Summary
What is resilient enterprise design, and how can you incorporate it into your own enterprise organization? Craig Villamor is the VP of Product Experience & Design at AppDynamics and he talks about applying context and practicality to enterprise UX design to build resiliency.
Key Insights
-
•
Enterprise design must account for complex organizational contexts, not just individual user happiness.
-
•
Resilience in design means creating systems that flex and adapt under stress rather than breaking.
-
•
Customization is essential in enterprise software for companies to express their brand, culture, and workflows.
-
•
Loss of design control due to device variety and user customization requires influence over user behavior rather than strict enforcement.
-
•
Design principles are crucial to reduce indecision and provide a clear framework for decision-making in complex projects.
-
•
Prioritizing clarity over consistency can lead to better user experience outcomes.
-
•
Successful platforms often start by solving specific, concrete problems before generalizing widely.
-
•
Design systems function as living products that maintain consistency, flexibility, and scale across an ecosystem, including users.
-
•
Making it significantly easier to do the right thing drives adoption and behavior change in design.
-
•
Modeling real-world scenarios and anticipating customization scenarios helps create resilient, flexible enterprise applications.
Notable Quotes
"In the enterprise, it’s really about make me effective taking into account non-user personas as well as the individual."
"My boss might be looking over my shoulder and see nothing but red and think I’m not doing my job."
"Designing for the real world means dealing with practical constraints and making refinements in the face of compromise."
"We’re really passionate about our craft but we’re not in control — that’s a shared hallucination we must give up."
"If you design for everyone, no one is satisfied — start with specific solutions then generalize."
"The highest paid person’s opinion, or HIPPO, often makes decisions in the absence of principles and insights."
"Make it difficult to create ugly presentations — make it ten times easier to do the right thing."
"What happens when a user customizes the UI? Does the experience break? This is the question to ask."
"A style guide is an artifact, but a design system is a living, funded product with a roadmap serving an ecosystem."
"Resilient design needs to bend without breaking — to survive stresses while still delivering value."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Netflix using AI-generated ads is a low-risk testbed but raises ethical questions - Lauren."
Bria Alexander Brittany Hobbs Christopher NoesselDay 1 Panel: Up to the Minute: The latest in AI’s impact on UX
June 10, 2025
"Finding the balance between transformation and preservation is a delicate issue in Istanbul."
Onur Kocan Ayhan EnsiciUnderstanding the Strategy for Civic Design in a Complex City: Istanbul
November 16, 2022
"Synthetic data created by AI—like fake personas and journeys—is super derivative and often not insightful."
Shipra KayanMake your research synthesis speedy and more collaborative using a canvas
January 24, 2025
"I don’t want people to do a 6 AM call — I can do a 10 PM call to brainstorm but not a design critique."
Kim LenoxLeading Distributed Global Teams
May 20, 2019
"I jump out of bed every morning because an executive said for the first time, this feels like home, this is how I want to work."
Erin HauberDesign is Not the Frosting on the Scaled Agile Layer Cake
October 24, 2019
"Specialists would rather share their toothbrush than their language."
Stephen AndersonPuzzled? How to Coordinate Humans for Complex Challenges
May 27, 2021
"We wanted to move fast, but in the right direction, not just anywhere for the sake of going there."
Neema MahdaviOperationalizing DesignOps
November 7, 2018
"Visual specs must include behavior, styles, accessibility, and edge cases so developers build accurately."
Yunyan Li Anna Le Jen KimUX Best Practices
June 11, 2021
"We invited BCG’s clients to live with us in multidisciplinary innovation studios for 12 to 18 months."
Kevin BethuneReimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation
June 8, 2022