Product Design Impact
The mode of interaction determines whether something will happen or not. In interpersonal interactions, there is room for adaptability – depending on the situation, relationships, and other factors. Product design can compensate for certain shortcomings or create such difficulties for the user that they eventually abandon usage. Worse still: their negative impression could be so strong that sharing it with others destroys the potential of all invested efforts and good intentions. What more than beautiful images is product design that ensures satisfaction from use and achieved results?

The answer to this question can be quite extensive. Different situations, professional experience, and personal impressions create a truly phenomenal variability if not endless. Today, various tools are available that allow solutions to be designed with just a few screen gestures, which were previously only possible for specialised engineers.

Fortunately, technology has unlocked an infinite field for imagination. Analyses of user usability in a digital environment have systematised creative visions and guided solutions towards a single goal – for the user to easily realise their intentions and generate business benefits.

Whether it concerns online shops of various small and large brands or information portals, there is always something in common between them. It can be found in structure, categorisation, information provision, and ways of interacting with it.

Software design also has certain expectations that need to be met adequately.

However, specialised software presents a significant challenge with information – its type, how it is presented, working with it, and its protection. Good design considers user needs beyond the program itself and specific goals for which it is used.

Working with business products should add value

This article discusses key considerations when designing more than just the visual aspect of a business system for tablets and computers, containing client, partner, and financial data. Solutions supporting the natural execution of daily tasks to achieve an organisation's business objectives are presented.

Security

GDPR raised public awareness of the importance of personal information. This issue became increasingly significant in product design. Numerous reports indicate that the weakest link in protecting information remains human error.

Good software products are protected not only technologically but also through preventative mechanisms integrated into their usage.

Two-factor authentication is now well-known. Thanks to this, banking is safer with an additional dynamic code used to confirm transactions.

Traditional passwords are unreliable, much like using only a bank card number for purchases. They remain unchanged for extended periods. Even when users are forced by the system to replace their current password, the same symbol combination is often used for access to different systems.

One-time passwords offer the highest level of protection. Adding restrictions for alternative access methods and initial configuration of the login process enhances security.

Beginning

Much like a starting point at a train station, this screen should allow users to easily navigate and quickly reach their desired destination. In functional design, a comprehensive list of grouped options is provided.

For user-centric design, links to frequently used modules are clearly marked, and primary business focuses are emphasised.

Consistency in element placement, proportionality, and functionality expectations is best demonstrated in the screen's header. It must maintain its appearance across all modules, ensure swift access, and often house the search field for information.

Google's selection as the preferred search engine is due to its well-organised presentation of results from various sources. Whether it includes an encyclopaedic entry on a historical figure, a biographical film or an establishment in central London bearing that name.

A competitive advantage for a business system could be offering a similar approach – one field for searching the entire information array. This poses technical challenges but can be addressed by applying logic based on input data types.

For instance, if searching for numbers, it is likely the user inputs a phone number. If a letter precedes the number (used in invoice identifiers), first-page results may only come from the accounting database. The '@' symbol could direct the initial query towards an email address table.

Interface design should support prioritising business activities with easy access to necessary modules. Adding metric indicators can help prioritise tasks and reinforce accountability.

The strength of a product lies in its integration capability with other software solutions. Ensuring secure and reliable e-communication is labour-intensive and costly.

On the other hand, much business information resides there. To save user effort, consider presenting flagged and categorised correspondence and new email notifications using an IMAP protocol connection to the email server – similar to Outlook. Information would be extracted and presented without relying on the platform providing email services. Consistency

This group of communication functions holds its place in the other modules as well. Together with the recurring header, a sense of system familiarity and orderly environment is formed. Equal object arrangement eases the user's tasks and allows them to focus.

Often in business software, end clients are detached from the information provided by their services. This depersonalisation distances them and frequently leads to a disconnection from user-centric business concepts.

In transaction processes, people always participate. Their presence should be part of an information system design.

General information can be supplemented with a separate file.

This directs attention to document organisation attached to the profile. Following consistency principles, filtering categories can be defined or dates used to determine periods.

Preserving this design principle makes working with other modules easy and familiar for the user, even when connected to other functions.

The combination of sequence in creating business-focused accents, familiar features, and inter-module connections enables interesting design solutions. In this case, software users are not faced with tables but can confidently work with an easily understood interface.

A design's quality is determined by whether it can be maintained when working with various interconnected data groups. Business applications often include information about different counterparts.

In this case, the commonality is the service provided by the business – organising connections between participants, their desires and decisions, as well as monitoring financial transactions that bring profit to the company.

Knowing the basic principles applied in presenting information and working with it, platform users can easily navigate any business-related module.

Why is the user centric design important for the business software?

In short, because it is used by people.

It may seem as though they have no choice, but this does not deprive them of the right to have an opinion.

Part of our nature is the desire to work smart, not hard.

Incorporating business logic and goals into the way a product functions not only makes it easier to work with but also enjoyable. The natural flow of necessary actions to achieve user objectives, along with the organisation of visual elements, makes its use pleasant. When a person is content, they work better, make fewer mistakes and are motivated to achieve their goals.