Simple design - is it for everyone?

After the success of Google and Apple, there have been several articles on the importance of simplicity in design.  Here’s a recent one - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/01/the-simple-complex/. It suggests that good design is really about removing everything that is not necessary. Simplicity is sticky, it says.  But I think that the article is missing a big point.  I agree that simple design is very powerful for mass consumer products but when it comes to the B2B world of enterprise software, I think that simplicity takes a backseat to other considerations such as customizability, sophistication, reliability, consistency and scalability.  

Prior to business school, I worked in the B2B space, designing, developing and delivering enterprise applications to large airlines to help them run their operations.  In my experiences engaging with users, I’ve observed that all the assumptions about who the user is and what they care about change dramatically. First, the users tend to be extreme expert users.  They want to be able to shape and mold whatever solution they get to meet their exact requirements.  Off-the-shelf doesn’t exist. Ease-of-use is low priority.

It appears to me that there are a few key differences between designing solutions for customers in the B2B and the B2C markets.  Given my experience, when I read articles about good design, my mind naturally tries to apply it to the context I am familiar with and sometimes I find that my experience does not agree with the design principles being recommended.  I would like to explore this topic more to find out how much research has been done in this area and if the design experts have any opinions on this. Can the Bauhaus design philosophy – that Steve Jobs was such a big believer in – actually be applicable in the B2B world? I would like to validate my experiences and assumptions against these and form my own perspective about the key differences in designing for these two markets.

Yet another reason I am interested in this topic is that after graduation I plan to work as a Product Manager in a B2B firm. Much of the literature I have read and that we cover in class is applicable to individual consumers.  It is possible that these same guidelines would also apply to products used by customers in enterprises but I don’t know that.  I would like to study this topic deeper to gain a better understanding of the differences, if any, so that I can apply the knowledge I gain in my job.

My thinking is that as users of these two markets use the products, they ask different kinds of questions.  A consumer of a TV remote would ask questions such as “Why do I have so many remotes?”, “How many of the buttons do I really use or care about?” and “Why can't things just work?”.  An expert user of airline flight software would ask “Why can’t they add some more labels to the screen to give me more information?”, “What else can I do with this?”, “Can I have the functionality of 3 different department products in one so that I can make better decisions?” Now, there are ways to give expert users what they want without cluttering the design by understanding their problem space and designing by context.  It is much more important in B2B product design to understand the domain deeply and hear about the problems from several different users in order to design a solution that works.

Just because B2B customers ask for customization, it doesn’t mean that we should custom-build products completely for them.  The best approach when we get a request that the system can’t match is to ask the question “What configuration is missing that isn’t allowing them to get what they need?” And then we can focus on adding that configuration option.  Or we can focus more on modularization and license keys that serve the same purpose while not adding features unnecessary for other customers.

It is important to note that even in B2B applications, there is a place for simplicity. Simple design matters for novice users who are just beginning to use the products and will gain from mastering the capabilities of the products in increments and not all at once.

I think that creating and managing customer experiences in the B2B world is much more challenging than in the B2C world because for product, there are many different touchpoints in the firm. The decision makers for the product purchase are often high-level executives and not the end users (although they may have some influence).  As the price of the product and the impact of change on the organization can be higher, the average sales cycle is longer and the due diligence (research) phase can be very intensive. As different people get involved in the pre-sales, sales and post-sales efforts, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent experience for the customer. 

This article http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/ucd/enterprise-applications.shtml lists some guidelines to follow when designing for B2B and enterprise applications.  I would like to research to find if there are more articles on the topic.  I will also interview my ex-colleagues and others I know in the B2B space to learn what their observations have been in this matter.