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Getting in Contact with our Visitors – The SAP Design Guild Survey, May 2002

By SAP Design Guild Team, SAP AG – 07/01/2002

 

Finally - The SAP Design Guild Survey

The SAP Design Guild team celebrated the two-year anniversary of the SAP Design Guild Website in April 2002. Reason enough for the team to be proud and also to think of all the loyal users who have helped us develop and have sustained us with their vivid interest, positive e-mails, and suggestions of improvement. But did we really know what our users wanted and what their needs were? It was obviously high time to finally release the long promised SAP Design Guild survey and learn how our visitors judge our offerings.

The SAP Design Guild survey was conceived at the end of April and was online from May 2 for four weeks. As we knew that our users' time is scarce, the survey had a simple one-page layout so that the respondents wouldn't need more than five to ten minutes to complete the form.

Here are some of the questions that were of interest to us:

The questions and the corresponding answers are covered in more detail below.

The survey was combined with a raffle; this way we could recognize the effort spent in filling out the survey and also let our users take part in our birthday celebration by giving away some gifts to the lucky winners. Out of our list of books on user interface design, graphic design, and web design we chose the ones we thought were currently most in demand, and participants could select one of them. You can find details of the five lucky winners on our survey page (no longer available). The SAP Design Guild team hopes they enjoy their prizes and find them informative!

Now let's turn to the findings from the data gathered from the survey answers.

Some Results and Percentages

A total of 46 people from all over the world participated in the SAP Design Guild survey. More than half of the survey respondents indicated an affiliation with a business organization, about one third were affiliated with SAP, and the rest were either academics or independent.

It was revealing for us to find out that most of our users came across our Website by way of Internet search engines, by following URLs from other Websites, or by word of mouth.

The areas of our Website stimulating most interest are Visual Design, Web & Portals, Design Process, Current and Past Editions, and also SAP R/3. Our Editorials, Readers' Contributions and Design Tidbits are also frequently visited and used by our users.

When asked about the SAP Guidelines and Cookbooks used most often for daily work, survey participants specified them almost equally:

As links on our Website are either always underlined, for example in articles, or only underlined when hovered, for example in menu items, we asked the survey participants which they preferred. Preferences for underlining links were almost equally distributed: About 50% of the participants indicated a preference for always having links underlined, and 40% indicated a preference for either underlined or not underlined links depending on the context; the rest wanted to see links that are never underlined.

Of course, we also wanted to know whether our users like the new design, the look and feel of the SAP Design Guild, and whether they find their way around easily. The majority of respondents answered both questions in the affirmative.

For long documents, such as white papers (such as SAP MiniApp Guidelines, User Day Toolkit), most survey participants indicated a preference for printing papers from the Internet and reading them offline.

We also received plenty of positive comments concerning the width, diversity, and quality of the content provided, the colors, the "aesthetic and easy navigation", the good structuring of information, and the "free availability of valuable information about design" to anyone, not just SAP personnel.

Naturally, not everybody had flattering and praising remarks concerning the offerings of the SAP Design Guild. For instance, some survey respondents criticized the lack of vivid participation in the forum, the complex information structuring especially on some index pages, and — nice to hear — the lack of portrayal of the SAP Design Guild team members. But all in all the remarks were very constructive and informative, and gave us the opportunity to rethink our content and visual presentation.

What Did the SAP Design Guild Team Learn?

On the whole, all respondents reported deep satisfaction with and frequent use of the SAP Design Guild's offerings.

However, some participants stated a desire for:

The SAP Design Guild team is currently discussing some possibilities for widening our content or improving our layout. As we take our users' opinions seriously, we have already implemented one suggestion: In an attempt to simplify the overloaded overview pages of our editions, we created an extra top navigation link leading to all editions. However, some of the prospects and suggestions lie both beyond the means (technically speaking) and the philosophy behind the SAP Design Guild.

Final Word

After its first experience of publishing of a survey, the SAP Design Guild team has learned that a survey is a good way to get into direct contact with users of a Website and to get to know their opinions on its offerings and layout. User data provides valuable insights into improving the design and the content of a Website. We, the team, are determined to conduct further surveys in the future.

Once again: Thank you!

 

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