A well-designed personality is not only key in getting users to accept a digital assistant, it also has fundamental implications for our increasingly digital lives. We build relationships with other humans through emotional connection rather than just mere information exchange. Research proves that we act and remain attached, not because of reason, but because of […]
In this article we're providing hints and tips on using Fishbowls in customer and end user research.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear ‘Fishbowl’? I bet you’re not thinking about people sitting in circles and discussing a topic vividly. It’s totally fine if you were thinking about an aquarium. However, we want to talk about Fishbowl as an excellent, future-oriented user research method.
In this series of four articles, I would like to describe ten workshop principles that have become essential for me, based on well over 200 shorter and longer formats, which I have designed and implemented in the last few years for a wide range of topics, challenges, participant groups and (business) contexts.
In this small series of four articles, I would like to describe ten workshop principles that have become essential for me, based on well over 200 shorter and longer formats, which I have designed and implemented in the last few years for a wide range of topics, challenges, participant groups and (business) contexts.
In this small series of four articles, I would like to describe ten workshop principles that have become essential for me, based on well over 200 shorter and longer formats, which I have designed and implemented in the last few years for a wide range of topics, challenges, participant groups and (business) contexts.
In the following, I would like to describe ten workshop principles that have become essential for me, based on well over 200 shorter and longer formats, which I have designed and implemented in the last few years for a wide range of topics, challenges, participant groups and (business) contexts.
Warm-ups and ice breakers are the perfect tools to access creativity and unlock innovation. After observing the impact they have on groups at design thinking workshops, the AppHaus decided to host a meetup to introduce others to the value behind fun, yet strategic, pre-workshop activities.
Successful design-driven companies go beyond using design as a service, and see it instead as a catalyst for culture change and as a tool to drive business strategy and innovation. However, they do not get there overnight. Creating a culture of design-led innovation is a journey that takes time and commitment. From our experience at […]
Testing new methods is the best way to succeed Hélice Experience is a Brazilian design start-up based in Porto Alegre which was founded by Fernando C. Guimarães, Rafael Barcellos and Alexandre Press in 2014. They offer strategy execution and engagement services. A lot of companies facing or experiencing a change turn to Hélice Experience to […]
Are augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) just a few more buzzwords or will those become real trends in a world where IoT and Industry 4.0 are increasingly important? According to Augmented/Virtual Reality Report 2016 by Digi-Capital1, $686 million were inested in AR/VR in 2015. By 2020, this number is expected to grow towards $120 billion2. Therefore, […]
We like to think of innovation as being at the confluence of technical feasibility, business viability and human values. However, while most organizations possess the business knowledge and technical skills to execute and produce incremental innovations, we’ve learned through our work that many still lack the human component. That is the value of design: it […]
Introducing SAP's initiative to foster a #design-led #innovation #culture. This is first in a series of blogs on with frameworks, assessment tools and strategies to be the change agent in your organization.
Language in a user interface is important to make users feel comfortable, confident, and successful. You build a relationship with users, build trust, and give users a remarkable user experience in your software.
Background: Our CRM system contains huge volumes of data relating to our customers and contact persons. The quality and up-to-dateness of this system, however, are an issue. Many colleagues question the relevance and usability of the data analyses, complain that data maintenance is too complicated, and moan about the application being too old. In short: […]
Fraport AG, the airport managing group of Frankfurt Airport, is using Design Thinking methods and tools to improve security issues as well as the service at Frankfurt Airport. We had the pleasure to interview Till Eichenauer on how this tool was used and perceived at Fraport.
