---
title: How Design is Changing IT
teaser: 'Why enterprise software sucks and how that''s changing.

  '
tags: design
author: Chad Pytel
published_on: 2016-05-23
---

If you work at an enterprise company, your intranet and the tools your company
uses probably suck. The reason why? The primary needs and concerns of the IT
department are not the same as yours. So the people who decided to buy the
software are not the people who will use it.

However, for the people who have to use this software, this is no longer good
enough. This change is being driven by the shift from desktop to mobile
software, and the fundamental importance of design in the new ecosystem.

Computers were once the domain of people with technical expertise. But mobile
devices, with market penetration of two billion people and growing, represent
the mass consumerization of technology, with different usage patterns than
traditional computers. People unlock their phones every 5.6 minutes. A single
bad design decision will frustrate a user repeatedly throughout the day.

When the majority of people at your company solely used Windows at home, and did
not have a smart phone, the expectations for the software they used at work were
low. IT was free to let their primary concerns of things like security and cost
be the primary decision makers. So the crappy internal software, systems, and
hardware that IT provided met those low expectations.

Mobile devices now confront us with new input methods and interaction models
that make incorporating better design very important.

As users became exposed to this new technology, their expectations for the
hardware and software they used were raised. The impact of this was first seen
by the number of people bringing their own devices to work, even though they
weren't officially approved by IT, and then forcing IT to accept these new
devices.

This is now eroding the traditional IT decision making process, and providing
crappy software to users is becoming far less acceptable.

How do IT departments and vendors of traditional enterprise software deal with
this new reality, while still addressing the important needs of the enterprise,
like security?

They must rise to the new bar by incorporating design into their process.

It is important to understand that design is not just how it looks, but also how
it works. Creating a seamless, intuitive experience for the user, whether they
are a consumer or an enterprise customer, is critical in today’s environment.
And large firms are beginning to take notice.

Since 2010, twenty seven companies founded by designers were acquired by bigger
companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Adobe, Dropbox, and LinkedIn. Of the
cumulative-funded VC-backed ventures that have raised more money since 2013,
twenty percent have cofounders who are designers. CapitalOne, the eighth largest
bank in the United States, recognized this when they purchased the very
well-regarded design firm Adaptive Path. As part of Capital One, Adaptive Path
will now help improve both digital and physical banking products, such as
mortgage packets, phone systems, and banking centers. JPMorgan has hired new key
design executives away from the likes of Yahoo, The Huffington Post, and Google.
In 2014, for the first time ever, six venture capital firms invited designers to
join their teams.

So how might those in IT departments and enterprise software vendors incorporate
design into their process?

Design should be viewed as an investment, should be an integrated part of the
process, and not as something that can be sprayed on at the end.  An experienced
designer should be involved in most strategic and technical conversations. The
smartest companies are making sure that designers are part of the senior
leadership team.

If you’re a company working with an outsourced development provider, you should
be asking how design is (or is not) integrated into the process. And you should
be working with either a great design firm first, or ideally, a firm with an
integrated design and development team.

Over the coming years we will see the fruits of this design transformation. We
will see the companies that have fully embraced creating intuitive, enjoyable to
use products and services gain more success selling into the enterprise than
those who have not. We will see companies that have embraced design internally
have happier, more productive employees.