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Frequently Asked Questions

Updated: June 24, 2010

The following list compiles the most frequently asked questions that were sent to the SAP Design Guild Team either through the SAP Design Guild inbox (sapdesignguild@sap.com) or via personal mails to members of the SAP Design Guild Team. The questions have been edited and generalized to make the answers useful for a wider audience.

Topics

 

Printing and Availability of Articles and Guidelines

Articles

Question: I tried to print an article from the SAP Design Guild but it was too wide to be printed completely.

Answer: We offer print versions of each article. There is a link to the print version at the top right corner of each article (link with printer icon).

Guidelines

Question: Is it possible to get the Mini Style Guide (or any other guideline in the SAP Design Guild) in printable form?

Answer: Yes, there are PDF versions of most guidelines available that can be printed. You find the link to the print version on top of the table of content.

Tip: If you should encounter printing problems we recommend that you save the PDF file to your hard disk and print it using the stand-alone Acrobat Reader. This solved the printing problems at least for one visitor.

Question: Hi, upon visiting your site, I noticed that you announced that PDF versions of style guides to be available. However, I could not find them. Could you point me to the proper page, please?

Answer: You can find the link to the print version in the respective style guide itself. It is located on top of the table of contents.

Question: Is it possible to buy the SAP style guide (probably the R/3 style guide is referred to but this question can be extended to any style guide in the SAP Design Guild)? – I am wondering if there is a book version of the "SAP R/3 Style Guide" available somewhere.

Answer: There was once a print version of the R/3 style guide that could be purchased, but is is no longer maintained. Also, there was the "R/3 Mini Style Guide," which was part of an ABAP book set and the basis for the first R/3 guidelines on the SAP Design Guild. Currently, you cannot buy any SAP style guide that covers user interface or graphic design. However, all style guides on the SAP Design Guild are free (but copyrighted) and can be downloaded (use the PDF version for easier downloading).

 

CD Version or Print Version of the SAP Design Guild

CD Version of SAP Design Guild

Question: Is the SAP Design Guild available on CD? – Would it be possible to have all the articles in a CD or get any of your printed material periodically?

Answer: Sorry, but currently there are no plans to offer CD editions of the SAP Design Guild. Moreover, the content in some of the sections of the SAP Design Guild is changing fairly often. So the CD editions would soon be outdated. We also do not have the resources for offering print versions on a regular basis (see Printing of Articles and Guidelines for print versions).

Note: Because of the usage of ASP links and server-side includes, a local copy of the SAP Design Guild Website (on CD or copied to a hard disk) would require readers to install a simple Web server, such as Microsoft's Personal Web Server, on their computers.

Print Version SAP Design Guild

Question: I am involved in a current project in which the information available in the Design Guild is of particular interest. Do you have this information available in hard copy and where can I get it?

Answer: Sorry, but we don't have "hardcopy versions" of the SAP Design Guild. However, we do have PDF versions of our guidelines and HTML print versions of our articles.

Online Version Only?

Question: Are the SAP Design Guild resources available in online/HTML format only?

Answer: Yes, but we offer print versions of articles and guidelines.

 

German Versions of Articles

Question: Are the guidelines in the SAP Design Guild available in German (Spanish, Chinese, or any other language...) – in the past all guidelines were available in German, too?

Answer: Sorry, no – the SAP Design Guild is targeted at a worldwide audience and therefore is available in English only (American English). In addition, the SAP Design Guild team does not have the resources for translating the site to other languages.

Question: Having caught a short glance at the SAP Design Guild Website I would like to know whether it is also available in German, too. The site provides a good overview of the user interface and the correct terminology for describing it. Therefore, it is a valuable tool for (especially new) documentation and application developers and should be available in German, too.

Answer: As stated above, there is regrettably no German version of the SAP Design Guild. As a little consolation, we would like to point you to the SAP Reference Lists. This guideline offers terminology lists (function names, user interface terms, menus) in both directions, German-English, and English German. In addition, this guideline contains R/3 icon lists in both languages.