Representing business objects in a consumable yet sufficiently powerful way is a challenge on its own. Since joining SAP in 2006, I have witnessed a number of different approaches on how to provide a floorplan that can provide an easy overview of the most important aspects of the business object at the same time show […]
This article provides an overview of the embedded analytics concept. It explains why it represents a change in the traditional way of working, and why this is significant for the regular business user. Introduction Traditionally, there has always been a strict separation between analytics and transactional work. This was originally in part due to the […]
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UI controls are the basic building blocks of any graphical user interface. Through controls, we express the interaction options to the user and we communicate the state of the system. Controls are combined into composites and patterns and are finally arranged on a screen. Having a sufficiently complete and powerful selection of controls is a […]
This series of blogs discusses aspects of SAP’s latest iteration of the SAP Fiori design language: SAP Fiori 2.0. In this article, I will discuss the idea of the overview page in the context of the SAP Fiori environment, and how it can be used to bundle information and functionality centered around one task context […]
By now, most IT leaders have become convinced of the need to move their organizations away from a mindset of delivering functions and features, and move toward a focus that puts the user’s true needs at the center, employing design thinking principles. Discover and Plan – Where to start?Why should you create your own UX strategy? Where do you start, […]
By Clarissa Goetz and Ramona Winkler So, you’re in the lucky position to have end users lined up for research interviews. Great! Now, do you need to prepare for this interview at all? And if so, how? If you want to get the most out of the on-site visit, it’s best to prepare in […]
This article is part of a series of articles that explain the design rationale behind some of the changes that come with the next evolution of SAP Fiori. In this article, you will learn about the dynamic page, a new layout that will be used as the basis for most of the standard pages in […]
About two years ago, we were exploring how we could bring SAP Fiori to the next level. SAP Fiori had already conquered the heart of our customers and SAP had decided to make it the new standard for all SAP products. But SAP Fiori was still young and incomplete as a design language, and so […]
What a Disney-Pixar film can teach us about designing software to make the most of our diverse human abilities.
The first part of this article described how we have significantly improved the application management in the new evolution of SAP Fiori, making it easier for the user to navigate between applications or to discover new functionalities. This second part now will focus on the most prominent design changes to the launchpad in SAP Fiori […]
This is the first part in a series of articles meant to give some more background information on the most important aspects of SAP Fiori 2.0, the user experience for S/4HANA. In this post, I will explain the different ways you can organize and manage applications in the SAP Fiori launchpad. The launchpad is the environment […]
Wish your organization was more innovative? Here are three tips that could help you be an effective change agent at work.
Business Intelligence applications such as dashboards have evolved into the ultimate analytics, decision-supporting tools for business leaders. Empowered with ever-advancing data mining and in-memory technologies, a well-designed dashboard can help decision makers track every single aspect of business performance – past, present, and the prognosticated future. BI tools such as dashboards can serve as the […]
Time pressure, tasked divided up into sequential processes and handed off from one role to another, teams scattered around the globe (or even “just” in different buildings), abstract artifacts sent back and forth by email… a combination of many or all of these factors is often the reality in software development projects in large organizations. […]
If you ask people around you who their favorite/most inspirational leaders are, most likely you will hear names like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Richard Branson. We have idolized a handful of popular leaders for traits like vision or charisma, without entirely understanding their personalities or studying their failures. Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Jeffrey […]
A easy five step way of creating innovation within the company using UX-methodology.
If you are looking to onboard one or more user researchers, here are some things to keep in mind when hiring.
Too many user quotes to present on a slide, but not yet big data? Here’s a method for small-scale sentiment analysis!
Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost on Design, SAP, IoT, and why Germany is lagging behind its EU neighbors in the digital transformation.
If a Fiori app does not yet exist for your specific business scenario, you can build Fiori-inspired flavors using SAP Screen Personas. This allows you to provide your users a similar look and feel to native Fiori apps, ensuring consistency across SAP functionality.
Some things are too simple to end up in textbooks - but too important to ignore.
Creating new UI elements and floorplans is a challenging task and creative in so many ways, one of which is being flexible while prototyping for software. Prototyping There is a quite large literature supporting the use of prototypes within the design process, but in this article, we would consider the need for a prototype as […]
"Scenes" is a tool and a method that was created to empower business leaders and professionals of all industries to shape their ideas and scenarios in the form of fun illustrative storyboards without the need of refined drawing skills. Learn how you can use it.
