Is there a difference between B2B and B2C product’s UX design?? I do not agree. Both are dealing with human — technology interaction. Each group definitely has specific goals and motivations. But there are significant differences in content and scale of design work.
This article talks about why the user experience on products became so important lately. AND which are the companies that are great examples of this trend.
The trend of good user experience, comes from?
1.Advent of iPhone and iPad
Steve Jobs made the world realize that no business is limited to just an idea or a product - It’s about the experience on the product. He not only said - “Design is not how it looks, it is how it works”, he also proved it to the world.
2. The Facebook-Instagram generation
This cool generation that is 24×7 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Skype from their iPhones and iPads wants the same user experience on any other platform. They don’t possess the attention span required to figure out how to use outdated B2B software.
Why should companies care?
1. Motivation for users
If the tool is a pleasure to use, the users will be more motivated to use it and perhaps more motivated in their work too. Studies show a strong correlation between employee motivation and productivity.
2. Productivity
Good UX in B2B tools means that the tool supports the user’s work. When the support tasks can be performed efficiently, with a convenient and understandable tool, the user has more time for the actual work and can thus be more productive.
3. Easy to grasp
Working with the same company for 20 to 30 years has become the exception rather than the norm. People switch jobs more often than they used to. Under such change of work life, the most obvious demand is that B2B systems need to become easier to learn for new, temporary or less educated users so that they can be productive from day one.
B2B companies that did it right!
1.Slack
It’s been over a year since Slack emerged as the darling of the SaaS world. During this gargantuan rise, Slack’s user onboarding experience bagged praise and admiration of product and design folks everywhere. Let’s have a look at the changes Slack made to ensure a good onboarding experience -
- Using visuals that explain the product
(Relevant visuals)
With this change of visual, the design team at Slack very wisely gives an idea of how the team name would be displayed in the tool. This gives a motivation to users to give an interesting team name. Users never want to do stuff that’s not mandatory. But adding this visual gives the users a glimpse of why it should be done.
- Get rid of immediate password creation
(Eliminated password creation)
Slack skipped the password creation at the sign-up process. Rather, they send an email shortly. Not only did Slack remove a step in getting closer to the product usage, but also killed another common culprit of unnecessary friction: the email confirmation step.
- Simplicity in text
When we are talking of copywriting, sometimes less is more. Similar is the case here. Compared to the 123 words previously, these 7 letters are more appealing and personal. Isn’t it? The team does not miss out to display the USP : messaging app for teams.
2. Trello
Trello is a tool that helps you plan, collaborate, and stay organized no matter what type of user research you’re doing.
- Great structuring
In Trello, each of the clients and company projects has a board, and each of those boards has a series of customizable lists, with individual to-do cards on each. When you are looking at a client in Trello, you can see everything you are currently working on, things that you are planning on working on, and things you’ve just completed.
Individual cards make this tool so functional. Each card can be dedicated to a task, and on that card you can:
- set due dates
- create checklists
- classify and label the task
- assign team members
3. Kissmetrics
It is a web analytics solution, does its best to combine creativity and knowledge when it comes to its company blog, which drives most of its web traffic. The company produces a high volume of pieces on a consistent schedule, with each one going through multiple revisions internally to get polished by employees who have both a good understanding of the topics and the audience.
From there, KISSmetrics monitors traffic and subjective feedback to see which posts resonate and where customers have questions.
Have other examples of B2B companies that have outperformed in the recent past? Would love to know.
