Resilient Enterprise Design
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
"Apple solved the problem of making touchscreens accessible by inventing VoiceOver and providing rich APIs for developers."
Sam ProulxTo Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
September 9, 2022
"Our community would not be what it is without you."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
October 1, 2021
"Developers have their heads down coding; they don’t think about grid intensity or carbon impact."
Tristin OldaniTurning awareness into action with Climate UX
January 16, 2025
"Games may seem like recreation, but they also serve as alternative pedagogical tools and cultural spaces."
Yolanda RankinBlack Feminist Epistemology as a Critical Framework for Equitable Design
March 11, 2021
"Deepfakes can disrupt democratic elections and inflict lasting psychological harm on victims."
Dr. Jamika D. BurgeBroad Strokes: Connecting Design, Research, and AI to the World Around Us
June 7, 2023
"Excessive messaging leads to change fatigue, especially during times like a pandemic."
Sara Asche Anderson Jamie KaspszakNot Your Ordinary Re-Brand: Design's Path to Driving Customer Obsession at Best Buy
January 8, 2024
"If you dive too deep into the subsystems or the bits right away, then your understanding of the whole is going to be lacking."
Sarah FlamionComplex Problem? Add Clarity by Combining Research and Systems Thinking
March 31, 2020
"Testing price effects requires careful design because user behavior can be irrational when prices are shown or hidden."
Michaela MoraAdvanced Concept Testing Approaches To Guide Product Development and Business Decisions
March 11, 2022
"We want to contribute to UX research, not just copy what is done in the US or Europe."
Victor M. GonzalezPracticing Learners and Learning Practitioners
March 10, 2021