At the Design & Co-Innovation Center, we foster T-shaped design teams by continually expanding our knowledge and skillsets. To achieve this, we host numerous learning opportunities for our team from Bikablo drawing workshops and Drupal learning sessions to guest talks on a range of topics like photo journalism and visual storytelling. In continuation of this […]
For the past 8 years, I have focused on designing digital experiences in a variety of industries and for a variety of clients. Throughout my career, I have gleaned a few lessons that helped me create actionable, simple, relatable, engaging, and delightful experiences. Here are some of them: ☆ Make it Actionable In each application, the […]
The smartwatch, although still somewhat in the novelty stage but without the geek image of wearables like Google Glass, is one of the next frontiers for app designers and developers. Fun and exciting for consumers, designing for this new form and situational factor is most certainly a big challenge for designers and developers. How do […]
Jason Mayden, formerly senior global design director for Jordan Brand, a division of Nike Inc., is currently vice president of design for the start-up, Mark One, maker of the Vessyl.
Never give up! Design Thinking is all about wild ideas - and this also applies to us as coaches as well: so, if you don't have a whiteboard to do the clustering, simply take a bus!
Have you ever wondered how SAP ensures high-quality user experience for new applications? Let me start with the story ...
A short story how I became a graphical recorder
In this two-part interview series, I talk to Ulrike Weissenberger, VP of Global Design Enablement, and Hanswerner Dreissigacker, VP of Global Design Frontrunner Apps who were respectively early proponents of user-centered design and design thinking at SAP.
This is the second post in a two-part interview series about changing software development culture from one focused mainly on features and functions toward one that invests meaningful and appropriate resources on user experience and design. When teams and management are asked to change the way they have always done things, that is when things […]
Continuing on from our One Hand Paper Airplanes exercise, here’s a new and fun warm-up to try from the Design & Co-Innovation Center. In this warm-up exercise, we’re learning how to embrace our stumbles and falls along the journey to success. Finding out what didn’t work lets you know what does. So when you take […]
Most apps lose most active users within days – Weibull analysis tells you how, and why.
In this post, you will find links to the almost 70 reviews of selected books on user interface design, graphic design, and web design that were written for the SAP Design Guild from 1999 to 2012. Although a few of the books (and their respective reviews) might show their age, many are as interesting and […]
If you are just getting started designing SAP Fiori apps, you might be asking yourself what a floorplan is. The term floorplan is used differently in different design contexts. In relation to SAP Fiori, when we talk about floorplans we are referring to predefined layouts for common use cases. These layouts can be used to compose a simple and […]
Recently, we released our new SAP Fiori Design Guidelines to our customers and partners. The feedback so far has been great, and we are glad to regularly share the updates of what we learn on our SAP Fiori journey. As part of this update, we have also introduced our new design stencils that allow designers […]
Three designers from the Design and Co-Innovation Center had the idea to create a series of six postcards which communicate SAP’s aim of humanizing software. At this point you might think: Relax, three designers – six postcards? But design doesn’t just fall from the sky. Follow them on their design journey!
Benjamin Franklin once said: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” At the SAP Design & Co-Innovation Center (DCC) at SAP we frequently organize the so-called “Method Mondays”, a regular one-hour meeting series in which the team members share, practice, and test different methods. In this article […]
Attractive websites make users read on for this little extra time. Check whether your site does so, too.
Companies like SAP using the Web and Intranet along with Web Browsers are challenged to develop applications with reference to their internal accessibility standards.
The first part of the article discussed the need for complex Web controls, presents various Web content types, and explains why there is a need for something better than current solutions offer – this is where ARIA comes in. This second part of the article introduces ARIA itself and describes its specifications, basic concepts and […]
Learn the general DOs and DON'Ts of the UX requirement gathering phase
Survival analysis methods have long been neglected by UX professionals. But if time really matters, let’s take it dead serious! Here's why & how.
