Why your enterprise software feels like work (And how to fix it)

The game designer’s secret

This article is part of the #experience-made publication.

“If your ass itches when you go to bed, your fingers are smelling in the morning.”

Thorbjørn Lynggaard Sørensen opened his Enterprise UX Conference 2025 talk with this gem from his father — admittedly offensive, but surprisingly profound. It’s a reminder that as designers, we’re designing for humans. Not personas, not user segments, not IT administrators. Humans.

And humans, as it turns out, are 100% biased, 100% motivated by intrinsic desires, and 100% capable of mastering complex systems — if we design them right.

Speaking at the conference in Amsterdam this November, Torben (a game designer working in enterprise) delivered one of the most thought-provoking sessions on what enterprise designers can learn from games like Civilization, Figma’s learning curve, and even text-based dungeons from the 1980s.

The fundamental difference

Problems vs. Solutions

Let’s establish the core distinction between game design and enterprise design.

• Enterprise design: The business has a problem. They hire workers (our users) to solve it. We build tools to help those workers. Our job is to make solving business problems as frictionless as possible.
• Game design: We design the problems themselves. The problems are the point. As Sid Meier (creator of Civilization) said: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.”

The challenge placement principle

• For games: Put the challenge in the problems, not in how to solve them. Chess rules are simple; complexity emerges through play.
• For enterprise: Make the tools easy and pleasant. The work itself is challenging enough — your interface shouldn’t be.

The four archetypes: What actually motivates your users

Game designers don’t start with personas — they design for archetypes. These are fundamental human motivations that drive behavior.

Back in the 1980s, researcher Richard Bartle studied text-based multiplayer dungeon players and identified four types. Torben adapted these for enterprise:

🔍 The Explorer (Designers, Researchers) Motivated by: Curiosity and experimentation Design for: Enable discovery without consequences

🔨 The Builder (Engineers, Developers) Motivated by: Creation and ownership Design for: Provide tools for construction and control

🏆 The Challenger (Sales, Competitive Roles) Motivated by: Competition and recognition Design for: Clear metrics and visible progress

🤝 The Connector (Support, Community Managers) Motivated by: Helping others and relationships Design for: Enable collaboration and communication

Think in layers

1. Human first — Universal biases and needs
2. Archetype second — Core motivations driving behavior
3. Persona last — Specific details (“IT Andrew who represents 1.5% of users”)

Motivation drives behaviour. Get the motivation right, and the behavior follows.

Two critical intrinsic motivators

Forget badges and points. Those are extrinsic motivators — they work once, then need constant reinforcement (like sales commissions).

Focus instead on intrinsic motivators — they’re self-reinforcing and sustain engagement long-term:

1. Autonomy: “I Control the problems”

This is the core principle of enterprise design. Users need to feel in control of their problems, not controlled by them.

2. Mastery: Progressive discovery

The feeling that “I’m getting better at this.”

The Figma Example: It’s easy to start — make basic shapes immediately. But mastery comes through progression: auto-layout → components → variants. Users discover sophistication on their own terms, without needing extensive documentation.

That sense of discovery creates the feeling of mastery.

The inverse pyramid: How Civilization mastered complexity

Here’s the most powerful lesson — and where most enterprise software gets it wrong.

The problem with most enterprise software

We present everything at once. All features, all options, all complexity — unlocked from day one. Then we wonder why users feel overwhelmed and need extensive training.

How Civilization does it differently

You start with:

• One city
• One unit
• Almost nothing else

Your range of decisions is minimal. But here’s the magic: Every decision you make expands your range of possibilities.

Build a second city? New choices appear. Research technology? New units unlock. Each action opens new options.

Why this works: Users create their own complexity

Watch someone five hours into Civilization. Their screen is absolute chaos — multiple cities, complex trade routes, military units everywhere.

But the player created that chaos themselves. They added each element through their own decisions. Therefore, they can manage it.

The key insight: Complexity grew organically from their actions, not from a designer dumping everything on them at once.

Complexity vs. Complicated

• Complicated = Difficult to figure out (bad)
• Complex = Lots of interconnected things (can be good if users build it themselves)

You can make something very complex yet simple to understand — if users construct that complexity through progressive engagement.

Five takeaways for enterprise designers

1. Put the challenge in the right place

Make the work challenging, not the tools. The interface should be simple; the problems users solve can be complex.

2. Design for archetypes, Not just personas

Understand whether you’re building for Explorers, Builders, Challengers, or Connectors. Their core motivations are different.

3. Build for autonomy and mastery

Let users control their problems. Create pathways for them to discover sophisticated approaches on their own terms.

4. Start narrow, Grow wide

Begin with minimal options. Let each action unlock new possibilities. Users will manage what they build themselves.

5. Remember: They’re humans first

100% of your users have biases, motivations, and the capacity for mastery. Design for that human underneath the job title.

The real question

Game designers have spent decades figuring out how to keep humans engaged in purely voluntary activities. No one has to play Civilization. Yet people lose entire nights to “just one more turn.”

Your enterprise users? They have to use your software. The bar should be higher, not lower.

The question isn’t “How do we make enterprise software more game-like?”

It’s “How do we design for humans who want autonomy, mastery, and meaningful progress — regardless of whether it’s a game or a tool?”

The answer lies in respecting human motivations, building complexity that users create for themselves, and remembering that underneath every job title and persona is a human with smelly fingers.

Start there. The rest is just design.

*#experience-made is a publication by Roman Schoeneboom exploring all dimensions of experience — from design to strategy to organisational transformation.*

Covering user experience, customer experience, service design, and human-centred innovation, this publication examines how organisations create meaningful connections with the people they serve. Topics span tactical to strategic but are not limited to: UX/UI design, customer journey mapping, experience strategy, customer experience management (CEM), and the organizational capabilities needed to deliver exceptional experiences at scale.