The Dilemma
Having been in the design field for a decade, I’ve encountered this dilemma many times: Should I challenge or conform to legacy business practices? On one hand, the client wants to optimize their current workflow; on the other hand, they may not want the design to disrupt existing operations because the cost of change management can be high—or their business inertia is simply too strong for design to transform.
Sadly, it’s often not even the designer’s decision whether to push for disruption or respect existing practices. Instead, it’s a requirement prescribed by the client.
B2B Design: Opting to Play It Safe
I think the issue is more pronounced in the B2B design domain than in B2C. Most often, the business client already has a rough picture of how the final design should work, leaving little room for designers to intervene. In addition, introducing disruptive changes to existing operations can be risky and costly. If the company fails to implement the workflow as expected, it can lead to employee pushback, reduced productivity, and ultimately, lost revenue.
For example, in one design task, I found the term “Area” confusing because it actually referred to users of the company’s services in a specific region. To better reflect this concept, I proposed changing it to “Group”, but was told that employees were so used to “Area” that renaming it would cause internal confusion.
This situation highlights the complexity of designing in the B2B space, where designers face more constraints and must navigate multiple stakeholders with differing—sometimes conflicting—interests. Conventional user research is also done differently. In some cases, user experience isn’t even the top priority—a working product is.
Conclusion
A major part of design work is managing constraints—some of which are conflicting or even ethically uncomfortable for designers. But I believe this is the nature and mission of design: to strike a balance between disruptive ideas and established business practices.