The idea of Bluetooth beacon technology is fairly simple and Apple is emerging as the ”top dog” as the beacon-wars are heating up. PayPal (PayPal Beacon: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/beacon ) and Qualcomm (Gimbal: http://www.gimbal.com/) are gearing up to challenge Apple with beacon hardware of their own. And retailers like Target (Cart Wheel) and smaller vendors like Estimote, […]
Some of our UX and Design leadership team members, under Sam Yen, are addressing these ideas and providing perspectives, insight and inspiration through a series of blog published on SAP Business Trends.
Do you need your users to work really fast with your UI? Have you reached the point where further automation is no option? Will your users be highly trained to the very end of the learning curve, able to operate the UI in their sleep, but still you need to squeeze out the milliseconds out […]
Wireframes are schematics or blueprints – a way to show clarity of purpose and function, showing quality of being easily seen or expressed, remembered, understood, etc.. And it’s up to you how schematic or how precise it has to be. As architect I worked with various deliverables and so I do now as information architect […]
SAP Screen Personas has evolved from a standalone browser-based application to become a comprehensive personalization framework integrated into the SAP GUI family. Customers can use SAP Screen Personas to modernize SAP GUI screens to look like Fiori or match their corporate design guidelines.
The goal of this course is to introduce you to the tools, methodologies, and best practices for designing, creating, and enhancing your very own SAP Fiori app. Included is a “design and build” challenge where you can submit your work for a chance to win a MacBook Air!
I’ve spoken with many CIOs recently, and it’s fair to say the role is changing. Not long ago, it was fine for them to dedicate about 80% of their time to optimizing and ensuring the uptime of key business systems, and for the remainder, to peer over the horizon at what was ahead for the […]
Looking to promote design and user experience in your organization? See how this team of designers from the SAP Business Suite breaks the ice with colleagues outside of the UX organization.
If you are deploying SAP Fiori and want to learn how to maximize your return on investment, I would like to invite you to a free SAP Fiori Practitioners Forum.
You want to start a UX improvement project in your company buy you are still searching for arguments that ensure the buy-in from your top management? This blog can help you.
The System Usability Scale (Brooke, 1996) is a widely used, standardized 10-item questionnaire to measure user satisfaction. For German users, a group of SAP usability professionals made a translation available in 2013 which we proudly re-post in this community.
You need a quick usability assessment of an already deployed system? The System Usability Scale can give you a pretty precise spotlight on where to dig deeper for usability issues - and where to unpack the rest of your UX toolbox. This post provides details and some tools to get started right away.
Why and How-to Run Letterpress Workshops in a Digital Enterprise. Designing business software and classic letterpress printing have more in common than you can believe. Below you will find why and how you could organize one in your company as well.
Over the past 10 years SAP has successfully introduced and established great methods for development teams to faster and better design and develop products. Lean software development, agile software engineering and design thinking all successfully help us to deliver great software solutions for our customers and drive innovation. In part 1 of this two-part article […]
In part 1 of this article, I summarized the background and basics of agile user experience (UX). In this follow-up article, I’d like to move away from the theory and tell you more about my practical and personal experiences working with these methods. With the rise of agile and lean approaches across our industry, UX […]
Article by Denise Pilar and Felipe Martins from SAP Labs Latin America
User-centered design can be a challenge in Brazil where the organizational UX maturity level is low. Teams have to overcome management objections to user-centered design and navigate cultural considerations. This article presents ways to handle the most common objections and discusses what can be done in spite of the inherent difficulties.
Whether you are looking for SAP’s latest design guidelines or something a little bit older, we’ve collected all the links for you in this one handy spot: The SAP Design Guidelines and Resources page right here on the SAP User Experience Community. Included are links to the SAP Fiori design principles as well as the brand-new Web IDE […]
In preparation for an SAP-internal UX event, 2 colleagues and I designed ten method cards that dealt with “secret” UX methods – methods that are not that widely known or so new that not many people had heard of them before.
