Andrew Gold February 27, 2025

Drowning in Complex Enterprise UX? Design Your Way Out!

Learn how your company can transform chaos into clarity with Grand Studio.

Enterprise organizations are built to scale, but not necessarily to evolve quickly. As companies grow, they accumulate layers of technology, processes, and teams that, over time, create a tangled web of complexity. Without a clear strategy to manage this complexity, organizations face inefficiencies, fragmented user experiences, and resistance to change from years of “this is how we’ve always done it.”

At Grand Studio, we believe complexity shouldn’t be a barrier to transformation—it should be a catalyst. The challenge isn’t just simplifying the system; it’s about creating clarity while preserving what works. Transformation happens when organizations embrace complexity with a structured approach, ensuring that changes can align with business goals, user needs, and technological realities.

Why the complexity of enterprise UX can be a roadblock to transformation

Large organizations struggle with complexity for many reasons, but some of the most common challenges include:

Legacy systems that resist modernization: many enterprises still rely on outdated infrastructure that wasn’t designed for today’s digital or realtime collaborative needs. Retiring these systems is often impractical, forcing companies to integrate new solutions into rigid frameworks.
Siloed teams and competing priorities: product, IT, operations, and customer experience teams often work in isolation, making it difficult to create a cohesive digital experience. Decision-making is fragmented, leading to inconsistent UX across platforms.
Overwhelming data without meaningful insights: enterprises generate vast amounts of data, but making sense of it—and translating it into actionable improvements—remains a major hurdle and takes time and repeatable processes to get it right.
Compliance and security constraints: highly regulated industries, such as healthcare and financial services, must balance UX improvements with stringent legal and security requirements, often slowing down innovation.

As we explored in our post on design’s role in business transformation, businesses must see UX as more than just an aesthetic concern—it is a driver of operational efficiency and revenue growth. Organizations that successfully manage UX complexity don’t just create better solutions for customers; they create business strategies that work smarter for all stakeholders involved.

How leading companies are untangling complexity

Some of the world’s most successful companies have faced these challenges head-on, using strategic UX transformation to drive clarity and efficiency. Here are a few examples of how large enterprises are working hard to tame all of the UX chaos:

Microsoft
Evolving legacy systems with user-centric design tactics

Microsoft is a prime example of an enterprise that has successfully navigated complexity. As a company with decades-old infrastructure and a vast suite of products, it faced significant challenges in modernizing its tools while maintaining consistency across platforms.

To tackle this, Microsoft introduced Fluent Design, a cohesive design language that unifies the UX across Windows, Office, and Azure. This framework allows Microsoft to modernize experiences without requiring users to relearn interfaces, effectively bridging legacy and modern systems. By integrating AI-powered UX enhancements, such as Copilot in Microsoft 365, they’re also reducing friction in enterprise workflows, helping employees work smarter without adding complexity.

Airbnb
Eliminating silos through overarching design systems

Airbnb, while known for its consumer-facing platform, also operates an intricate enterprise ecosystem for hosts, property managers, and corporate partners. As the company grew, its design teams struggled with inconsistency across its products.

To solve this, a few years ago Airbnb implemented Design Language System (DLS)—a unified framework that standardizes UI components, patterns, and guidelines. By doing so, they streamlined collaboration between designers, engineers, and product managers, eliminating redundancies and ensuring a consistent experience across all touchpoints.

The result? Faster product development, reduced design debt, and an improved ability to scale without introducing UX fragmentation. This system-based approach is one that many enterprises, from banks to healthcare providers, can adopt to create consistency in their own digital ecosystems.

Mayo Clinic
Using AI to simplify complex workflows

Healthcare is notorious for its UX challenges—outdated electronic health records (EHRs), administrative bottlenecks, and complex compliance regulations make digital transformation difficult. Mayo Clinic, however, is setting an example by integrating AI-driven UX solutions to reduce complexity for both clinicians and patients.

One of their key innovations is an intelligent patient scheduling system, which automates appointment booking based on real-time physician availability, reducing wait times and administrative burden. They’ve also introduced AI-assisted documentation, which helps doctors complete clinical notes more efficiently, reducing burnout and improving the patient experience.

