Open any business app, and you’ll find it’s far more clunky to use than any consumer-grade application. Enterprise app developers now have the technology to build systems that can handle the complexity of business operations while creating a seamless front-end employee experience.
Designing a great app for enterprise requires developers to use a different approach. In an environment overflowing with easy-to-use consumer apps, employees have little patience for terrible employee experiences with business software.
Statistics show that 75% of all employees battle to navigate enterprise systems. Some employees also say that they are willing to quit their job over complicated apps that are difficult to use.
Employees want an intuitive user experience from systems with seamless functionality and clean and straightforward design. Unfortunately, it seems that most companies can’t provide this type of employee experience.
Underestimating the Complexity of Enterprise Apps
Unfortunately, developing a successful enterprise app is far more challenging than a consumer-grade app. Enterprise apps handle more data, and they need to work on multiple platforms. These factors present challenges for developers, but it’s possible to create an enterprise app that offers everything your employees need.
Consumer apps follow the trend of less is more. Instead of a bulky interface, you get a clean aesthetic that’s easy to navigate. However, business apps don’t follow the same guidelines because employee expectations don’t push them in that direction.
Your enterprise software solution should integrate with all of your departments for seamless employee experience. For instance, your onboarding process might include numerous departments. Technology can now reduce the time it takes for successful onboarding, as long as all departments work synergistically through the same software solution.
Some developers make the mistake of thinking that employees want to customize their experience. However, while this strategy might seem like its leaving room for employees to engage with improvements on the platform, it often results in confusion.
Your employees want a fully functional and user-friendly employee experience that works from day one. If they have to try and add apps to customize their experience, it leads to drops in productivity and lowers employee engagement.
Great App Design Involves User Research
Consumer app developers usually base their work around personas, detailed user profiles that represent what the product does. However, many developers are discovering that personas don’t provide enough information.
To make your enterprise software solution, stand out, focus on roles. Identify the tasks that require an app and how each of the functions differentiates from one another.
A sales rep and a sales manager might find themselves using the same enterprise sales application differently. Therefore, organizations need to ensure that all apps make tasks accessible, or it’s a waste of your budget.
Developers must also focus on engaging other stakeholders in the project as well. Using prototypes is an excellent way to create interest in executives and stakeholders. By engaging them with a prototype, you transfer a sense of ownership in the creative process or product.
As a result, you get acceleration in the final adoption of the system, along with improvements in speed and efficiency.
