Archive - Edition 0: Philosophy

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EnjoySAP

Branding

Design

User Experience

 

EnjoySAP: A Success Story

Published April 2000

Disclaimer: Please note that this article was written in 2000. Therefore, statements in the articles, particularly those regarding SAP's products, product strategy, branding stratey, and organizational structure, are no longer valid.

Abstract

With the EnjoySAP initiative, SAP is redefining the state-of-the-art in usability and design. EnjoySAP features across-the-board usability improvements, including new visual aesthetics, a new interaction model and a role-based personal user interface. The goal is for users to say time and time again: "SAP software works the way I do."

Software users' expectations in terms of ease of use and clarity have grown significantly in recent years. Now that they have experienced the World Wide Web, new mobile devices, and self-service applications, users are demanding more from a user interface. With the EnjoySAP initiative, SAP is driving the delivery of products that redefine state-of-the-art usability and design. The software becomes easier to learn, more intuitive to use and quicker to adapt to the users' ways of working. EnjoySAP greatly simplifies the user experience with:

This is how we create user interfaces that result in higher user efficiency and motivation and, at the same time, reduce training requirements to achieve lower cost of ownership.

EnjoySAP features across-the-board usability improvements. These improvements include new visual aesthetics, a new interaction model and a role-based personal user interface. With the EnjoySAP initiative, SAP is creating software that is obvious at first glance and adapts to a person's work patterns and role in the enterprise. The goal is for SAP users to say time and time again:

 

"Software that works the way I do"

The combined expertise of users, the world 's leading interaction specialists, and SAP has delivered usability at new heights of efficiency.

Comparison of new GUI with old GUI - showing the same screen

Software users expectations in terms of ease of use and clarity have grown significantly in recent years. Now that they have experienced the World Wide Web, new mobile devices and self-service applications, users are demanding more from a user interface. With the mySAP.com initiative, SAP is driving the delivery of products that redefine state of the art usability and design. The software is easier to learn, more intuitive to use and quicker to adapt to the users' ways of working.

 

Enhanced usability

A new navigation paradigm makes the transactions in demand immediately accessible and usable.

Collage showing some details of the frog GUI: Easy access menu, tabstrip, etc.

Hundreds of SAP developers visited thousands of users on site, gathering feedback on how to improve SAP products. This feedback provided valuable information in ways to improve user interaction with the software so that work becomes a more enjoyable and rewarding experience. For example, SAP learned that people preferred systems dedicated to their individual needs. Users now interact with and navigate in a system that is tailored to their own particular tasks and responsibilities.

New features provide immediate feedback to users.

Collage showing some details of the frog GUI: tables, menus, watch cursor

SAP applications combine secondary interaction elements to provide the user with a more emotionally valuable experience. For example, many SAP controls are designed to express analog qualities, thereby enhancing recognition by users. These reinforcing features include ease-in/ease-out effects for animations (pull-downs, slide-out panels), animated alert signals, transparency effects, drop shadows, and sounds.

 

Enhanced visual appearance

The interface elements immediately communicate how to use the screens.

Collage showing some details of the frog GUI: Toolbar, icons, etc.

Working with the world 's most renowned visual design experts, SAP has redesigned all screen elements, including icons, buttons, scrollbars, colors, and controls to ensure immediate visual recognition an understanding by the user. Important screen areas are highlighted more prominently, so users instantly recognize, for example, incoming work items, mandatory input fields, or system messages correctly. The deft balance of 2D forms with 3D forms serves both as a sophisticated visual effect as well as a functional indicator of various control surface capabilities. All click-able elements have 3D qualities, while the input and output fields remain 2D for simplified reading.

A consistent visual language increases the users 'comfort level and decreases the learning curve.

Three screens in the look of the4 new GUI

The visual language displayed in these pages will serve as the foundation for all of SAP's products. Users will feel a greater sense of comfort as they navigate between applications that look and function consistently. The goal is to achieve a seamless integration of all products to the point where the user is essentially using a single product: mySAP.com.

 

Customizable

The applications provide the means to tailor the basic design to individual requirements.

Color customization in the frog GUI

SAP applications provide a suite of features to offer each user a unique experience. For example, the SAP R/3 application allows the user to customize the color of the interface to their preference.

Specific role-based menus and screens, streamlined for individual needs.

Role-based menus in the mySAP.com workplace

SAP applications can be customized with client branding, creating a tailor-made feel to the interface. mySAP.com creates a user specific working environment through a role-based user interface. To create a "what you see is what you need" user interface, users can collect and add to favorite lists of their most needed transactions, adding another dimension of personalization.

 

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