These efforts show that even in highly complex, regulated industries, organizations can leverage UX-driven AI tools to create meaningful transformation. For more on Mayo Clinic’s digital transformation, see their AI initiatives in healthcare.

Five strategies to design your way out of UX complexity

Enterprise UX doesn’t have to be a bottleneck—but it does require a deliberate, design-driven approach. Here are five bold strategies to help your organization navigate UX chaos:

1. Adopt a “system-of-systems” mindset

Instead of patching individual problems, organizations must zoom out and treat UX as a holistic ecosystem. This means designing for integration, not isolation, ensuring legacy systems and modern tools work together seamlessly.

2. Embrace UX governance processes at scale

Many enterprise UX issues stem from lack of consistency across teams. Establishing design governance frameworks, design systems, and reusable UX patterns helps eliminate fragmentation. This is easier said than done and will take time but will save on thousands of hours of effort across your organization.

3. Reduce friction by mapping real user workflows

Many enterprise UX issues arise because systems are built for technical feasibility rather than human usability. We have seen this at Grand Studio in many of our client engagements. To design effective solutions, however, companies must conduct meaningful user research to map out real-world workflows across different roles and departments. This helps identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and unnecessary steps that slow down productivity. By redesigning process flows around user behavior rather than system limitations, organizations can create more intuitive, frictionless experiences that drive real business impact.

4. Prioritize AI-assisted UX automation where possible

AI is no longer just an efficiency tool—it’s a strategic design partner that helps enterprises simplify workflows, reduce UX debt, and scale personalization without added complexity. If you’re leading UX for a large organization, AI-driven predictive UX enhancements can help anticipate user needs, automate repetitive tasks, and improve decision-making at an enterprise level.

For example, in healthcare, AI-driven clinical workflows are helping doctors prioritize patient cases based on urgency, integrating with electronic health records (EHRs) to surface critical insights before a physician even opens the chart. By embedding AI into UX design systems—you’re greatly simplifying enterprise complexity and improving real user outcomes.

5. Design for clarity first, complexity second

Too often, enterprise tools overwhelm users with excessive features, dense interfaces, and unnecessary steps. Instead of accommodating complexity, organizations should focus on designing for clarity. Deciding “what clarity means” is the key challenge for your team. This means stripping away non-essential elements, simplifying navigation, and progressively disclosing information based on context. A well-designed enterprise UX should guide users effortlessly through tasks while minimizing cognitive overload. Clarity should always be the priority—complexity should be secondary and managed behind the scenes.

Grand Studio’s approach to reigning in complexity

We don’t just untangle complexity at Grand Studio—we create much-needed clarity with it. Our approach is rooted in helping organizations activate real change by designing solutions that are:

Clear and actionable: we map out complex workflows and pinpoint the areas where friction occurs, providing organizations with a clear pathway to improvement.
Strategic within constraints: instead of pushing for unrealistic overhauls, we work within existing business, regulatory, and technological constraints to create impactful, feasible solutions.
Tied to business outcomes: every transformation effort should be measurable. Whether it’s improving efficiency, increasing adoption, or reducing costs, we design with outcomes in mind.

One of our recent projects—detailed in our case study on solving clinician overload with wearables—illustrates how we helped a healthcare company integrate a newly acquired biometric device to address real-world problems. By identifying practical applications for the wearable technology, we enabled clinicians to monitor patient health more effectively, reducing their workload and improving patient outcomes.

The future of enterprise UX? AI, no-code, and composable experiences

Looking ahead, several key trends are set to reshape how enterprises manage complexity. In our recent post on UX trends for 2025, we explored some of the most impactful shifts, including:

AI-powered UX simplification: AI-driven automation is reducing friction in enterprise workflows, from predictive customer service interactions to AI-generated UI personalization
No-code and low-code platforms: like Mendix and Microsoft Power Apps allow enterprises to build internal applications quickly, reducing reliance on IT bottlenecks
Composable UX architectures: instead of rigid, monolithic applications, enterprises are adopting modular design systems that allow for greater agility and reusability

Clarity is the foundation of meaningful transformation, so make it happen!

