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What is Enterprise UX - Part 2

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 towards that ultimate design.

The reality is much different. While we are supposed to be the users' champions, the other half of the job is supporting business goals and requirements or creating business value and negotiating with almost every other group on the project team towards a viable solution. 

 Taking the same user perceptions stated in the definition above, here it is from an enterprise UX viewpoint.

Enterprise user experience is the creation of value to a business through the interactions of employees with internal company systems, applications or services as it relates to the work required of them. Value is created in these systems and applications by employees' ability to:

  • be effective through
    • accomplishing the business' goals
    • handling the business' data with accuracy
  • be efficient through
    • the learnability of the system
    • the ability to complete a task quickly in the system
  • be emotionally satisfied in their work
  • feel connected to the company community
  • maintain effective relationships with other business entities 
UX is a balancing act. We take all of the business rules and requirements for a project and combine them with what we know about how our users think and act within the given process to produce a workflow in a user interface that can be technically achieved in the tech stack, Our users should be able to quickly learn and become proficient in its use because it should be easy to use encouraging immediate adoption as a part of their process.

 What Is Enterprise UX - Part 1
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