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
"Don’t bluff regulated healthcare UX experience; everyone will know, and it’s harmful to your team and clients."
Theresa NeilDesigning for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
May 22, 2024
"We constantly put the burden on women of color to navigate their voice instead of creating environments where everyone’s voice has value."
Joi FreemanA New Vantage Point: Building a Pipeline for Multifaceted Research(ers)
March 30, 2020
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth—that’s fieldwork."
Prabhas Pokharel Mayo NissenOrder and Chaos: New Ways of Collaborating on Synthesis and Storytelling
March 10, 2022
"Information architecture is the art and science of organizing and structuring information to make it usable, accessible, and meaningful."
Husani OakleyTheme Two Intro
June 6, 2023
"Building follow-up into your work plans is crucial, so you're engaging users at key decision moments."
Amy Brana StuartRest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
June 9, 2022
"Virtual personas give you directional feedback when human user testing isn't feasible."
Joe Meersman Pooria SohiUse AI to Drive Outcomes that Go Beyond the Design Sprint
September 25, 2024
"Sometimes people aren’t willing, and you get a whole lot more with honey than you do with vinegar."
Dr. Jamika BurgeEmbracing change: Navigating shifting landscapes with compassion and agency
March 11, 2025
"People will not sabotage what’s going on if they feel like they’ve been part of the process."
Harry MaxPriority Zero: Some Things are More Equal than Others
June 9, 2016
"You want someone who writes with equal parts empathy and authority, not just pure authority."
Louis RosenfeldCoffee with Lou: Should You Write a (UX) Book?
March 7, 2024
