Introduction
We all know that building an enterprise software product is hard – it’s even harder to create a great user experience in your enterprise software product. As high-tech industries push computing power more than ever, the user experience bar continues to grow so that even as systems become increasingly complex, interfaces can remain simple and enjoyable.
As you scan the horizon, seeing where your industry is headed, you can often see the requirement to further level up your enterprise software product. It’s an exciting proposition to explore: creating the future of technology. If you can achieve the right level of powerful functionalities, features and great user experience, your product can actually thrive and beat your competitors or maybe even invent something completely new.
8 signs it’s time to redesign your enterprise software UX
When we build enterprise software product, it often seems like the moment it starts to feel stable, is the
When we build an enterprise software product, it often seems like the moment it starts to feel stable, is the moment the technology becomes outdated. Given the rapid pace at which technology is evolving, this represents an unavoidable part of running an enterprise software business.
These are some of the signs that it might be time to rethink the user experience of your enterprise software.
1. Your software is not following up with workflow changes
Your user’s workflow has changed since it was created. Many b2b software is created in a new technology landscape, the workflow is designed to change for the user, as well as their overall “software stack”. Are you keeping up with these changes in user workflow? How about your competitor?
2. Lack of functionality discourage new users from joining
Maybe your old users love your product and will accept certain workarounds, but will new users be prevented from achieving their main goal with your product (even though you must be the right choice for them)? This situation can prevent you from expanding into a new vertical or from getting into the business you want to be.
3. Users can’t get work done faster and easier
When customers work with your product, they often want to make work more efficient. There’s no reason for your users to accept unnecessary navigation, errors or repetitive actions when you can easily solve these problems with better structure and more effective design.
4. More training and re-training than expected
If you need to retrain users of your product over and over again, chances are that the enterprise software product is unnecessarily complicated. Maybe the software is the original version of your data model, not how the user thinks. The simplification is achieved by thoughtful enterprise UX design. And it can be improved anytime, irrespective of the current state.
5. Support tickets are more than they should be
No matter what’s causing extra support tickets, either usability and performance issues, or long loading times and outdated code, servicing them is very expensive. Not only that, in specialized industries, it is difficult to find good quality support people (who have the field or technical expertise). Great enterprise software support staff is a rare breed. Usability issues like those found in support tickets mostly are easier issues to fix during a user experience (UX) redesign process, so the ROI for a redesign engagement can be a fairly straightforward calculation.
6. Users are working across more devices (and software)
Users may be working on multiple devices that you haven’t previously considered while getting your enterprise software in place, such as small screen sizes (tablets, phones, watches ). These other devices may also offer opportunities to streamline their workflows. For example, users can only use the device in certain situations, and it can take much longer to reach their goals on tablets and phones. Perhaps you can incorporate other UX patterns to help users reach their goals. Customers may also need additional integration with other APIs or software. This may require significant back-end changes or front-end workflow considerations. These changes require UX design considerations (in terms of information flow and display). As integrations are added in stages, you’ll notice signs of “UX went bad” that can be eliminated with good UX design.
7. Your brand isn’t resonating
Although user experience design isn’t brand design, these two things often come up together when your business is growing. If your brand message doesn’t resonate or if it is confusing your customers to an extent that they are unable to differentiate between your company brand and product brand, or might mistake you for your competitor software, it’s a sign it might be time to redesign. It is so because, your business, your products, and your customers have evolved since your software’s first launch, but your brand hasn’t kept up with the changes.
(Tone, value, and how you want to “treat” your users are important things to consider throughout your company’s experience, so running a branding initiative at about the same time as your UX makeover works very well. )
8. Technology debt is undermining growth
We asked a group of developers what they think is the best indicator that an existing product needs to be rebuilt and redesigned. There were some important points worth emphasizing.
- Stacks you are using are no longer maintained by their creators
- Older technology poses a security risk (causing serious liability for your business)
- Older technology stacks needing more effort to create and maintain the features and functionality than it should (Is there any logical math to keep old technology with the extra development effort needed?)
- Your technology is holding your growth back (you can’t stay competitive because either things take too long or some customers can’t make the best use of your product)
- Your developers are either losing interest or are starting to leave because they don’t want to continue working on old technology (is it worth losing good developers to keep your old design?)
All in all
Every business needs to weigh the pros and cons of redesigning their UX and evolving their case to improve their user experience. We hope these reminders are helpful in thinking about the progress and business case you need in the future.
The key to using these reminders is being able to attach a value to them. For example, most companies have more support tickets than they can handle, but when you consider the costs as well as the opportunities, you may find it’s time to invest into enterprise UX redesign.
All technology based companies and brands have an increased need to stay relevant and competitive. For a lot of companies, especially in the FinTech and BioTech domain, user experience can be the biggest differentiator when it comes to delighting people in a sales process and keeping users happy.
Every company should weigh the pros and cons of UX redesign and develop a case for improving their user experience. We hope these reminders help think about the progress, timing and business case you need in the future.
The key to using these prompts is to be able to assign them a value. For example, most companies have more support tickets than they want, but when you consider the costs as well as the opportunities, you may find it’s time to invest in a redesign process.
All technology-based companies and brands have an increased need to stay relevant and competitive. For a lot of companies, especially in the FinTech and BioTech domains, user experience can be the biggest differentiator when it comes to delighting people in the sales process and keeping end users happy in the long term.
What’s the first step to improving the overall usability of your enterprise software product?
If you’ve been struggling to implement complex enterprise software product features that your users find intuitive to use, we have put together a world-class human-centric agile design process for you. Let’s talk to help you improve your software implementation and overall usability.
If we’ve missed anything, please let us know, like you, we’re interested in continuous improvement so please reach out to us.