http://www.sapdesignguild.org/rss/ SAP Design Guild News 2009 en-us (c) SAP AG, Germany Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT When our author met Robert Spence briefly at the INTERACT 2009 conference in Uppsala, Sweden, Spence mentioned that there was a good book about visualization for display at the Springer book stand. Our author had already seen that there was " something " available about this topic – but actually it was two books: a new introductory book by Riccardo Mazza and a second, much more advanced one by Chaomei Chen. The big question for him was: Which book had Robert Spence been referring to? He decided to buy both, and because Mazza's book is new and an introductory textbook that " focuses on the human aspects of the process of visualization rather than the algorithmic or graphic design aspects, " he realized that this was the book he should have read first when initially diving into the topic of visualization. Unfortunately, the book did not appear until this year. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_info_vis_intro.asp Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:30:00 GMT INTERACT 2009, the 12th IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction took place in Uppsala, Sweden, the country's oldest university city. This conference has a more European " feel " than, for example, the CHI conference, is one of the smaller international HCI conferences, and has a chiefly academic touch. The conference hosts do, however, seem to have already identified this bias as an issue and attempted to counteract it: The conference motto was " Research & Practice " , and an " industry day " was introduced as a new ingredient. But was that enough to justify the motto? Our author will return to this question at the end of his report. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_ia2009_gw.asp Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:30:00 GMT Today, we added two more features of UI and design people and once again updated our Books & People area. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/people_archive.asp Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:30:00 GMT Graham Pullin characterizes his book Design Meets Disability as " a book about how the worlds of design and disability could inspire each other. " In a brief intro, he uses leg splints made from plywood and designed by Charles and Ray Eames in the 1940s, which later influenced their famous plywood furniture designs, to illustrate how disability can inspire design and remarks: " This sequence of events challenges the so-called trickle down effect whereby advances in mainstream design are expected to eventually find their way into specialist products for people with disabilities. " In his opinion, this example of the " flow in the opposite direction " demonstrates how " the issues around disability catalyze new design thinking and influence a broader design culture in return. " But how can design inspire the world of disability? Providing answers to this question is - more or less - the focus of the book. Read the review to find out more. (The review has also been added to the highlight topic " Universal Usability " ). http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_design_dis.asp Thue, 05 Oct 2009 16:30:00 GMT Today, we also added two more lists from others sections of the site to the infos and links section in the Goodies. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/links3.asp Today, we added two more glossaries from others ections of the site to the glossary section in the Goodies. We also updated the look of a number of glossaries to make them more consistent. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/acc_glossary.asp Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:30:00 GMT The article has also been added to our Highlight Topic " Human Performance at the Computer. " http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/highlight_articles_02/ux_pep.asp Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:30:00 GMT The article has also been added to our SAP UX edition. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition10/ux_pep.asp Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:00:00 GMT On this Website, we have published quite a few articles discussing performance and responsiveness issues in software applications over the past two years. These more general articles are the by-products of a project that was initiated by SAP User Experience at the beginning of 2008 – the Perceived Performance project, or " PeP " project, for short. This article is devoted to the PeP project itself; it reports briefly on the project's goals and methodological approach, work and cooperation with other groups within SAP, and possible future directions. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_ux_pep.asp Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:30:00 GMT Today we made a major update to our list of acronyms. During the past days we also updated some other pages in the Info Area. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/acronyms.asp Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:30:00 GMT In this article, the author from SAP's UI Guidelines team highlights the rationale behind SAP current UI guidelines. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/uig_paper.asp Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT In this overview article, authors from SAP's UCD team provide an overview of the User-Centered Design process at SAP. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/ucd_paper.asp Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:30:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Todd Zaki Warfel: Prototyping - A Pratitioner's Guide (to appear in October 2009). The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:30:00 GMT In this overview article, authors from SAP's Architecture Governance - Accessibility team provide an overview of accessibility activities and guidelines at SAP, as well as on international perspectives and legal requirements. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/acc_paper.asp Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:00:00 GMT In a short series of design tidbits, our author presents a couple of approaches to " bridging the gap " between the requirements that have been gathered for a UI design and the concrete design itself. This third and final article in the series looks at structural approaches. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/bridging_the_gap_3.asp Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:00:00 GMT In a short series of design tidbits, our author presents a couple of approaches to " bridging the gap " between the requirements that have been gathered for a UI design and the concrete design itself. The second article in the series looks at mapping. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/bridging_the_gap_2.asp Thu, 03 Sept 2009 12:00:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Riccardo Mazza: Introduction to Information Visualization. The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:30:00 GMT In his editorial " Finding Common Ground... " published at the beginning of 2008, our author touched on the following issue: In the user interface (UI) design field a gap still seems to exist between the requirements that have been gathered for guiding a design and the concrete design itself. In a short series of design tidbits, our author will present a couple of approaches to " bridging the gap. " The first article in the series introduces the approaches, two further articles will take a closer look at the approaches themselves. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/bridging_the_gap_1.asp Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:00:00 GMT In October 2009, Dan Rosenberg, senior vice president, SAP User Experience, will give a keynote speech at the German Quality Engineering 2009 conference in Frankfurt, Germany, titled " The Human Factor as an Integral Component of Quality Measurement. " For this reason, he asked the Perceived Performance (PeP) team at SAP User Experience for input. This incident started an unconscious process in our author's brain that tried to pull two buzzwords together that had not had any association for me previously: " perceived " and " quality. " He asked himself whether there is such a thing as " perceived quality. " In this editorial, he will look for some first answers. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_04_2009.asp Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:30:00 GMT Humans seem to be fairly tolerant to the weaknesses of their human dialog partners, but how do they react when their dialog partner is a computer? Our author's personal impression is that we are not as tolerant with computers as we are with humans – at least he is not. In this article, he will first explore the possible reasons for this lack of tolerance and then collect a few well-known rules that can help reduce the number of times our tolerance is put to the test. With this is mind, he will look at two areas where dialog exists between humans and computers: screen texts and system messages. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/good_enough.asp Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:30:00 GMT Today, we extended our selection of quotes with seven new quotes from " Designing the User Interface, 5th edition. " http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/quotes.asp Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:30:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Robert Schumacher: Handbook of Global User Research (to appear in November 2009). The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Wed, 5 Aug 2009 10:30:00 GMT When a colleague of our author attended a workshop, she took part in a tutorial held by Bruce Tognazzini, or Tog for short. Among others, Tog presented Fitts' law and was eager to mention that he probes job applicants on this law. Therefore, and because a number of colleagues failed the test, our author would like to offer a short refresher of Fitts' law and include two other " classics, " Hick's law and the power law of practice. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/laws.asp Tue, 4 Aug 2009 11:00:00 GMT The article has also been added to our Highlight Topic " Human Performance at the Computer. " http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/highlight_articles_02/response_examples.asp Tue, 4 Aug 2009 10:30:00 GMT In a number of articles, our author has discussed various issues regarding human performance at the computer. Until now, however, he has not provided a list of representative responsiveness issues in one place. With this article, he would like to close this gap and put together a list of examples of responsiveness issues, most of which are based on his own personal experience. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/response_examples.asp Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:30:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Dan Saffer: Designing for Interaction. The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Wed, 7 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT If someone asked our author to name a comprehensive book about user interface design, which book would come to mind first? You guessed it: Designing the User Interface by Ben Shneiderman and Catherine Plaisant. This textbook can rightfully be characterized as a bold attempt to tell readers " all you wanted to know about user interface design, " or at least as much as is possible in nearly 600 pages. First published in 1986, the book is indeed an all-time " classic, " as Ben Shneiderman, the original author of the book, puts it himself. Now we can offer a review of the current and fifth edition. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_shneiderman_plaisant5.asp Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:15:00 GMT Many people blame technology, and in particular information technologies, for alienating people. Think of the teenagers who sit in front of their computers playing games all day. Other people, however, hold exactly the opposite to be true: They believe technology connects people. There are also many examples of this, starting with the Internet, instant messaging, discussion boards, and cell phones. In this editorial, our author wants to tell a few loosely connected true stories that also prove that technology connects people, provided that a few preconditions are met – by both the technology and humans. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_03_2009.asp Tue, 05 May 2009 12:00:00 GMT The author of our latest editorial was inspired by his current slow walking speed to write an editorial about " living in a bubble, " actually " living in many bubbles. " With this phrase, he intends to point out that we often live in closed, separate " worlds " of our own or of a specific community. Typically, we are not even aware of this fact - that is the " dangerous " aspect of these bubbles. Of course, our author also discovers bubbles in his own professional field. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_02_2009.asp Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT Today, we updated the UI Guidelines for CRM WebClient User Interface in the Resources section to version 1.6. Please note that the guidelines are in PDF format and about 15 MB in file size. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/CRM-UI-Guidelines-Customers.pdf Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:00:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Graham Pullin: Design Meets Disability. The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Wed, 14 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT The School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany was founded to provide a further study program at HPI. Eighteen months after the school was founded, its first report is now available. In some 200 pages, Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel, and Ulrich Weinberg - the initiators of the school - describe how the school came about, what content the program covers, and the core elements of the design thinking method. They also detail examples of projects and offer an outlook on future developments. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_design_thinking.asp Thu, 2 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT Whether its software, a cell phone, or a refrigerator, your customer wants - no, expects - your product to be easy to use. This fully revised handbook provides clear, step-by-step guidelines to help you test your product for usability. You'll learn to recognize factors that limit usability, decide where testing should occur, set up a test plan to assess goals for your products usability, and more. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_usab_testing.asp Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT This report summarizes a design and research project about gesture navigation in contextual menus carried out at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_gesture_nav.asp Wed, 4 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT The book, Scientific Collaboration on the Internet, edited by Olson, Zimmerman, and Bos collects contributions from members of the Science of Collaboratories (SOC) project. This project was set up to advance the " science of collaboratories " (SOC), as well as give practical advice and enable " users with a need for collaboratory infrastructure ... to create successful collaboratories on their own. " The book can be regarded as a consolidated project summary. It includes numerous case studies and project presentations as well as articles that aim to increase the understanding of collaboratories. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_sci_coll.asp Tue, 3 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT Today, we published the second part of desktop motives from Sweden 2008 (Diverse Locations). http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/desktop/desktop_8.asp Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT We published the first part of desktop motives from Sweden 2008 (Oeland). http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/desktop/desktop_9.asp Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:00:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel & Ulrich Weinberg: Design Thinking (in German). The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:30:00 GMT In the course of January and February, including today, we added five new book presentations: (1) Nevin Berger, Michael Arent, Jonathan Arnowitz & Fred Sampson: Effective Prototyping with Excel, (2) Gary M. Olson, Ann Zimmerman & Nathan Bos (Eds.): Scientific Collaboration on the Internet, (3) Kim Goodwin: Designing for the Digital Age, (4) Dana Chisnell & Jeffrey Rubin: Handbook of Usability Testing, (5) Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen & Steven Jacobs: Designing the User Interface (5th Edition). Our book list has been updated accordingly. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/new_book_archive.asp Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:30:00 GMT Sorry, we forgot to mention that we added two more features of UI and design people and once again updated our " people " page at the end of January. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/people_archive.asp Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:30:00 GMT The page about SAP User-Centered Design has been updated to reflect the new UCD process at SAP. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/ucd_process.asp Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:30:00 GMT On our author's very first day at SAP, he was introduced to two software applications: R/Mail and Kale. Even though he had some prior experience with e-mail at university, he had no idea how important e-mail would become for his work. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_01_2009.asp Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:30:00 GMT Today, we added three more features of UI and design people and also updated our " people " page. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/people_archive.asp Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT Today, we extended our selection of quotes with four new quotes. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/quotes.asp Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:00:00 GMT Today, we updated our UI events page. Now it lists more than a dozen upcoming events. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/events.asp