Resilient Enterprise Design
Summary
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
"Low status looks like slumping, shuffling feet, and avoiding eye contact but seeking approval."
Cheryl PlatzCollaborative Creativity through Improv
November 7, 2018
"No printing or shipping. Digital is just fine and much more sustainable."
Emily LessardRFPs Without Tears: Writing Inclusive RFPS that Don't Scare Away Talent
December 9, 2021
"I’d argue you couldn’t be effective in any role without some sense of how to create partnerships and move forward."
Frank DuranPartnership Playbook: Lessons Learned in Effective Partnership
January 8, 2024
"Digital governance is about who’s supposed to make the decision, not what the decision is."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Failing to design for disabilities means failing to design for our future selves."
Samuel ProulxDesigning beyond caricatures: Embracing real, diverse user needs
December 4, 2024
"It’s really important to understand your own mental bandwidth and not take on too much even if the project excites you."
Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah WickesAssessing UX jobs for impact in climate
August 14, 2024
"We want you to feel included and be able to take advantage of the awesome content and speaker efforts."
Bria AlexanderDay 2 Welcome
September 24, 2024
"Users want to understand why this happened, what will happen, and how can we make it happen—explainability is critical."
Brian T. O’Neill Maria Cipollone Luis Colin Manuel Dahm Mike OrenDoes Designing and Researching Data Products Powered by ML/AI and Analytics Call for New UX Methods?
February 18, 2022
"Investing in emerging talent is building for the future."
Kate SternScaling Learning for the Future
September 9, 2022
