Enterprise user experience (UX) design comes with its own set of challenges. In larger companies, designers must navigate complex structures and work closely with diverse teams. Unlike in smaller companies, where you can easily connect with top executives, enterprise environments require more layers of communication.
This can make the design process feel slower and more complicated. However, with the right approach, designers can overcome these obstacles. This guide will explore common challenges in enterprise UX design and offer practical tips to help you create effective, user-centered designs that align with business goals.
Complex Organizational Structures
Each enterprise company is unique, but they have some challenges in common. One of the main challenges is to adapt to the organizational structure within the company.
Unlike startups and small companies where you can talk directly to the CEO, in enterprises, you speak to a chain of people until your final executive. In most cases, you will start with your team leader and manager. If they need to connect you with a higher executive, you can only mark a slot in your calendar afterward.
This situation is rare because you should only talk at your team level. All business goals and needs will be provided to you from the top executive level down to your team.
While this is a super straightforward approach, sometimes it’s inefficient. Imagine a situation when a business isn’t a tech-savvy person. You receive a list of tasks, but it’s vague or unclear.
“There is no one right way to organize an enterprise architecture (EA) team, your approach must be driven by the context of the situation that you find yourself in.” - Project Management Institute
Solution:
When faced with unclear tasks, it’s helpful to talk directly with an executive to clarify specifics. While this might seem challenging, as your manager or leader typically handles task assignments, you can request a meeting with executives, including your manager, to address your questions. This approach will help you better understand the task’s scope and deliverables.
Integration with Existing Enterprise Systems
When we think of enterprise products, we often imagine large, powerful systems with extensive functionality—and this is usually accurate. Many enterprise companies offer robust products, and designers are tasked with supporting and enhancing these features.
For new designers, it can take several weeks to get up to speed with a product due to its complexity. This is common practice in enterprise-level companies. New hires are given time to understand the product fully before contributing ideas for improvement or working on the product roadmap.
Additionally, enterprise products are often integrated with third-party tools, which can require even more time to grasp. These integrations can also lead to inconsistencies in the product's design. For example, some components might look different from one another, with varying styles for buttons, icons, and other elements.
As Don Mullen notes:
“First and foremost, it’s crucial to recognize that enterprise design frequently grapples with deeper problems and more complex systems compared to design for non-enterprise users.”
Solution:
To better understand enterprise systems, it's essential to invest time in thorough product research. This involves learning how the system works, familiarizing yourself with key components, and understanding the major workflows.
Most enterprise-level companies include an onboarding process where designers explore the product, work with its components, and gain practical insight into how the system operates. This practice helps designers grasp the product's intricacies and integrate more effectively into their role.
Team Dependency
Working in enterprise-level companies is very interesting because you collaborate with so many different people, which also means you depend on them.
Imagine a situation where you work on a new improvement for a product. You have a list of required features and are ready to start, but you can’t begin to design. Your developer who needs to join your project and collaborate with you must complete the current sprint with tasks, which may take up to two weeks.
Or imagine another situation where you’re waiting for executives for weeks because they are deciding the priority of your tasks according to the business needs.
Designers in such scenarios can’t progress toward the goal, so often, they switch to another project to fill the gap in time. Switching between projects also takes time for a learning curve, but this is the only way to wait for a final decision on the project on hold.
Solution:
The best solution to collaborate with a diverse team is to schedule calls in advance with all members involved in the product creation. Developers, executives, marketers, and anyone impacting your design process should be invited to your meetings.
For a designer, it's a good practice to prepare a list of questions before the call, so each aspect of your cluttered design process will be clarified with the team. Once the call is finished, you can proceed with your design process.
Scalability and Performance
Imagine a large company with products that include payment options. These products handle huge databases of users paying for different services, often generating millions or even billions of dollars. To keep these systems running smoothly 24/7, both developers and designers have important roles.
Designers need to research which features are useful and which aren’t to shape the next version of the product. It's crucial to make sure that new features are helpful, work well with existing ones, and support the overall performance of the product.
In short, designers help ensure that the product runs smoothly, meets user needs, and continues to scale effectively.
Solution:
The most popular technique for scaling a product is a product roadmap. It's a blend of iterations over time where designers at least of features that should be developed within a particular time.
Regarding product scalability, designers play a crucial role in defining the next iterations for the whole team. This is why it's important to note that designers should have a solid understanding of the business and users needs.
Security and Compliance
For enterprise-level companies, security is a top priority. From my experience, the first concern executives have about any new development is how secure it will be, followed by the technologies involved, and finally, the cost.
This focus on security stems from the need to use only trusted solutions to ensure that products remain reliable and that users can trust the brand. A reliable product retains existing users and attracts new ones.
Designers must adapt to the company's security standards and follow strict requirements throughout the design process. For example, if the company uses third-party tools for secure payments, the designer must adhere to the specific steps required by these platforms when creating payment flows.
However, I’ve found that these third-party tools can sometimes compromise the user experience, which can negatively impact overall product satisfaction.
Balancing security and user experience is a delicate task with no one-size-fits-all solution.
Solution:
The best way to manage security regulations while maintaining a good user experience is to discuss the tools and platforms with executives and developers early on. This gives you a clear understanding of how these tools work, allowing you to design your concepts around them.
While you may not have complete control over the flow, you’ll have the flexibility to make small adjustments that can enhance the overall user experience.
User Adoption and Training
We all appreciate familiar flows and patterns in products, as they help us quickly understand how to navigate them. However, sometimes designers need to create new solutions, which requires users to learn something unfamiliar. This is where the challenge lies—most users resist learning new things because it takes time, and they may feel uncertain about how to use the product.
Consider innovative startups that introduce nonstandard solutions to solve problems that haven’t been addressed before. These products often differ from what users are accustomed to, which can lead to confusion and frustration. Users may feel disoriented and unsure of how to interact with such products, as they aren’t intuitive or easy to grasp initially.
In these cases, the designer’s main goal is to teach users how to use the product quickly and effectively so that they don’t turn to competitors and that the startup remains viable in the market.
Solution:
The best techniques for adapting users to new flows and features are onboarding lessons, instructions, and floating tips.
I always suggest that you think about your users as children and help them navigate the unknown world. This is why you need to briefly explain to new users how to start using your product so they will feel confident in their actions.
Conclusion
Enterprise UX design is a complex but rewarding field. By understanding the unique challenges, such as navigating organizational structures, managing team dependencies, and balancing user needs with business goals, designers can make a major impact.
While the process may seem daunting at first, mastering these aspects equips you to create products that meet user expectations and drive business success. Remember, the key is to stay adaptable, communicate effectively, and always keep the bigger picture in mind. With these skills, you'll be well-prepared to thrive in the dynamic world of enterprise UX design.
