Bringing joy to enterprise systems
1. The problem with enterprise software
Complex and unfriendly enterprise systems create user stress, disrupt work, and can even cause conflict between teams.
Enterprise software primarily emphasizes efficiency and clarity, but because it is also where users spend most of their day, it needs a humane experience.
2. What is “delight”?
- Kano Model:
- Basic features: Essential functions whose absence creates dissatisfaction.
- Performance features: Functions that directly increase satisfaction.
- Delighters: Unexpected functions that maximize satisfaction but eventually become basic expectations, as real-time delivery tracking did.
- Three factors enterprise software needs:
- Engagement: Sustains the user’s attention and interest.
- Liveliness: Gives the interface human characteristics.
- Reassurance: Builds trust that the system is supporting and helping the user.
3. Practical applications
- Smart automation: Flags only the areas that need attention so users do not have to inspect every piece of data themselves.
- Smart data extraction: Automatically fills fields when a document is dragged and dropped, reducing steps and time.
- Human-centered copy: Uses a warm tone such as “You’ve completed everything for today!” instead of “No records found.”
- Personalization: Gives users the autonomy to configure the workspace around their working style.
- Appropriate microinteractions: Provides positive reinforcement through brief animation or feedback when a goal is reached.
4. From a tool people “have to use” to one they “want to use”
Adding a positive experience to enterprise software can change the user’s attitude from seeing it as a tool they are forced to use to one they enjoy using, while improving the product’s overall position and value.
