Enterprise Design: Not Just Pretty, Not Optional

I recently attended an enterprise technology conference, and I walked away with three strong emotions: excitement, disappointment, and a conviction that design has never been more essential.

Yes, I finally had a seat at the table as a design leader—but not without a fight.

That fact alone shows where our discipline still stands: too often treated as optional, rather than essential.

On stage, I shared a vision of enterprise technology that behaves in smarter, more human ways. I shared a reimagined experience that was not about surface beauty, but about integrated tools, context awareness, AI-driven guidance, and systems that feel fluid and adaptive. An experience that is supportive in the dynamically changing context of the user. It was a glimpse of what’s possible when design is central.

And yet, when I stepped off stage, a senior leader praised me for the “look and feel.”

In that moment, the entire discipline of UX had been shrunk down to a coat of paint.

This is the disappointing truth. In enterprise, design is still underestimated.

But design is not a garnish — it is one of the most intellectually demanding, systems-oriented disciplines we have. Design is not about decorating the edges of technology—it is about shaping how technology works for people. It requires empathy, systems thinking, data literacy, technical fluency, and the courage to cut through complexity with clarity. To call that “making things pretty” is to squander some of the brightest problem-solving minds in technology.

The cost of this misunderstanding is profound. Poorly designed systems are not just inconvenient—they overwhelm employees, waste time, and prevent organizations from realizing the full value of their investments. And in high-stakes contexts like healthcare, errors carry consequences as serious as life and death.

Thoughtful design, on the other hand, saves time, reduces errors, enhances adoption, and unlocks productivity at scale.

Design leads to transformation

We don’t have to look far to see how design has reshaped the enterprise landscape.

Slack transformed workplace communication — streamlining the chaos of endless emails into an intuitive space where teams collaborate with ease. Complexity gave way to clarity because design simplified the work.

Salesforce, through its Lightning experience, redefined what a CRM could be. Once dense and difficult, it became a platform that empowered sales and service reps to focus on relationships and insights rather than walls of data. Design elevated it from a technical tool to a trusted partner in driving business outcomes.

ServiceNow proved that even the most complex IT and workflow processes could feel seamless. By investing in consumer-grade experiences, it turned bureaucracy into something streamlined, efficient, and widely adopted.

And Figma did more than improve design tooling —it changed how creative and technical teams collaborate in real time across continents and functions. What was once fragmented became unified and alive. That transformation was not a function of technology alone—it was design at its most powerful.

These examples prove that when design is treated as strategic, it doesn’t just improve products—it transforms the way people work, connect, and create. It unleashes potential that technology alone cannot achieve.

A call to action

Enterprise still has far to go. But there is an opportunity here.

Design is the force that ensures technology doesn’t just exist, but actually works for the humans who depend on it.

Design is not an accessory to innovation—it is the engine of it.

As designers, we cannot be silent—we must keep showing that design is not “look and feel,” but strategy, outcomes, and human impact. We turn possibility into reality.

If we want to change enterprise industries—and the world—we must stop accepting the narrative that design is optional. We must claim our place as core to transformation.

But change requires more than designers alone:
Designers—keep teaching and showing.
Leaders—bring design into strategy early.
Enterprises—treat design as core to transformation.

Because the future of humane, effective, and impactful technology depends on it.

Design is not optional—it is strategy.

And it starts with us.