The expectations for enterprise applications are sky-high, and the pressure to keep up with design trends can lead companies to overspend on acquiring new talent or web tools.

Organizations expect features that not only improve ROI but also provide an outstanding user experience. Things like: smooth functioning, catering to the ever-changing requirements of the company, integrating multiple sub-systems or third-party systems, and above all, security. All of this can be covered under one umbrella, the design system.

Many design teams are caught in the crossroads between user needs and client requirements during product design—the failure to fit into the sweet spot between the two impacts both quality & designer credibility. Exclusively suiting client needs in your design can result in a product that is simply cost-centric; an effective design aims to improve the target user experience as well.

This blog will supply you with some key recommendations to find the balance between the client and user needs to create a winning product design.

We know how important it is to gather meaningful feedback from our users to drive design decisions. Interviewing and engaging users is an art. It’s a skill that requires practice, planning, and preparation.

Albert Einstein once said:

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

It is shocking how often enterprise clients ask designers for a “next-generation user experience” without articulating beyond that.

Debates around measuring user experience or modernizing designs often leave UX designers trapped in a subjective spiral, struggling to prove their work’s worth. These arguments lead to inevitable back and forth with clients as we aim to hit a moving target. However, if we fail to define a next-gen user experience’s qualities, how will we ever know if our design missions are truly successful?

Designers and developers have different skill sets, talents, and perspectives, but when both sides can contribute in open, respectful, and collaborative ways, it makes for a better process and product.

In an environment where timely project delivery is crucial, collective efforts cannot risk being compromised. Equal contribution of expertise and ownership of tasks is paramount and can be achieved only through expert collaboration.

Capturing and implementing personas is a ritual in most UX design lifecycles. User personas are useful to visualize your design’s consumers while incorporating the UX design philosophies in your business.

According to experience Dynamics, “A persona is a vivid, narrative description of a fictitious person who represents a segment of your user population. It is based on primary research that uncovers the real attitudes, goals, and behaviors of the users it represents.”

For UX designers, the presentation of our work is often just as important as the work itself. Being able to effectively present your work – by engaging with your audience and reading important cues such as eye contact, body language, and facial expression – is a necessary skill to develop.

For many, the three-stacked, neat-bar Hamburger menu icon is synonymous with responsiveness and modularity in web and mobile standalone/companion apps.

Most UX designers are beginning to think that hiding features off-screen behind a nondescript icon, side menu, or navigation drawer isn’t a great mobile design choice. In fact, it impedes engagement and visibility, in addition to cramming a ton of functionality into an app.

Product Managers often understand the value of user research and regular testing in theory but may face practical challenges in implementing it.

Even as user research’s value becomes more and more evident, there are still skeptical individuals and organizations that feel like they know their users. Sometimes they align their thoughts to the Henry Ford quote, “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

From desktops to smartphones to the ever-expanding gamut of connected screens and devices, it is safe to say that on-demand access to information is part of our lives. The way users interact with online content has seen a seismic paradigm shift in the twenty-first century; mobile is the definition of connectivity.

To state the obvious, the mobile browsing experience is significantly different from that of a desktop. Mobile offers the most user-friendly and convenient media use on-the-go while using desktops is confined to a specific stationary area.