Bad ERP UX Is Costing Your Business More Than You Think… And How AI Can Help

If you compare applications from the 90s, 2000s, and modern ones, you may notice an interesting trend: modern applications seem simpler, with fewer elements per square inch. Early applications, especially in the enterprise world, were packed with buttons, toolbars, edit fields, and icons.

Why has the trend shifted toward presenting less?

In this article, we will dive into how user interface design impacts employee productivity and the hidden cost of bad user experience (UX).

What Is Good UX?

Let's first define good UX.

It's simple. Good UX is UX that doesn't need to be explained or trained. A user should instantly understand what the screen is and what to do.

Examples of good UX can be found in popular social media apps. These companies spend millions studying how users see the page and how to make them sign up and invite friends. Why? Because nobody wants to spend time watching long, boring training videos or reading instructions. We live in a fast-paced world. Attention is limited. If your software requires mental gymnastics before someone can even use it, you already lost.

How Bad UX Happens

Typically, UX is defined either by a product manager or by developers themselves. Sometimes a product manager grows into an existing project and stops seeing it as an outsider. They begin making decisions that are logical inside the system but confusing for new users.

In enterprise applications, it's nearly impossible for one person to track every small change on every screen. So high-level direction is defined, and details are left to engineers.

Engineers are highly technical people. They see the world differently. What feels logical to them may not make sense to a regular user. For example, someone who never programmed would never understand the statement: i = i + 1. From a pure math perspective, it makes no sense. And then add undiscovered bugs on top of that. Now you have the full picture.

How Does It Affect Productivity?

Bad UX slows workers down and frustrates them. Imagine a workflow where an employee must:

• Look up information in one place
• Write it down
• Open another page
• Re-type it That's three isolated operations. Each drains energy. Each invites distraction. Each creates room for errors. Even one extra minute per entry can turn into 30 - 60 minutes per day. Multiply that by 5 days a week. Multiply by 52 weeks. Multiply by 10 employees. Now you have a number: 1,300 - 2,600 hours yearly

The example above is a bit extreme. But here are common issues I see in custom ERP systems.

Busy Screen = Stressful Day

ERP systems from the late 90s and early 2000s often had long forms with dozens (sometimes 100+) of edit boxes and dropdowns. They look "serious". They look "enterprise". They look like they are doing something important. They also drain energy. If you ever filled out a paper 1040 tax form manually, you remember the feeling. Boxes everywhere. Instructions on multiple pages. Mental effort just to understand which number goes where. Did you want to do it again? Probably not. Now imagine doing something similar every day, several times per day. That's how your employees may feel looking at a Job Bid screen with 100+ fields split into five sections. Often without instructions. Without proper onboarding. Sometimes they even have to:

• Open another table
• Search for numbers
• Write them down
• Come back and re-type them

Does it sound productive?

Employees may not complain. In enterprise environments, complicated data entry is normalized. But it becomes an invisible black hole that slowly sucks productivity out of your team.

What Can Be Worse Than a Big Form? A Pivot Table.

Yes, pivot tables are powerful. You can sort, group, filter, and analyze data instantly. They can answer complex questions in seconds. But they are also visually busy. Not every user needs full analytical flexibility. Someone reviewing timesheets or inventory does not need 100 rows and 20 columns at once. They need a focused, stable interface that shows exactly what is necessary to make a decision. I'm not against pivot tables. They should exist. But as an advanced option. When a pivot table becomes the default UI, it often signals something else: a lack of clarity about the actual workflow.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Another common issue: inventing UI patterns that don't need to be invented.

Most modern applications look similar for a reason. There are established conventions for navigation, placement of actions, filtering, and confirmation dialogs. When someone decides to "be different" users pay the price. Users are trained by Instagram, Gmail, Amazon. If your internal ERP feels alien compared to everything else they use daily, adoption drops immediately.

Be Snappy. Don't Freeze.

Slow UI is irritating.

If an operation takes more than a fraction of a second, show a progress indicator. The UI should never freeze. Operations longer than 5 seconds should have a cancel button. Responsiveness is part of UX. Not just colors and layout.

Internationalization (i18n). Do You Even Need It?

One more thing many ERP systems ignore until it is too late: internationalization. If your product is purely internal and your entire team is US-based, English-only, and will stay that way - then yes, maybe i18n is not your top priority. But be honest with yourself.

• Are you planning to expand?
• Are you hiring remote workers?
• Do you have vendors or contractors abroad?
• Are you storing currency, dates, and numbers that might need different formats?

I've seen systems where currency formatting was hardcoded. Or where dates assumed MM/DD/YYYY forever. Or where field lengths assumed English words only. It work... until it doesn't.

Internationalization is not just about translating labels. It is about:

• Date formats
• Currency formats
• Number separators
• Time zones
• Text expansion (some languages take 30% more space)

If you build without thinking about it, retrofitting later becomes painful and expensive. If you are 100% sure your ERP will stay internal and US-only forever, fine. But most businesses evolve. Software should not block that evolution.

Accessibility (a11y). The Hidden Legal and Moral Risk

Accessibility is even more ignored in internal ERP systems. People assume: "It's internal. Our employees are fine". Are you sure?

• What if someone has low vision?
• What if someone cannot use a mouse?
• What if someone relies on keyboard navigation?
• What if color contrast makes your beautiful dashboard unreadable?

Accessibility is not only about public websites and lawsuits. It is about productivity and inclusion. If a user cannot tab logically through a form, they lose time. If important information is communicated only through color, you exclude people. If buttons are tiny and crammed together, errors increase. And yes, there is also legal exposure. Even internal tools can become a liability in some situations.

Good UX includes:

• Proper contrast
• Clear focus states
• Keyboard navigation
• Logical tab order
• Screen reader support when possible

You don't need to make your ERP perfect. But you should not ignore accessibility completely. Bad accessibility is just another tax on productivity.

About Learning UX

If you are serious about understanding UX, I recommend the book "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug.

Where AI Comes In

Now here is the interesting part. You don't need a full UX department to start improving. Sit with your employees. Watch how they work. Ask what frustrates them. Then take a screenshot of your current screen and give it to ChatGPT or Claude. Ask it to:

• Rebuild it as a cleaner web page
• Reduce cognitive load
• Group fields logically
• Highlight primary actions
• Suggest workflow improvements

You can also build MVPs by just vibe coding using OpenAI Codex or Claude Code. You may be surprised how good AI already is at UI refactoring and prototyping. It's not perfect. But it's fast. And it gives you direction.