At the Design & Co-Innovation Center (DCC) at SAP, our team members have facilitated a number of workshops, especially Design Thinking (DT) Workshops. We learned that preparing and presenting the workshop content is only half of what is required to deliver a successful workshop. The other half is managing different types of participants to make […]
SAP user group members can participate in the live webinars. All customers can listen to the recordings, which are available from the SAP Service Marketplace - Knowledge Transfer Webinars page.
Why should You invest in User Experience and Design? - Improving UX offers the opportunity to realise business value.
In a recent workshop the DCC hosted, we did a particularly challenging and fun warm up of holding a paper airplane contest. Easy, right? But there’s a catch. The paper airplanes can only be built with one hand.
I like working with good, reliable checklists. Here is one that I created after I had conducted a couple of remote usability test sessions, in order to keep an eye on the most important things that require my attention when using this method. Today, as I’m more experienced, I find myself completing most of the […]
Visual Facilitation is an innovative way of representing the information through the use of graphic symbols and minimal text. It can also be used as real-time note taking method at meetings, seminars, and conferences.
In many software projects, there is a cultural and communicational gap between designers and developers. To overcome this gap, design initiatives often focus on the developers only. Here I want to offer a few tips targeted at designers, based on my experiences as a developer working with designers in various software projects. Know technical requirements […]
Card sorting is a user research method which is typically done manually and with pen and paper. In this article, I will explain how we turned it into a remote method. To be honest, we improvised. We had done the card sorting activity in person already with many customers, but we wanted to get feedback from users further afield.
A Customer Journey Map can help you discover, design and deliver your Wow Factor and an incredible customer experience! Here are three ways to discover your wow factor with Journey Mapping.
Prototyping for empathy is a method that is used by the d.School in order to immerse one you in the situation of your client, user, etc.
Business Origami is a method that has been invented by the Hitachi Design Center. It uses paper cut-outs as symbolic representations of people, groups, channels and environments, to create a miniature model of a system.
The hero’s journey is a storytelling method introduced by Joseph Campbell who analyzed vast numbers of myths and fairy tales. He found that all heroes follow a journey with 12 distinct steps, although not all 12 are mandatory for the story.
An experience map is a method you can use to get insights into the holistic experience of your target group (be it users, customers, clients) in order to understand and visualize the ups and downs of their experience across the service or ecosystem.
Professor Noriaki Kano (1984 Tokyo Rika University) developed a method to analyze which product attribute/feature, service or process is more desirable than others.
The combination of a new approach and something familiar like newspaper headlines motivates users in the creative thinking process.
The idea of collaborative brand persona started with a project team meeting with people from marketing, IT, sales and customer service. All of them had different agendas and they all had one thing in common: their company brand.
Storytelling is an established and popular tool for movies, television, comics and many other areas of visual media. Storyboards help to add real-world context. People, places and e.g. devices will be involved and it is easier to keep your mind on the flow.
At the beginning of a project there are often the same questions. There is a concrete situation or a concrete product and you have to do a deep dive to get the answers. Which story is strong enough to cover all products or services?
On September 2nd – 4th, 2014, design managers from all over the world met at the Academic Design Management Conference to discuss their insights and past experiences. A good opportunity to have Janaki Kumar and Tobias Haug, the team leaders of the Design and Co-Innovation Center (DCC) from SAP, share their retrospective with us on the founding and development of their teams.
Imagine you’re driving in your brand new Acura TL. It’s your first car, and you love how it drives. An icon appears on the dash with a bright orange exclamation point. What does this mean? You panic, you're confused. Is something overheated? Is the engine going to die? Should I pull over? Or should I ignore it and hope for the best?
Hello everyone, So here is a list of books that have helped me along the way and some that Im currently reading. Over the years I have also learned that everyone works and learns things differently so I suggest– reading exactly what you’re having trouble right now and go in your own pace. Books are great […]
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