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
"Deep listening means hearing not just what is said but what isn’t said, especially for people with different language or cultural backgrounds."
Alla WeinbergHow to Build and Scale Team Safety
January 8, 2024
"It takes a village to maintain the Benefits Hub with clear roles and responsibilities among a part-time team."
Alan Williams Rose DeebDesigning essential financial services for those in need
February 10, 2022
"Post-its give everyone an equal playing field, preventing dominant voices from overshadowing others in community conversations."
Justin Entzminger Terrance Smith Tracy M. Colunga Mai-Ling GarciaRisk and Reward: How to Diversify the Field of Civic Innovators and Designers
November 17, 2022
"Transparency is one of our key values, so everyone in the studio was involved in building and maintaining the evaluation system."
Ignacio MartinezFair and Effective Designer Evaluation
September 25, 2024
"Negotiating severance is absolutely possible; consider legal advice or coaching when doing so."
Corey Nelson Amy SanteeLayoffs
November 15, 2022
"Leading indicators help you be on the front foot and act before a risk becomes a crisis."
Bassel Deeb Will OsbornDo More With Less: Equip and Lead Design Orgs Through Adversity
October 2, 2023
"We want to leapfrog over individually inspecting things; developers won't have to copy and paste anything."
George Abraham Stefan IvanovDesign Systems To-Go: Indigo.Design Overview and Exploring the Developer Workflow (Part 3)
October 1, 2021
"Marital status mattered because some people buy cars for their spouses or kids, not just themselves."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"When we design for the edges, we get the middle for free."
Sam ProulxTo Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
November 18, 2022