 

SAP Design Guild Website

Resolution

Question: The site seems to have been designed for a resolution of 1024*768. I find it surprising that a site devoted to usability should design for a hi end monitor. It is a real pain going through the site on my 800x600 resolution monitor, in fact till I saw the site on a hi resolution monitor I did not realize that the site had a search functionality. Hope you can address this problem soon.

Answer: You are right, the original SAP Design Guild Website had been designed for a screen resolution of 1024*768 pixels. The new design (available since the beginning of 2002) allows users to change the page size more flexibly and to set the font size in the browser. Therefore, it is possible to use the SAP Design Guild on monitors with a resolution of 800*600 pixels.

Update: The current design of the SAP Design Guild follows the www.sap.com style and has a width of 960 pixels. As a screen resolution of 1024*768 pixels has now become more or less the "minimum standard." To date (2010), this width should not present a problem to most computer users (netbook users may be an exception – depending on the screen resolution of their netbook).

Access, Confidentiality

Question: Can I access any SAP-internal information for developers?

Answer: Sorry, but non-SAP people do not have access to SAP-internal information systems for developers. All content of the SAP Design Guild Website is open to the public (but see below for copyrighted material, such as icons).

Question: Are the guidelines accessible for SAP partners, that is, companies or institutions that are outside of SAP but work together with SAP?

Answer: The SAP Design Guild is SAP's "design voice" to the public; therefore, it can be used by partners or developers who work in the SAP environment.

Question: I want to send my customer information about (...). I saw that everything is internal material (SAP Reference Lists). Do we have any information material (white papers or something like that) for external use? I want to send the information to one of my customers.

Answer: All information on the SAP Design Guild Website has been released for external use. This also applies to the SAP Reference Lists. Therefore, you can provide the customer with the respective information.

Copyright

Question: Can the toolbar icons listed on your Website (and all other SAP icons) be used in Freeware and Shareware Windows applications? Are there any licensing issues? I am a small-time freeware and shareware author. Thank you.

Answer: We published the icons for third parties to use them for interface applications to SAP applications. You are not allowed to use our icons for non-SAP use. The icons are copyrighted and their use is restricted by SAP. If in doubt, please contact the legal department at SAP.

 

SAP Design Guild Name

Question: I'm not sure, whether you are using the English word "Guild" correctly. My dictionary tells me the "guild" means "Gilde, Zunft" in German. Merriam-Webster's dictionary tells me, that a guild is an association of people with similar interests or pursuits; especially: a medieval association of merchants or craftsmen. But you state on home page, that "The news column announces the latest additions and updates to the SAP Design Guild." and you are offering "editions" of the SAP Design Guild. So I would prefer to name your Web pages "Design Guide."

Answer: We use the term "Guild" in the meaning of the German word "Gilde", not in the meaning of "Guide" (although there are plentiful guidelines on the SAP Design Guild Website). We opted for "Guild" because we intended to form a community of graphic and user interface designers in the SAP environment and maybe even beyond. In addition, many newspapers call themselves "observer" or similarly. There you have the same linguistic problem...

 

Support for Presentations, Training etc. – Information Material

Question: I want to hold a presentation about usability at SAP at the Technical University of (...). Can you provide me with material for such a presentation?

Answer: Currently, we cannot provide the respective information.

Question: Hello, we are development partner of (...) For a long time it was easy to design R/3 software because of the style guide and several standards. Now it seems we need a little help for the right way through all the new opportunities. I think about a workshop for user interface design in (...), where my colleagues can enhance their competence. Do you support development groups ? Is there a course in the SAP Academy? Can you tell me somebody else?

Answer: Currently, we cannot provide the respective information.

Question: I have to write a summary about what Contextual Design is. I think there is much material on the Website from http://incontextdesign.com/. But I also have to describe the design concept on one example, such as your company. Is there a way to get more information about how contextual design is used in the developing-process of your products, or are there more articles about this on your site. I can't find more than one.

Answer: There are articles in the Editions section that are either written by members of Incontext or cover aspects of Contextual Design. In addition, some of the process papers in the Resources section also cover aspects of Contextual Design, or are at least influenced by this methodology.

 

SAP – Meaning of the Acronym, What Does SAP Do?

