Rainui has been fighting for better enterprise UX since 2015. These eight posts track that fight across a decade - from the basic argument that enterprise software should be well-designed, through the AI revolution that changed what "well-designed" means. It's the longest-running thread on this site, and probably the one closest to our heart.
The Origin
- IDESIGN Media. Rainui writes about what happens when someone uses your software eight hours a day, five days a week. Design isn't decoration in enterprise. It's the difference between a tool people adopt willingly and one they work around. This post set the tone for everything that followed.
Chapter 1 - Jun 2015. Where it started.
Designing for the Person Who Uses It Eight Hours a Day
Perspective·5 min read
The Business Case
Two years later, the argument sharpened. Bad enterprise UX has a measurable cost: training time, support tickets, workarounds, shadow IT. Rainui made the business case for getting design right. Not because it's nice to have. Because bad UX is expensive.
Chapter 2 - Mar 2017. The cost of ugly.
The Real Cost of a Bad Enterprise UX
Article·8 min read
The Gap
- COVID sends everyone home. Suddenly enterprise software has to work for people sitting at kitchen tables with no IT support. The gap between consumer UX and enterprise UX becomes painful and visible. But the solution isn't "make enterprise look like Instagram." Enterprise has different constraints. The real gap is investment, not capability.
Chapter 3 - Jun 2020. The expectation shift.
The Gap Between Consumer UX and Enterprise UX
Perspective·10 min read
AI Changes Everything
When AI entered enterprise software, the UX challenge changed fundamentally. Chat interfaces aren't always the answer. Trust is harder to build when outputs are uncertain. And the design patterns from traditional enterprise software don't transfer cleanly to AI-first products.
Chapter 4 - Jun 2023. The new problem.
The UX Challenge Nobody's Talking About
Perspective·7 min read
New Patterns
The chat box is the obvious AI interface. It's also often the wrong one. This post maps what AI-first enterprise interfaces actually need: progressive disclosure of AI capability, confidence signals that mean something to business users, and the ability to show your working.
Chapter 5 - May 2023. Beyond the chat box.
Designing for AI-First Interfaces
Article·7 min read
Trust as Design
Enterprise AI adoption fails when users don't trust the output. Trust isn't a feature you add. It's a design principle that shapes every interaction: how you show confidence, how you handle uncertainty, how you let users verify and correct. Interface design earns trust one interaction at a time.
Chapter 6 - May 2024. Earning trust.
Designing AI Interfaces That Build Trust
Article·4 min read
The User Problem
Two years of AI products built by engineers who never watched someone use them. The patterns that fail: AI outputs dumped into tables, confidence scores shown as percentages, no feedback mechanisms, no way to understand why the AI made a recommendation. The patterns that work start with watching real users.
Chapter 7 - Dec 2024. The forgotten user.
What Enterprise AI Gets Wrong About Users
Perspective·7 min read
What Actually Works
By mid-2025, enough AI products have shipped that we can see what sticks. Progressive disclosure of AI capability. Confidence signals mapped to business decisions, not model metrics. Feedback loops that improve the system. And personalisation that learns from individual users without being creepy. The design patterns for AI products that people actually use.
Chapter 8 - Jun 2025. The patterns that work.
Designing AI Products People Actually Use
Article·10 min read
Why This Series Exists
This series exists because Rainui has been saying the same thing for ten years: enterprise software should be designed for the people who use it. The technology changed. AI arrived. The tools got more powerful and the interfaces got more complex. But the principle never changed. Design for the person. Everything else follows.
I've been designing enterprise software for fifteen years and the most common reaction I still get is surprise. Every post in this series is an attempt to raise it.
Rainui Teihotua
Chief Creative Officer