This week I’ll be profiling a few of the people attending Jive’s Enterprise UI Summit, which is Thursday & Friday in Aspen.

What sort of Experience Design trends currently have your attention?

The one that has a lot of my attention are graduated interfaces, which offer simple offerings with a lot of help to those who are new to the tools and or features, but as they have regular experience and use with the tools they get more features and functionality. This is particularly helpful for those who are heavy contributors or helpful with answering others questions.

Is there such thing as an Enterprise User Interface? What does it mean to you?

I really believe the Enterprise User Interface exists, but it has not been positive in the past. This is finally beginning to change for the good. Good user interface do not require 500 page binder that come with 2 to 4 days of training every year. The interfaces let people get the information out of their head and into the tools, then add structure. Good interfaces prompt and guide with intelligence on the backend to help with affordance to ease use.

What makes a good UI?

My perspective is a good UI is one that is easy to understand what the purpose of the tool is, it is easy to find help and guidance, but also an interface that gets out of the way as much as possible. The most valuable component of an UI is it embraces the user from their context and their needs.

What are some examples of good and bad Enterprise UIs?

Traditionally the SAP tools have been really poor, but in the recent iterations they have made great strides. The BEA interface is rather poor from my perspective as it seems many of their tool look like very little design thought went into them and where possible make them look like a modified spread sheet.

One UI that is quite good is SocialText from its visual appeal and initial ease of use, but it is is lacking features and depth that other tools have offered. Another tool with a good Enterprise UI is Lithium Technologies, not from its direct UI, but from it capabilities for automating graduated interfaces. Lithium understands the users of their tools really well, it understands community as well as the various roles people play in communities, and the tool can intelligently target UI modifications that embrace the user’s needs and roles in the community.

Why is enterprise software user interface and user experience been a lack of focus, historically?

There have been many hinderances and hurdles for enterprise UI and UX in the past. Part was the buying was done based on features and functionality first. The idea was to not really disrupt the people using the tools with vastly different interfaces and ways of doing things, which cause changing processes and protocols. So, the old Wang and dummy terminal level of intelligent interfaces held over as the benchmark from which little change was to be made. The irony was each new system needed days of training, was more confusing than the system prior, and was not easy to use for the people who really needed to use it. The IT played a large role in purchasing tools, which put the focus on upkeep and support, not ease of use and rarely were the actual users involved, let alone honestly considered in the purchases. The focus purchasing has been stakeholders, which are often the managers and overseers and not those to should be deeply interacting with the tools (other than reporting).

When tools that are considerate of ease of use are demonstrated and that have given consideration to UI and UX, with authentic modifications in the implementation to really embrace the users in that environment’s needs and contexts, the tools are viewed as suspect. In some cases the tools that are easy to use mean less support staff needed, which then diminishes the staffing numbers and the dollars in the department (this equal less perceived power at the internal political power table), so the easy to use tools are avoided.

Do you see change occurring and if so, what’s driving that change?

I definitely see change happening. There are a few drivers for the positive change. Part of the change is there are enough workers in enterprise who did not begin computing on mainframe systems with dummy terminals, but began on their own machines and/or have deep and broad experience with web interfaces, which often put a lot of resources and effort in good UI and UX for the users who interact with the sites. This has bled over into enterprise with many if not most enterprise applications being built with the web browser as the user interface. The skill that the developers and UI designers bring to their job often is grounded in some understanding of the importance of a good UI and UX, if not the skills and background to make this happen.

The other driver is people are gaining some experience from the new Web 2.0 UIs (whatever that amorphous term means). Many of the newer web interfaces get out of the user’s way and allow them to perform a task. The sites know what the task is, embrace that understanding, and work to ease the user’s experience in doing the task as well as putting a focus on delight for the user, where possible.

What’s uniquely hard about designing for enterprise software?

The most difficult elements for designing for the enterprise are the constraints from having a broad spectrum of understanding of UI and interactions that are possible and how they work. On the web the users of a site, self-select for the most part and the innovative interfaces and innovative tools are not really attracting the broad masses. But, in the enterprise self-selection and innovative interfaces are seen as hinderances and hurdles (there are good ways around these hurdles, but it seems few tools/services or organization really understand them or deploy them to enhance users embracing the tools and adopting them as part of their regular toolset.

What do you hope to get out of the Enterprise UI Summit this week?

I am looking forward to comparing notes and hearing other perspectives from people on the front lines dealing with enterprise UI.