B2B Design has lagged behind B2C and has heavy costs

Role of design in B2B SAAS

B2C SAAS has all been about providing the best user experiences and design has played a major part. However B2B SAAS has been a bit of a laggard.

There are a few B2B software that have great design and compelling UI. However, in general, they fall way behind their B2C cousin. The root causes are not easy to pin point.

B2B requirements tend to be complex and evolve over time. It takes a long time to get to a point where you think you have a good functional product. Sometimes years. And all this while, the product team is simply trying to get the core functionality working. Something that solves the key pain point of their target persona. After all, a lot is riding in terms of revenue. So the faster you get a decently functional product, the better. We can fix design later.

However, in pursuit of growth and to meet the varying needs of the ever growing, often finicky, customer base, design takes a back seat. The product still needs to work. And that’s what most B2B teams in my experience tend to optimize for.

I have played around with a variety of B2B software. Some tend to have good experiences but most I would categorize as horrendous.

What does it mean to be horrendous?

Confusing Interface - B2B generally has a lot of features and functions because there are multiple jobs to be done. It can be challenging to build an intuitive interface. Think of an accounting application or CRM. There are 100s of things a user can do and presenting them or even predicting what they want to do next is hard.

In CRM, this might mean entering leads, managing opportunities, documenting call details, creating a quote, sending automated emails to customers, creating reports and the list goes on.

Good design can make it easy to get the jobs done if they are clearly defined. But most common B2B software tend to have very confusing and non intuitive UI. As a result, customers have to invest in help, videos, guides and of course customer success, all of which can become expensive. A frequent complain in a B2B Saas you will likely hear is customers are not sure how to use the system. And if they don’t use, adoption drops, which impacts retention.

Sometimes even mundane things like exporting data, or creating a report can become complicated requiring multiple steps.

Bad UI - Some examples of bad UI in B2B SAAS include outdated software with poor color choices and dropdown menus, as well as confusing interfaces with many features and functions. These issues can make it challenging for users to navigate and use the software to its fullest potential, resulting in suboptimal usage and missed opportunities.

What’s the cost of bad design?

Well, by nature, if a customer has bought software they likely will use it. And in some cases they have to. Accounting, CRM, supply chain, marketing automation, tax, etc are classes of software where users have no choice. So they will end up using albeit in a sub optimal way. They will do the bare minimum to keep them from getting fired.

For example, in a CRM sales people might enter the basic opportunity information but not provide detailed context if it’s not easy. This makes for suboptimal data in a CRM. If you look at CRM surveys, most sales people hate to enter data.

In other examples, users will do just the bare minimum to get the information they need. But they may not use it to the fullest to explore areas of opportunity they otherwise would miss. If the tools are cumbersome to use, they will not even want to explore. It’s a hassle. Which means your product is not able to capture the full potential value from the users, which might not play well at renewal.

And if a competitor comes along with even a tad bit easier or fresher design, then you are in for a uphill battle of perceptions.

I have been using this software for posting my tweets and linkedin posts. The interface is so bad, that I don’t feel like exploring the tool for new ideas. I want to post more and wished it was not just easier, but pleasant and a delight to use. Far from it. I use it enough to publish my main posts. What a missed opportunity. I am already looking for a replacement.

So what should be ideal goal for design in the context of B2B?

The primary goal of design in B2B is still to make sure that the users are able get their core jobs done, and solve their key pain points in an effective and efficient manner.

And design can play a very important part especially in making the functionality efficient (i.e less clicks, predict next steps, does not require a manual and so on).

One of my boss used to ask us in product, how many of you have seen a manual for Facebook or Youtube or Instagram. His point was to make the user design so intuitive that a user just gets it.

I would also add that make the design just pleasing enough that it makes the user come back and spend time exploring.

Think of Canva. Lots of options for designing graphics and they make it easy and intuitive enough that you keep exploring. Imagine if each your design took more than 5-7 steps. Users will likely just use it enough for their main design work. Instead, Canva makes the user come back for more and the users ends up doing many other designs that they may not have even thought of before. Their main goal is get people to use more of Canva for all their design needs. The experience is pleasant enough for users to keep doing just that.

And this is the key point which I think UX designers should consider while designing for B2B. Maybe it does not have to be Snapchat or Tinder like fancy. In B2B, it needs to get the job done, and the experience should be pleasant enough that I enjoy coming back to it.

Product managers should clearly define what they want the users to do more of e.g. we want users to create more marketing campaigns in our software. Designers should optimize to significantly improve that aspect of the experience such that users wants to come back for more.