While consumer software tends to be slick and easy to use these days, it seems that the opposite is the case for business software.
When programmers put these applications together, they feel like they don’t have to worry about appealing to the B2C market, so they pay no attention to basic usability issues.
Not all companies think this way though; because of the intervention of current Infor CEO, Charles Phillips, the way the company was run was changed the second he took the position.
He has redesigned their SaaS programs so that ordinary business executives and employees could understand how they work. As a result, they are enjoying considerable growth in recent years.
Want to understand why making user-friendly business software matters? Below, we will discuss the importance of designing systems that ordinary people can use with ease…
1) The easier it is to use, the better it will sell
On the face of it, this seems like an obvious point to make, but there are so many enterprise software applications that confound people when it comes to their user experience.
All the features in the world make no difference if the person using the software doesn’t know how it is all supposed to work. By focusing on good user interface design when creating a business software application, you will make it easier for the end user to get their work done.
If the purchaser of the software sees that employees are happy with the new program, they might decide to roll it out to the entire company, increasing sales for the company that makes that program.
2) Good design reduces time spent on training
The harder that a software program is to understand, the longer it’s going to take for an employee to learn how to operate it.
Bad software design takes time that could be spent doing productive work for a company and wastes it on an interface that is more confusing than it has to be.
By creating functions that are easy to learn for users that lack prior knowledge, it will make it easier for these employees to get up to speed on how the program works, thereby decreasing the amount of time it will take for them to be productive with said software.
3) Productivity will increase significantly
When you have a program that is built to encourage productive work flow instead of forcing an entire company to change its habits, it has a multiplicative effect on productivity.
By keeping an eye on best practices in the software industry and making changes that will make an employee’s life easier rather than forcing them to learn new techniques, a new piece of business software can improve a company’s results dramatically rather than incrementally, or not at all.
