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
"Internal projects give new hires a safe place to learn how the organization functions without fear of breaking things."
Russ UngerOnboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought
November 7, 2017
"We want you to come in with a learning agenda—it’ll help you get more out of the event."
Louis RosenfeldWelcome / Housekeeping
June 7, 2023
"You can look at a company’s impact reports and funding sources to sniff out if something feels too good to be true."
Max Gadney Andrea Petrucci Joshua Stehr Hannah WickesAssessing UX jobs for impact in climate
August 14, 2024
"Designers must take responsibility when designing systems that impact millions."
Lada GorlenkoTheme 3: Introduction
June 10, 2021
"Good design is honest and yes, the Jewel e-cigarette will honestly kill you."
George AyeThat Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
November 16, 2022
"Bringing our government Partners in early as collaborators and making a clear case for the value of research is one way that we build trust with our stakeholders."
Lisa Spitz Nikki BrandBuilding Trust Through Equitable Research Practices
November 18, 2022
"Skills are modular tasks that bots can perform, triggered by specific commands or inputs."
Noz UrbinaRapid AI-powered UX (RAUX): A framework for empowering human designers
May 1, 2025
"Treat unemployment as a full-time job; be relentless and turn over every stone to improve your chances."
Corey LongHiring in DesignOps: A Critical Study on How to Hire and Get Hired
September 23, 2024
"A lot of our work still happens in spreadsheets, because they’re flexible and dynamic."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can organizations democratize accessibility knowledge among designers, developers, and researchers?
How do shared ‘watch parties’ or team review sessions enhance understanding of accessibility challenges?
What career and life factors influence women’s early exit from tech versus longevity in law?