Enterprise complexity isn’t an obstacle—it’s an opportunity! When approached with the right strategy, even the most intricate systems can be designed for clarity, efficiency, and long-term impact. Whether it’s modernizing legacy technology, aligning siloed teams, or integrating AI-driven solutions, the path forward starts with a user-centered, business-aligned design approach.

At Grand Studio, we don’t just simplify—we create structure, coherence, and momentum for transformation. Our expertise lies in helping organizations untangle complexity, make informed design decisions, and build solutions that not only work today but evolve for tomorrow.

If your organization is ready to move beyond managing complexity and start leveraging it as a catalyst for change, let’s talk.

Andrew Gold December 9, 2024

How to Embrace Design in 2025: UX Trends You Need To Know

A new year is around the corner, and with it comes a wave of new opportunities for organizations to step up their game in digital strategy and product design. Whether it’s delivering unforgettable user experiences, empowering employees with better tools, balancing needs across omnichannel experiences, or ensuring accessibility for everyone, the trends shaping the future of design and UX are all about creating meaningful, impactful solutions.

If you’re looking to design products that truly resonate—whether for your customers, employees, or the world at large—these are five big trends to keep on your radar. Let’s explore how each can make a difference and what you can start doing to stay ahead.

1. Personalizing user experiences with AI

Let’s be honest—personalization is no longer a luxury. People now expect apps, tools, and services to know what they need and deliver it before they even ask. AI is the engine behind all of this magic, enabling products to tailor experiences based on user preferences, behaviors, and goals.

Why it matters in 2025
The evolution of generative AI models, such as ChatGPT and Bard, has transitioned from experimental phases to now practical applications. AI-powered personalization makes users feel understood and valued, which builds trust and loyalty. Whether it’s a business tool that learns a user’s workflows or an app that suggests relevant next steps, personalized experiences are becoming a baseline expectation. In 2025, expect enterprises to integrate these AI-driven personalization tools into large-scale platforms, like CRMs and ERP systems—moving beyond pilot projects into full-scale deployment.

How to get started

Be transparent about data: users are more likely to embrace AI-driven personalization if they trust you. Be clear about what data you collect, how you use it, and how you’re keeping it safe.
Think multi-channel: users interact across multiple devices and platforms, so make sure your AI systems provide consistent experiences everywhere.
Start small, but think big: begin with focused personalization features that add clear value, then expand as your systems and data capabilities grow.

By leaning into AI-driven personalization, you’ll not only meet user expectations but also create a smoother, more intuitive experience that keeps them coming back.

2. Turning data into action with analytics

Data has been a buzzword for years, but in 2025, it’s all about what you do with it. Advanced analytics tools are giving enterprises the power to understand users better, predict behaviors, and make decisions faster. It’s like having a crystal ball for UX.

Why it matters in 2025
Customers and employees expect seamless, problem-free interactions. Advanced analytics can spot issues before they happen, helping you design systems that are proactive, not reactive. Imagine catching a bottleneck in your user journey before anyone complains—that’s a sign of better control over your systems. The introduction of new tools and APIs in late 2024 has made real-time analytics more accessible. This development enables organizations to implement predictive analytics practically, thereby facilitating better proactive decision-making.

In addition, the growing adoption of AI in analytics provides businesses with prescriptive guidance, not just raw data. In 2025, enterprises will leverage AI to receive more actionable recommendations, a capability that was still somewhat emerging in 2024.

How to get started

Focus on meaningful metrics: don’t just track everything—identify the user behaviors that matter most and use analytics to monitor and improve them.
Bring everyone on board: make analytics insights accessible to all your teams—designers, developers, and decision-makers. This way, everyone can act on the data.
Embrace iteration: use analytics to test, learn, and tweak your designs. The best products are always improving.

When you use analytics to guide your decisions, you can create experiences that feel smooth, intuitive, and perfectly in tune with what your users need.

