Top 10 Tips for Using the SAP Design Guild Efficiently

Updated: December 22, 2011

We offer the following "top 10 tips" for using the SAP Design Guild as a service to our visitors. Hopefully, they make the SAP Design Guild much more efficient and enjoyable to use.

Tips

  1. Getting a quick overview of the SAP design resources (guidelines and papers) and articles
  2. Printing articles and guidelines
  3. Downloading guidelines
  4. Getting an overview of the SAP Design Guild Website
  5. Editions – articles on relevant topics in the SAP UI design field
  6. Highlight topics – articles under a common framework.
  7. Finding important events in the UI design field
  8. Finding infos on books and people in the UI design field and links to other Websites
  9. Glossaries – finding precise definitions quickly
  10. Design articles and more...

 

Tip 1: Getting a Quick Overview of the SAP Design Resources (Guidelines and Papers) and Articles

For getting an overview of all guidelines and design papers simply click the Resources tab and you will be guided to the resources overview page.

For a quick overview of the articles published on the SAP Design Guild Website (mostly from the Editions and the Community section), please go to the article list. There you will find an overview of the article topics. If you click a topic link you will be moved to the page containing a list of articles for the respective topic.

There is also an alphabetical article list, displaying all SAP Design Guild articles on one page.

 

Tip 2: Printing Articles and Guidelines

  • Articles: For each article, there is a print version; you can access it via a link at the top right of the article (with printer icon).
  • Guidelines: For most of the guidelines there is a printable PDF version; you can access it from a link at the top of the table of contents of the guideline.

Note: As the PDF files require a lot of memory space, we advise you not to print the guideline from the Adobe Acrobat plugin in the Web browser. Instead, download the PDF file to your local hard disk and print it from the stand-alone Acrobat application.

 

Tip 3: Downloading Guidelines

The easiest way to download a guideline is to download the PDF version of the guideline (for access, see above). This way, you can also easily print the guideline. If you want to download the online version of the guideline use a tool for downloading Websites; Microsoft Internet Explorer also allows to download Websites. Use the file index.htm(l) as starting node.

Online guidelines can be easily used stand-alone – they do not require a Web server or the creation of complex folder hierarchies.

 

Tip 4: Getting an Overview of the SAP Design Guild Website

Simply click the link to the sitemap in the footer area. The sitemap can be accessed from any page (except from guidelines and pages that open in a new window).

 

Tip 5: Editions – Articles on Relevant Topics in the SAP UI Design Field

Editions offer article collections dedicated to a UI-related topic in the SAP environment and appear about once a year.

The most recent edition is the 10th Anniversary Edition, which was completed in April 2011 (two articles are still missing). Previous editions featured topics, such as SAP Workplace, reporting, portals, accessibility, collaboration, branding , composite applications, and User Productivity. There is also a special edition featuring SAP User Experience.

The previous Philosophy section, now offered as an edition inside the Editions section (called Edition 0), provides articles anout the motivation behind SAP's commitment for usable software – here you find articles from consultants that helped SAP on it's way...

For an overview of editions and highlight topics, see Editions and Highlight Topics – Overview. For an overview of articles published in editions and highlight topics, see:

 

Tip 6: Highlight Topics – Articles Under a Common Framework

Highlight topics are collections of related articles that had been published on the SAP Design Guild before and are now offered under a common framework.

The most recent highlight topic covers designing for sustainability, previous ones cover human performance at the computer and universal usability.

For an overview of editions and highlight topics, see Editions and Highlight Topics – Overview.

For an overview of articles published in editions and highlight topics, see:

 

Tip 7: Finding Important Events in the UI Design Field

Click the Community tab in the header area and you will be guided to the UI Events page. There is also an events archive.

 

Tip 8: Finding Infos on Books and People in the UI Design Field and Links to other Websites

In the Books & People area in the Community section you will find pages with information on books and people relevant in the UI and graphic design field. There you will also find more than 40 book reviews.

In the Goodies section, there are several pages offering links relevant to graphic and user interface design. See the Goodies overview page for more information.

 

Tip 9: Glossaries – Finding Precise Definitions Quickly

In the Goodies section, the SAP Design Guild offers glossaries for the following topics:

 

Tip 10: Design Articles and More...

The Design Tidbits corner offers a variety of articles on different design issues. Also check the editorials for more general design articles.

Readers report their experiences, projects, and opinions in the Stories corner.

Finally, there is a new section with short, blog-like articles, called UI Design Blinks.

All of these articles appear within the Community section.

Also have a look at the Editions section (offering editions and highlight topics; for details, click the links to the left). For a quick overview of articles, consult the following pages:

 

 

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