B2B Design

It's funny how enterprise software companies think good design is throwing up a pretty background.

TLDR: it's a bit more than that.

Good design shouldn't be restricted to Apple or Ferrari.

Neither should it be a luxury add-on for business software.

Here's why design matters, even with B2B software.

1) User expectations keep rising. We often turn to the best designed external tools when internal tools feel clunky by comparison. There's a reason we all drop Sharepoint for Google Docs, WhatsApp or Telegram.

2) Efficiency pays back quickly. Forrester has reported that every dollar invested in user-experience (UX) design can return up to $100 through higher productivity, lower support costs, and increased revenue opportunities. Design pays!

3) Design correlates with business performance. A multi-year McKinsey study of 300 public companies found that organisations in the top quartile of its Design Index out-performed peers on revenue growth and shareholder return. The best design actually wins.

If you're buying software, think about what your colleagues will actually want to use.

And if you're building, don't think a pretty background can make up for an ugly user interface.