Stop Using the Word Delight in Enterprise UX

Last week I participated in on UXPin’s Enterprise Summit (2017). On the last day there was a panel discussion by UX gurus on the state of enterprise UX with Jeff Veen of True Ventures, Lou Rosenfeld, and Marcin Treder of UXPin and Sunita Redd of UXPin. Over and over and over I kept hearing them use the word delight. So here’s what I want to say:

Dear Enterprise UX Gurus:

STOP! Please stop using the word “delight” in the context of enterprise UX. Just stop. I’m not the only one who wants this.

Delight is creating an emotional bond with a user through pleasurable experiences IN ORDER TO SELL THEM SOMETHING. This is wholly a consumer-side idea. Enterprise users have absolutely no choice in whether they get to use our product. It’s already been decided by management.

I’m up for a replacement. I personally say I want to give the user a good day, but more importantly I’m trying to make users more efficient. I’m trying to create human capacity for the company. Yeah, it’s still using people to get what the company wants out of them, but we aren’t trying to use psychology to trick them <eh hem> to convince them to buy something.

Do I want my user’s to have a pleasurable experience to the point of joy or rapture? Not really. What I want is for my tools to be so seamless in their task process to them that they don’t realize they’re working with them. It should feel like a hammer that has worn to fit to their hand, that has perfect balance and is almost effortless to use. It should feel satisfying, pleasing, effortless and trusted. Wrap that into one word.

Why does this bug me so much? Have you ever sat face to face with someone in business management who really doesn’t understand what you do and tried to talk to them about creating delightful experiences in a work tool with a straight face? It totally undermines what we’re trying to do for the business and feeds the stereotype that we’re just artistes trying to create a visual masterpiece out of the application project we’ve been assigned. We need to be able to speak with business in a language they understand and support our work in a more professional manner by talking about our craftsmanship.

Your immediate attention to this matter would sincerely be appreciated,
Jeanne Hallock

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