What Makes Great Enterprise Software pt. 1
Written by Marco Arys, Engineer
Quick Summary
Enterprise software doesn’t have to be clunky or confusing. At Kiwi, we follow seven core rules to design user experiences that are clear, fast, and easy to use—even in the most complex systems.
If you've ever used enterprise software, you probably know the pain. Clunky. Slow. Confusing.
Somehow both overloaded with buttons and missing the one feature you need. It's as if most of it was designed by a committee that never actually used the product. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The best enterprise software feels like a consumer app—fast, intuitive, even delightful.
Yes, delightful. Like something your grandma could figure out. Here’s everything we’ve learned from building enterprise tools that don’t make you want to smash your keyboard.
1. Start With the Core Purpose
Before designing anything, step back and ask: What is the user actually trying to do?
What job are they here to accomplish? What’s the fastest, cleanest path to get them there? Forget technical limitations for a second. Imagine a perfect world. How would the UI look if it were effortless? Start from that ideal and work backward.
This sounds obvious, but it’s where most teams go wrong. They ship features. We try to design outcomes.
(Shoutout to Christian, our designer, who constantly asks these annoying—but necessary—questions.)
2. Ruthlessly Delete
Elon Musk talks about simplification like this: “Delete. Delete. Delete.” “If you’re not adding things back in 10% of the time, you’re clearly not deleting enough” That applies to UX too.
The Raptor engine went from hundreds of components to something simpler—and way more powerful. Your UI should do the same.
If a feature isn’t absolutely necessary, cut it. If a button adds more confusion than clarity, kill it. The best UI often looks like it took five minutes. It didn’t. It just took five years of editing.
3. Feedback, Always
Click a button. Nothing happens. Did it work? Is it loading? Is the app broken?
Bad UX often comes down to missing feedback. Users need to feel that the app is alive and responsive. Show loading spinners during API calls. Add progress bars to uploads. Visibly confirm when things are processing or complete.
It’s a small thing that makes a huge difference.
4. One Way to Do One Thing
Here’s a simple rule: Don’t give users five different buttons that do the same thing. It clutters your interface and increases cognitive load. Find the clearest, simplest path to get the job done—and remove the rest.
5. Speak Like a Human
You’re not writing error messages for HAL 9000. Use plain language. No one wants to see buttons labeled "Submit Form 204-B." Say "Send Request." Say "Continue." Speak like a person.
6. Design a Component System
If you're styling buttons differently in every part of your app, you're doing it wrong.
Build a reusable component system. Use consistent spacing, colors, typography. Create props like size: small | medium | large instead of hardcoded pixel values. This makes your app easier to maintain—and easier to understand.
One change updates everything. And that consistency makes the whole experience feel more polished.
7. Make the Right Thing Easy
Nobody wants to click through five layers of UI to get something done. In a perfect world, the thing the user wants right now is one click away.
Ask yourself: What would this look like if it were easy? Then build that version. That’s the foundation.
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