UX in Business Software (Part 1 of 2)
A pipe dream or are we seeing light at the end of the tunnel?
Think of a time when you were wowed by a software application, whether it may be a smartphone app or a web/desktop application. It is a safe bet that this experience was on an application that you use personally and not on some software that you use as part of work. One would be amazed at the stark contrast between the states of consumer/personal applications and business software. It is almost like comparing chalk and cheese!
Lately there has been a lot of talk about focusing on user experience in enterprise software also. Why was UX in enterprise software largely ignored till now? And why is it gradually coming to the spotlight now? What should be done to challenge the status quo? Let’s analyse these questions in detail.
How did enterprise software reach its current state?
Enterprise software evolved and became popularly used only in the last few decades. For the major part of its evolution, people were still getting used to software in general and enterprise software in particular. This period also saw a sea-change in networking and connectivity.
Software vendors initially tried to develop software that could be used with little changes to the end user’s existing process. The focus was on being able to cater to all needs and scenarios. This resulted in software becoming feature-rich, but it also meant that the user had to handle a complex interface that gave her the option to do everything. This was made even more worse by different vendors competing on the number of features offered.
End-users who are the direct beneficiaries of good, usable software do not have any say in the purchase decision in most cases. This offered vendors less incentive to provide well-designed software since the decision-makers never cared about it. Furthermore, after purchasing the software, the users were expected to learn and adapt to the demands of the software than the other way round. This has its roots in the mindset that any inability to adapt was the user’s deficiency and not the software’s problem. This is well brought out by Don Norman in his famous work The Design of Everyday Things.
The heavy premium placed on end users’ time also implied that they could rarely be involved in user research studies even if the software vendors wanted to design good interfaces.
Why is there a new demand for UX?
The times are different now. With the advent of smartphones, broadband connectivity and social networks, the average individual is exposed to a whole lot of applications and spend more time using them. The entry barriers being so low in the online industry, competition has evolved rapidly and matured to a stage where they compete on providing experiences that delight users and not just on feature density. So, today’s user is exposed on a daily basis to well-designed software that is a pleasure to use. It is natural then to ask why similar experiences can’t be had at work too.
Advancement of technology is also partly responsible for the new UX revolution in business software. Technologies like HTML, CSS, Flash, Ajax, responsive design approach etc. have made user interfaces much more equipped to provide exhilarating user experiences. Alongside these, the emergence of smart devices capable of accepting various inputs like touch, camera, gestures, swipe, shake etc. transformed the UX battleground altogether.
Such advanced technology is quickly made available to customers by nimble start-ups that are increasingly playing an important role in enterprise software industry. Start-ups must give prime importance to UX if they want to compete with the established players. With behemoths who have been in the space for decades and whose offerings have almost complete coverage, the startups stand a chance only if they can think out of the box and deliver efficiency through well-designed software. The emergence of such challengers has started raising the quality of enterprise software interfaces.
It seems like there is no looking back from this point for UX in enterprise software. However, several conscious steps need to be taken to achieve the goal of good UX and to keep up with more advancements in technology. We will have a look at these steps in the next part of this article (https://medium.com/@sarinb/ux-in-business-software-part-2-of-2-2598ab7ff515).
Do you think there are more reasons why UX never came to the spotlight in business software? What else has contributed to the recent uptrend? Let me know by leaving your comments in this story.
Cover photo: Courtesy philliecasablanca on Flickr
