Web Design Rules for B2B UX

Editor's Notes

• #3 User experience is how a person feels when he or she interacts with a systemFeels = visceral, behavioral and emotional (Don Norman)
• #4 It’s like dating
• #6 B2C couldbe a one-night stand,but B2B is a long-term relationshipB2B should be personalizedlong-term business relationships involved, support, upgrades, modifyingb2b purchases are about evaluating different factors – research, through, analysissales process for b2b = longer than b2c
• #9 Project management—it was all in my headGet a project, do the projectPull in everyone, or no one, depending on the situation.Why I didn’t have a tech solutionToo slowToo much workToo much money
• #10 10,000 feet by artefact, a product design companySo easy“I can’t believe how easy this is!”Highlighted in fast company“I feel organized, in control, much calmer”UX: you’ve got projects, and you have people that work on those projects. Tell me what the projects are when you think they are about to happen. Then tell me who’s working on them when. If you’re project is phased, tell me that too, so we can handle one phase at a time. It speaks to me. It says, trust me, I can help you.Focused experience.
• #11 Helped me do things I didn’t think I need to do yetBig diff between b2b and b2c: b2c is about anticipating consumer needs b2b is often the cheapest, easiest way to fix current issues
• #12 In a split second your brand image is communicated to the customer: Reveal enough info that’ll get the [b2b’s] trustMany times b2b sites can be overwhelming, trying to communicate all the complex information up frontNeed to simply present, reveal just enough to engage them, draw them in, they will read the detailed information if they need/want to – that said make it easy to find and with the option to have someone call you [user] if he or she does not feel like reading pages of informationDesign matters. We WANTED this. We actually needed this. We didn’t know it, but the designers did.Trust your designers to make decisions based on what they observe in interacting with users
• #13 Director of Fraud Investiagations at BofA or New Account Openings Vanguard or Risk Management Manager at match.com would use.Participants were positiveabout XXXThey described it as simple and liked the layout. They felt it was easy to learn and gave them the information they needed to do their jobs.In some cases, they felt that it gave them too many options, but as long as they could do the searches that mattered to them, they were satisfied.Unprompted, every user started with Find a XXX is to get a general read on the business/person. Some recognized that there could be a faster way to achieve this through clearer layout and linked information, but they were used to the current design and did not express need for drastic changes.Participants wanted an easier way to get to other sources of information. Instead of having to copy and paste into various other sites, they implied that integration would save them time.Many participants were not aware of all the searches and features on AML Solutions because they are “hidden” behind tabs or layers of information.
• #14 Director of Fraud Investiagations at BofA or New Account Openings Vanguard or Risk Management Manager at match.com would use.Participants were positiveabout XXXThey described it as simple and liked the layout. They felt it was easy to learn and gave them the information they needed to do their jobs.In some cases, they felt that it gave them too many options, but as long as they could do the searches that mattered to them, they were satisfied.Unprompted, every user started with Find a XXX is to get a general read on the business/person. Some recognized that there could be a faster way to achieve this through clearer layout and linked information, but they were used to the current design and did not express need for drastic changes.Participants wanted an easier way to get to other sources of information. Instead of having to copy and paste into various other sites, they implied that integration would save them time.Many participants were not aware of all the searches and features on AML Solutions because they are “hidden” behind tabs or layers of information.
• #16 Consolidated information, color to imply hierarchy and immportance, visibility of key tasks, structured grids that disappear so people can…investigate.Hover based to see what you want to see when you want to see it“Holy crap. I’m SO EXCITED to use this”“Gives me shivers.”Another project: Data is bad, but the tool is so easy to use and gives me what I need.
• #17 Focus on find a person, find a business.Navigation: 80-90% do one of two things, so direct people to that. Biggest hurdle! Because what about that 10%?Teaching point: Designing for everyone = designing for no oneLayout: huge departure from current philosophy. Teaching point: To be different, design differently. Take challenges, own the design.Remove noise and clutterNavigation: design for repetition and variety. Be careful about “journey maps”…we’ve seen B2B have more variability in their paths to successLayout: establish a presentation hierarchy—people really appreciate when you save them time and effort. Persistent labeling, content layout schemes that feel familiar, design templates that are repetitive when they need to be, fresh when they need to be.Attention is a commodity (less motivation than b2c where it’s something I really want, vs. something my job requires me to want)Layout: missing informationanswer—yes, information no one used. Not about features, about simplicityTeaching point: white space is not wasted space.Design: approachable aestheticTeaching point: easy does not mean consumer-oriented. It means…easy.
• #18 Main-frame, command-based system
• #19 A few years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a company that provided software for travel agents to book travel reservations. The company redesigned their core product and asked us to conduct multiple rounds of research during the design process to help inform and validate some of the design decisions. Similar to other business-to-business (B2B) interfaces, the travel agents have to use this software once an agency decides to purchase it. So convincing the actual users to purchase, or selling them on anything for that matter, was unnecessary. Travel agents care about efficiency and accuracy. Often, their clients are on the phone and they need to be able to pull up every flight, for every price, and every option from point A to point B within seconds. They are accustomed to green screen systems where shortcuts and codes quickly pull up information. So, suffice it to say that the travel agents were less than enthused about the introduction of graphical user interfaces that required more time spent with mouse clicks. “Good tool…because it really does everything for you….But….it feels a bit like you’re dumbing it down…Like anyone can be a travel agent….but, also good for new people that we recruit because we usually require 5 years of GDS and now wouldn’t be needed…I don’t know.”It may be easy to learn, but “this new person would get very bored with her job.”Interestingly enough, the designs actually made the core tasks of finding a flight easier and the entire process of finding to picking details to reserving quicker, but getting to the first screen of results via clicks frustrated the agents. We’re talking pulling-out-hair-levels of frustration.And that didn’t make sense, because again, the new design really would minimize errors and be faster overall. It also took away the need to memorize things like codes for airports. So, new travel agents would be able to type in Mumbai instead of having to know that the airport code for Mumbai is BOM. Agency heads were enamored because it offered more opportunity for cross-sell and up-sell and minimized training.We dug deeper through research and found that one of the underlying reasons the agents disliked the software was that it reminded them of a very popular consumer-facing travel site. This made it seem like the work they do and the knowledge they have were trivial. “It looks like just anyone can book travel!” They prided themselves on being experts, but the design implied otherwise.These kinds of projects are what inspired my talk, Web Design Rules for B2B. The truth is, it’s not always about simplicity and efficiency. Businesses don’t use products, people do. And people have needs, emotions and motivations. Tapping into these can make a world of difference, and take a design from easy to awesome. 
• #20 Design: just because people are being paid to use this product, doesn’t mean they will slog through any design.You can’t always trust what people say.Emotion: get to the core of what people want—for travel agents—about serving happiness, not booking travel. Showcasing the design elements that assure no mistakes, or allow comparison of ferry vs. quick flight schedules helps them serve, not just book.
• #23 SHOW EXPERTISESHOW PERSONALITY – DIFFERENTIATE, VIDEO, LANGUAGESHOW EMPATHY – BLOG, EDUCATION, RECOMMENDATIONS