakes for long-term effort Social enterprise software that uses built-in gamification enriches the user experience by giving students opportunities to interact and connect with various communities. It reinforces the key dimensions of emotional, social, and cognitive learning. Profile pages create a rich resource, connecting each user to experts in many fields and further facilitating the learning process. Students pursue quests or challenges that demonstrate their expertise. Achievements can be rewarded with a level-based mix of badges, game cards, certificates, or coupons that appear on student profile pages, and they can be recognized with posts on leaderboards. HiveSocial can be used to incent and track participation in health and wellness programs, and can be adapted to other unique initiatives, customized to the needs of each enterprise.