The Glamour Gap
Let's be honest: B2B software isn't glamorous. Nobody writes breathless Medium posts about inventory management systems. Design awards rarely celebrate maintenance scheduling tools.
When I started working on Zorp CMMS -a computerized maintenance management system -I felt the glamour gap acutely. Consumer designers were crafting beautiful social apps. I was designing work order flows for facilities managers.
What I didn't expect: this "unglamorous" work would teach me more about empathy than any consumer project ever had.
Meeting the Users
My first user research session was humbling. I expected to meet operations people in conference rooms, reviewing features on laptops. Instead, I shadowed a facilities manager named Raj through his actual workday.
Raj started at 6 AM. By the time I met him at 8, he'd already handled two emergency repairs, fielded a dozen calls, and walked 3 miles through a warehouse. His "office" was a cluttered desk he rarely sat at.
He showed me the software he used: a decade-old system that required seventeen clicks to log a completed repair. He did this hundreds of times per day.
"I just want to get back to work," he said, navigating a form with fields he didn't understand. "This thing fights me every time."
I suddenly felt foolish about every pixel-perfect mockup I'd ever obsessed over.
The Empathy Deficit
B2B design often suffers from an empathy deficit:
We Don't Understand the Context
Consumer designers often are their users. We use social apps, streaming services, communication tools. We understand the context intuitively.
B2B designers rarely share their users' context. I've never managed a warehouse. I've never scheduled building maintenance. I don't know what it feels like to be interrupted twelve times before 9 AM.
We Over-Index on Features
B2B sales often hinges on feature lists. Procurement decisions compare checkboxes. This creates pressure to add features, regardless of usability.
The result: software that does many things, none of them well. Users like Raj navigate bloated interfaces to accomplish simple tasks.
We Forget the Stakes
For Raj, our software wasn't a curiosity -it was a job requirement. If it failed, equipment broke down. If it was slow, his backlog grew. If it confused him, his managers questioned his competence.
The stakes in B2B are higher and more personal than we often acknowledge.
Understanding Before Solving
Zorp CMMS taught me to slow down. Before designing anything, I needed to understand:
The Physical Environment
Our users weren't sitting at desks with large monitors. They were:
- Walking through facilities with phones
- Working in noisy environments
- Wearing gloves that made touchscreens difficult
- Dealing with poor WiFi and intermittent connectivity
These constraints changed everything about our design approach.
The Workflow Reality
Official job descriptions bore little resemblance to actual work. Real workflows were:
- Constantly interrupted
- Full of undocumented workarounds
- Shaped by relationships ("I always check with Sarah first")
- Adapted to real conditions our software ignored
Designing for the official workflow would have created software nobody actually used.
The Emotional Context
Work has emotional dimensions we often ignore:
- Fear of making mistakes that reflect poorly
- Frustration with systems imposed from above
- Pride in expertise and problem-solving
- Stress from understaffing and urgency
Software that increases stress -even slightly -is software users will avoid.
Design Principles from B2B Empathy
Speed Is Respect
Every unnecessary click says: "Your time doesn't matter." In B2B contexts, where users interact with software hundreds of times daily, speed is the primary design goal.
We cut our primary workflow from seventeen clicks to three. Users literally applauded in testing.
Forgiveness Over Perfection
Mistakes happen when you're rushing between emergencies. Software that punishes errors -losing work, requiring re-entry, showing unhelpful error messages -adds stress to already stressful jobs.
We built extensive auto-save, clear undo paths, and forgiving validation that helped users succeed rather than punishing failures.
Offline Is Required
"Requires internet connection" is a dealbreaker for users in basements, warehouses, and rural sites. Offline capability isn't a nice-to-have -it's essential.
This was technically challenging but absolutely necessary.
Mobile First (Really)
"Mobile-responsive" often means "desktop design squeezed onto phones." Real mobile-first means:
- Thumb-reachable targets
- Large touch areas
- Minimal typing required
- One-handed operation when possible
Our users' primary device was their phone. We designed for phones first, then scaled up.
Accessible to All Experience Levels
Our users ranged from tech-savvy millennials to veterans who'd used paper systems for decades. The interface couldn't assume technical proficiency -but couldn't patronize experienced users either.
We achieved this through progressive disclosure: simple by default, powerful when needed.
The Transformation
The redesigned Zorp CMMS looked nothing like our original concept. Gone were the sophisticated dashboards we'd imagined. In their place:
- A single-screen workflow for common tasks
- Giant buttons that worked with gloves
- Automatic offline sync
- Voice input for hands-free logging
- Quick actions accessible within three taps
It wasn't the design that would win awards. It was the design that would work.
What Raj Taught Me
After we launched the redesign, I visited Raj again. Watching him use the new system was gratifying:
- He logged repairs in seconds, not minutes
- He worked on his phone while walking, not at a desk
- He smiled when things worked smoothly
"It feels like someone actually watched me work," he said.
That was the highest praise I'd ever received for design.
Bringing B2B Empathy Everywhere
The lessons from B2B design apply broadly:
Every User Has Context You Don't See
Consumer users also have contexts: stress, distraction, accessibility needs, device constraints. We just assume we understand them because we're also consumers. That assumption is often wrong.
Efficiency Is a Form of Respect
Valuing users' time is a fundamental act of respect. This applies whether users are facilities managers or social media browsers.
Stakes Vary, Dignity Doesn't
Not every software decision is life-or-death. But every user deserves dignity -software that treats them as capable, respects their time, and doesn't add stress to their day.
Understanding Comes Before Designing
The time spent understanding context is never wasted. It always improves the design. Skip it, and you're guessing. Guessing doesn't scale.
The Unglamorous Work Matters
I still think about Raj when I'm designing. Not literally, but as a reminder: somewhere, someone is using software I designed to do their job. That job matters to them. The software should help, not hinder.
B2B design taught me that unglamorous work deserves beautiful solutions. That empathy requires effort when you don't share your users' context. That respect is communicated through efficiency and forgiveness and reliability.
These lessons made me a better designer. Not just for B2B -for everything.
Have you designed for users whose context was very different from yours? How did you build empathy?