B2B UX is an often neglected domain in favor of B2C. Yet professional users have very particular needs and contexts that deserve specific attention.
B2C UX has dominated discussions for the past decade — for understandable reasons: conversion stakes are measurable, A/B tests are easy to run, impact is immediate. But B2B applications often concentrate far greater economic stakes. An ERP used 8 hours a day by 200 employees has a colossal impact on an organization's productivity if its ergonomics are poor.
B2B users are domain experts. They don't need to be guided like novices — they need efficiency. Information density is acceptable, even desirable. Keyboard shortcuts, customizable views, data export, advanced filters — these 'advanced' features are often the most used by power users. The classic mistake is applying B2C patterns (extreme minimalism, gamified onboarding) to complex professional tools.
The B2B-specific challenge is user heterogeneity: in the same application, you might have the CFO using it 30 minutes a month and the analyst spending 40 hours a week in it. Designing for both profiles simultaneously requires very thoughtful information architecture. Progressive disclosure patterns — show little by default, reveal more on demand — are particularly suited to this context.