The more people become accustomed to iPhones and easy-to-use apps in their everyday lives, the higher their expectations are of the software they use at work. Needless to say, business software is often far more complex – nevertheless, it will need to be made more straightforward to continue to find acceptance among enterprise customers and employees.
In the past, job postings for designers typically stated that design tools such as Figma and InVision were an essential skill for the position. Now, these tools are more often described as a plus point of the job. Why? Because these tools are fun to use and make it easier for design and development teams to work more closely. This trend can also be observed in other professions and industries, with state- of-the-art software acting as a magnet for people who have become frustrated with cumbersome, complicated and unnecessarily time-intensive systems.
Today’s employees expect to be able to use the tools they need for their work without having to read lengthy user manuals or struggle with multi-part tutorials. As consumer apps become smarter, the frustration tolerance of employees towards tedious programmes on their business computers is steadily falling. Rather than interfering with productivity, new software should enhance workflows – making them feel better than they did before.
And yet, never mind how simple a new tool may appear, it still needs to reflect all the various functions within the enterprise. That’s why the challenge of designing business software lies in reflecting this complexity without becoming complex – while simultaneously avoiding the traps and pitfalls of oversimplification.
Just like with consumer apps, the user experience needs to be good right from the start. “Good” being all about giving users a tool that performs all the tasks they need while working just the way they want. The first version of a new product (minimum viable product/MVP) should never compromise on user experience, after all, employees need to use it to get their job done. Nevertheless, business software can still be fun.
Here at collectAI, it is our aim to spend 2021 delivering even better support to our clients in the field of digital receivables management as they go about their everyday work. One thing we envisage is our clients playing a more dominant role in the on-going development of our solutions. Further down the line we look forward to seeing them setting up smart invoicing and dunning processes to match their own specific needs, also streamlining them as and when necessary.
You can access an overview of the trends discussed in this series and all the other blogs here.