3. Digging deeper with digital ethnography

If you want to design products people truly love, you need to understand not just what they do but why they do it. That’s where digital ethnography comes in. This method lets you study how users interact with your product in real-life situations, giving you insights that surveys and focus groups simply can’t.

Why it matters in 2025
User behaviors are more complex than ever, and traditional research methods often miss the nuances. Digital ethnography lets you see your product through the user’s eyes—literally, if you’re using tools like video diaries or screen recordings. Post-pandemic, remote and hybrid work models have mostly stabilized, allowing researchers to fully embrace digital ethnography. In addition, the development of new mobile and wearable technology in 2024 has enhanced the ability to collect rich, context-aware user data in real time. By 2025, these tools will become widely available, making digital ethnography scalable for enterprises.

How to get started

Make it easy for users to share: use tools that let participants capture their experiences naturally, like mobile apps for documenting tasks or workflows.
Act on what you learn: turn insights into actions—whether that’s simplifying a confusing workflow or addressing an unmet need.
Keep listening: user needs evolve over time, so make digital ethnography an ongoing part of your design process.

By truly understanding your users, you’ll be able to create products that not only meet their needs but feel tailor-made for their lives.

4. Building better tools for employees

Let’s not forget—employees are users, too! They need tools that are as seamless and intuitive as the customer-facing products you create. Unfortunately, enterprise tools often lag behind in user experience, which can lead to frustration and inefficiency. At this point in 2024 there is now a heightened recognition and acknowledgment that applying consumer-grade design principles to employee tools directly impacts productivity, retention, and business outcomes. We expect this investment in employee tools to continue on into 2025.

Why it matters in 2025
In a hybrid work world, employees rely on technology more than ever to stay connected and productive. In 2025, refined solutions will integrate productivity, collaboration, and well-being features into cohesive ecosystems, addressing the evolving needs of the workforce. By investing in tools that prioritize ease of use, collaboration, and well-being, you’ll not only boost productivity but also show your employees they’re valued.

How to get started

Ask employees what they need: don’t guess—conduct quant and qual research to understand workflows, pain points, and opportunities for improvement.
Blend function with delight: employees are used to slick consumer apps. Bring that same level of polish to your internal tools.
Measure and refine: use analytics to track how employees engage with tools and refine the experience to better meet their needs.

Great and easy-to-use tools lead to happier employees—and happier employees create better outcomes for your customers and business.

5. Designing for accessibility and inclusion

Accessibility isn’t just about ticking a box—it’s about making sure everyone can use and enjoy your product. From people with disabilities to those in different cultural or linguistic contexts, designing for inclusivity creates better experiences for all users. Designers have been voicing the importance of this for years and now we are at the point where it is becoming more of the norm inside design processes to consider a wider variety of user types.

Why it matters in 2025
Accessibility is no longer optional. Updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and European accessibility regulations in late 2024 have certainly brought accessibility to the forefront. It’s a legal requirement in many places, but beyond that, it’s simply good business. When you design with inclusivity in mind, you expand your audience, build goodwill, and create more equitable experiences.

How to get started

Test early and often: don’t wait until the end of the design process. Test for accessibility at every stage to catch and fix issues before they become major problems.
Think beyond compliance: standards like WCAG are a starting point, but true accessibility means creating delightful, intuitive experiences for all users.
Educate your teams: make sure everyone involved in product development understands the principles of accessible and inclusive design.

Furthermore, AI-driven accessibility solutions have become more viable, enabling companies to detect and address accessibility issues in real time during product development—a capability that was not reliably available in 2024. Accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s an opportunity to innovate and create products that work better for everyone.

Looking ahead to 2025

These trends—AI-driven personalization, advanced analytics, digital ethnography, employee experience tools, and greater focus on accessibility—are reshaping the way organizations think about user experience. By embracing these ideas now, you’ll be ready to build smarter, more inclusive products that delight your users and drive your business forward.

At Grand Studio, we’re here to help you navigate these trends and design solutions that make a difference. Let’s make 2025 the year you transform the way your users experience your products.