Great user experiences.

In contrast, most apps that the same employees use in their personal lives are simple and straightforward as their B2C counterparts. As we embrace the ‘Year of the Autonomous Enterprise’ it’s incumbent upon businesses to empower their teams with intuitive, userfriendly software because the ability to self-serve quickly and effortlessly has a direct impact on employee productivity and overall satisfaction.

But if we are to get to an autonomous era where companies are introducing self-serve systems to replace inefficient or toohuman-dependent business processes, then we must address the ongoing problem of the cumbersome user experience that is frequently encountered in the corporate world.

Although we are in the 2020s and so in the seventh decade of commercial data processing software, the average business application is still far from userfriendly. This is concerning because there is no reason why business software should be difficult to use or unappealing in appearance. The lack of userfriendliness in business software indicates an indifference to the needs of customers by too many B2B platform suppliers.

Even the most complex processes for intricate and high-value transactions can be streamlined and made useful. However, doing so takes more than just modifying the font or incorporating a few colours. Let’s see how.

Understanding What The User Is Trying To Do

In the ideal world, enterprise software shouldn’t require extensive training, a great deal of concentration to use and pianist-level finger movement control to navigate. Business apps must be based on a welldesigned interaction framework, be consistent and intuitive in order to drive the highest levels of ease of use.

It’s only by doing all this that we can get what you and your users want: an app they don’t hate to use, even if they must. Achieving this starts with interface designers having a deep understanding of the mental model that users bring to the application. Without this, designers will struggle to grasp what the user is trying to achieve and how the software is communicating that information within the user’s pre-existing mental model.

And this is a critical aspect of UX (User Experience) that must never be overlooked. Achieving optimal user-friendliness in business applications requires designers to have a keen awareness of users’ mental models and to design interfaces that align with them seamlessly. I have seen this up close more than once. In my last job at DocuSign I witnessed how minor design alterations can profoundly affect user experience.

We’d noticed that users were not responding the way our model expected to a ‘Sign’ button, the desired CTA (call to action). After conducting comprehensive user testing, we realised that users were interpreting the button as a binding agreement commitment even before viewing the document.

We swiftly addressed the issue by making it clear to users that they always had a final preview and sign-off. This lesson can be applied to deliver excellent B2B UX. To enable employees to selfserve with confidence, in other words, it’s crucial to appreciate the importance of understanding users’ ‘mental models’ and how they will perceive and interpret actions within an application.

Ux Best Practice

In B2B applications, we need to prioritise and progressively disclose functionality or risk inundating the user with too much information or too many choices.

Users often have specific tasks that they need to accomplish regularly, but they may also have occasional or more complex tasks that require additional steps. Structuring the functionality in a way that accommodates both primary and secondary use cases is crucial for achieving a good user experience.

Experienced UX designers understand the significance of paying close attention to what in the trade are called cognitive, visual, and motor load when creating excellent user experiences. The first type, cognitive load, can cause users to feel overwhelmed and confused if an application requires too much mental effort to use. To minimise it, it’s essential to simplify interfaces and remove unnecessary steps.

The second type, visual load, refers to the amount of visual information presented to the user. A cluttered interface with too many elements can be overwhelming and make it difficult for the user to find what they need.

And lastly, ‘motor’ load pertains to the physical effort required to use a software application. Asking users to repeatedly click on tiny objects on the screen and use extensive hand and wrist movements can be unrealistic and frustrating. It really should be as easy as using your banking app on the phone.

So it’s crucial for enterprise software to prioritise userfriendliness. Although it may be difficult to achieve the same level of usability as the iPhone, business applications should still be enjoyable and empowering. There’s a real cost to not applying these proven techniques to app design. Without user-friendly software, teams won’t be able to self-serve and automate their roles, making it impossible to achieve the desired autonomous model. Your business can and should reconfigure processes to take advantage of automation and cut down friction in everyone’s working day. That way you can stay competitive and enhance the overall working experience.