Question: Could you please let me know what SAP stands for? – For what is SAP an acronym? – I would really like to know more about the SAP technology. Could you please let me know what SAP stands for?

Answer: S = systems, A = applications, P = products, that is, "Systems, Applications, and Products (in data processing)." This name is based on the original German name "Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte (in der Datenverarbeitung)."

You can find more information on the company and its history on the www.sap.com Website.

Question: I am writing to you because I am having trouble finding information about what a SAP really is.

Answer: Actually I wonder that you did not find out much about SAP when searching the Web. Let us start with the "definition" of SAP:

SAP stands for "Systems, Applications, Products" (German: Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte).

Founded in 1972, SAP has a rich history of innovation and growth as a true industry leader. SAP is the global market leader in collaborative, inter-enterprise business solutions. The company now employs more than 47,800 people, whose commitment and innovative spirit pace our future success. Currently, more than 12 million users work each day with SAP solutions. There are now 140,000 installations worldwide, More than 2,400 certified partners, over 26 industry-specific business solutions, and more than 75,000 customers in 120 countries. SAP is the world's third-largest independent software vendor.
(From www.sap.com, adapted)

For more information, see Our Company. See SAP History to learn how SAP has evolved from a small, regional enterprise into a world-class international company. See also our About SAP page.

Our Website, the SAP Design Guild, is dedicated to user interface design and graphic design, offering guidelines, papers, and articles on the respective topics.See also our About the SAP Design Guild page.

 

What is the R/3 System?

SAP R/3 is perhaps the best known ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system on the market. Originally dating back to the 1970s, it took the then-controversial approach of combining various business functions into one application and database. Originally, R/2 was implemented atop mainframe databases like DB/2 , Adabas, and IMS.

In the 1980s, SAP designed a new architecture for the new R/3 system using a multi-tiered Client/Server architecture, with data storage on a database server running some relational database, application code, written in their ABAP/4 language, running on a set of application servers.

SAP intended to keep a degree of vendor-independence; the application server software can run on a number of platforms that have included several Unix flavors, VMS, and Microsoft Windows NT, whilst they have supported a variety of relational databases, including Oracle, Adabas, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server. Front end software uses their own proprietary protocols atop TCP/IP, and has run on various platforms. (by Cristopher Browne)

R/3 covers application areas such as logistics, human resources, and accounting, which are divided into several modules. Examples for such modules are FI (financial accounting), TR (treasury), CO (controlling), PA (personal administration), HR (personal planning and recruitment), MM (materials management), SD (sales and distribution), PP (production planning and control), or PS (project system).

 

Design Questions, Contact Persons for Usability and Design Problems

First, we try to answer user interface and graphic design questions ourselves. If this is not possible we forward the e-mails depending on their content to the respective colleagues within the SAP User Experience group or within SAP. Please note that it is SAP's policy not to disclose names or e-mail addresses of contact persons to the public.

 

Technical Questions, Contact Persons for Technical Problems

As the SAP Design Guild is a forum for user interface and graphic design we do not have the knowledge and capacity to answer technical questions.

As far as possible, we try to find contact persons for these questions and forward them to these people. Please note that it is SAP's disclose not to publish names or e-mail addresses of contact persons to the public.

We would like to suggest that you visit the SAP Developer Network (now part of the SAP Community Network) and scan the site or pose your question in the forums (you have to register for free in order to access the site). If you are a customer or SAP partner, please post a message in the OSS system under the respective component. This is the most efficient way for customers to get quick help from SAP's support team.

 

Authorship

Question: I am very much interested in the user interface designing issues and want to contribute articles to your site. Could you please send me guidelines? Do you pay your contributors?

Answer: The SAP Design Guild is a nonprofit Website, and the contributions are on a voluntary basis. We do not pay our contributors.

We do not have special guidelines for authors. But here are some tips:

We will do the final formatting and send you an URL to the article for approval before we publish it.

 

Advertising

Question: Is it possible to advertise a workshop on your Website?

Answer: At the moment, there is no possibility to place advertisements in the SAP Design Guild. But we have an UI Events page where we might add your workshop (Community section).

 

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