I enjoyed the NY Enterprise Tech Meetup last week. In addition to two great demos, the event featured a panel that discussed UI design. It is a topic that intrigues me. Fusion PR has represented a number of providers of tech that improve user experience.
It’s always great to do a reality check and hear about a market segment first-hand, from those who work in the field. Plus, I was hoping to learn about the publications UX pros read, and influencers they follow – great primary research for the PR team
As you’ll see, the event delivered all of this and more.
WTF is Design in the Enterprise?
You can be forgiven for thinking that “enterprise design” is an oxymoron. “Business software” does not summon images of elegance or beauty.
Plus the field is not helped by its abundance of buzzwords which all kind of sound alike: user interface, user experience, enterprise design and customer experience. Factor in related acronyms and modifiers and you have a real mess (UX, UI, CX, usability, user experience management/UEM, behavioral analytics, UX design – you get the picture).
Yet a good design has never been more critical. Vast sums are spent on software each year, and many licenses sit on a shelf, often due to poor UX. Plus, the rise of Apple and the consumerization of IT have led to a growing appreciation for great design, in both hardware and software.
The Panel
On hand to help us understand Enterprise Design and how to nail it was a great panel, moderated by Jessica Lin of Work-Bench:
- Kuan Luo – Design Lead, Cockroach Labs
- Raschin Fatemi – Head of Design, ActionIQ
- Joel Califa – Product Design Lead, DigitalOcean
- Jason Grant – Senior User Experience Designer, x.ai
They all shared great tips, and the audience chimed in and repeated some of the info via Twitter. Please see the Storify wrap below.
Enterprise Design Resources
Afterwards I had the chance to ask the panel about important design publications and influencers. Most agreed that Jakob Nielsen and Nielsen Norman Group are still very important. Here are other resources:
- Sidebar
- Inside Intercom
- Web Designer News
- Designer News
- Jeff Sauro and Measuring U
- Google User Experience Research
Also, my web searches uncovered this great Medium article on 20 UX Design Blogs and this Quora Q & A on the topic.
Finally, I saw that the NY Tech Alliance is hosting a related event next Wednesday: User Experience Research – Past, Present and Future. Tom Tullis, author of Measuring the User Experience will be speaking.
Demos
No NYETM would be complete without great vendor demos. This one featured two:
