Enterprise UX Design

As everything in enterprise UX, usability testing provides some interesting challenges. I thought I'd share a few issues and how I've gotten around them. The Process Is Changing, So Make Sure Users Know It First and foremost, in enterprise testing, at least in my experience, we are never testing a UI where the users know the work process, because the basis of the UI is a major change to the process or a new process is being implemented. This is a BIG difference between B2C and enterprise UX! In B2C on an e-commerce website, you can make the assumption that your users know how to shop. This was a big hurdle for me. I never considered that the user didn't know the process. All the testing I had ever done or seen just presented the user with tasks and off they went. It took me a couple years and major testing failures to realize this. One of my developers kept telling me, "They need context! They need context!" And I finally got what context meant. The peo...

I realized after posting my last entry that I really didn't give a definition of enterprise UX that a lot of people may be looking for. I've never seen a definition of enterprise UX. The best definition I've ever seen of UX is at All about UX : The user experience is the totality of end-users’ perceptions as they interact with a product or service. These perceptions include: effectiveness (how good is the result?),  efficiency (how fast or cheap is it?),  emotional satisfaction (how good does it feel?),  and the quality of the relationship with the entity that created the product or service (what expectations does it create for subsequent interactions?). – Kuniavsky (2010) The problem with this definitions is that it doesn't speak of the business value enterprise UXers are trying to achieve in their work. It's too focused on the customer-centric experience and sounds like UX will ride roughshod over any other discipline or business representative to...

Enterprise UX. Most UXers have no idea another whole field of UX exists. Nor do most the UX gurus. Enterprise UX is where you want to be if you really want a challenge. Why? Enterprise UX is the design of usually proprietary internal applications that run businesses — complex businesses. Those applications handle a LOT of data. Not only does it have to be entered into the system, but it has to be displayed, associated from one thing to another and then reported on. Complex reference data is created based on customers, pricing, costs and operating procedures. Processes and production levels are observed, reported and commented on. But, there is never one standard process, because sales will always sell something unexpected and government compliance regulations must be applied. Governmental and other forms have to be created and sent. Communications have to be enacted with customers, governments, service providers and data must be provided to them all. A large intentional company ...