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
"We’re an older company by tech standards—older than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Google by one year."
Chris MosesStretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
November 7, 2018
"It’s good practice to offer one-on-one interactions with older adults due to their learning preferences."
Rittika BasuAge and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
February 23, 2023
"Care less about being certain and more about being effective."
Dean BroadleyNot Black Enough to be White
January 8, 2024
"Qualitative research embraces complexity, generating thick descriptions to capture as much context as possible without aiming for generalization."
Mohammad Hossein JarrahiContextuality problem: Exploring the Benefits of Qualitative and Quantitative Research
January 20, 2023
"Say it until someone says it better back to you."
Jacqui Frey Alison RandSetting the Table for Dynamic Change
October 24, 2019
"You need to show up as humans first before we show up as employees."
Sahibzada Mayed Lauren LinCultivating Design Ecologies of Care, Community, and Collaboration
October 4, 2023
"The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is."
Melissa Eggleston Maya Israni Florence Kasule Owen Seely Andrea SchneiderPractical People Skills for Building Trust on Teams and with Partners
December 9, 2021
"Everyone contributes to conflict; it’s not about right or wrong, but what each person is trying to protect."
Laura WeissTurn Down the Heat: 3 Ways to Handle Conflict in the Moment
November 20, 2024
"Designing for change means focusing on learnability and product consumability, not just ease of use."
Malini RaoLessons Learned from a 4-year Product Re-platforming Journey
June 9, 2021
