SAP Web Glossary Q-Z

[ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P ] Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Version 1.0., 03/18/2003

The following glossary lists and explains general Web terms as well as SAP Web terms. The information was taken from several sources and adapted to the needs of this glossary. Among the sources are: www.whatis.com, the book authored by Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood "Software for use: a practical guide to models and methods of usage-centered design", the book authored by JoAnn Hackos and Janice Reddish "User and Task Analysis for Interface Design", information contained in articles and guidelines in the SAP Design Guild, own contributions (a.o. photos and graphics).

In this version, some ISO definitions have been added.

Note: There is some overlap with the SAP Usability Glossary. See there for topics more related to usability in general.

Role, User

See user role

SAP

Acronym for "Systems, Applications, Products" (German: Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte). SAP AG, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, is the third-largest software company in the world and the world's largest inter-enterprise software company, providing integrated inter-enterprise software solutions as well as collaborative e-business solutions for all types of industries and for every major market. Founded in 1972 by five former IBM systems engineers, SAP now employs more than 22,000 people in more than 50 countries, among them more than 5400 software developers around the world. SAP AG employs a central usability group (UEC), and decentral user interface designers (UID) based in the applications.

For more information on SAP AG see the company's Website at www.sap.com -> Company.

SAP Design Guild

In the SAP Design Guild - the Website you are just visiting -, SAP offers its design resources: be it style guides, methods, or insights on how a user-centered development process should be carried out and how the mind change within a company towards user-friendly software can be facilitated. This Website is also a stage for UI people; here they can exchange information and opinions on visual and user interface design issues.

The SAP Design Guild Website was established in April 2000 and comprises the following sections:

• Home and Services - Get you going.
  Information, tips and tricks for using the SAP Design Guild more efficiently
  The Home &Services section of the SAP Design Guild Website offers services to our visitors,such as the Info Area with its FAQs,tips,useful links,a sitemap,as well as the search and contact pages.
• Resources - Get all you need
  Guidelines, cookbooks, papers, advice, and more.
  The Resources section provides all of SAP 's user interface and graphic design resources. Here,visitors can access guidelines,cookbooks and papers covering every aspect of designing software for the SAP product family.
• Editions -Get connected
  Experts comment on trends in user interface and graphic design.
  This section presents our editions,which typically appear semiannually.Here,experts from outside and inside SAP contribute articles about a topic of current interest in the SAP or UI community.
• Community - Participate
  Gain insight, share knowledge, and communicate experience with other UI and graphics designers
  The Community section features:
  • Design Tidbits - Articles on design topics with lots of tips and tricks
  • Editorials - The SAP Design Guild's editors present their thoughts and experience
  • Readers' Contributions - Readers state their point of view and present projects
  • Events - Major events in the area of UI and graphic design
  • Forum - Share your ideas on design issues

The SAP Design Guild is open to everyone since mid 2001.

SAPGUI

Presentation server for the three-layered SAP R/3 system. The SAPGUI implements the user interface of the SAP applications and also determines the technical possibilities and limitations of the user interface, e.g. which controls and interaction techniques are available and which are not.

Currently, there are two major versions available, the SAPGUI for Windows for the Windows platform, and the SAPGUI for HTML for the browser platform.

SAPGUI for HTML

Presentation server used for directly presenting R/3 applications in a Web browser. Uses a version of the HTML Business Library for consistent look across different SAP Web technologies.

See Internet Transaction Server for a discussion of Sap's different Web technologies.

Scenario

Scenarios are narrative descriptions of an activity or activities, taking the form of a story, vignette, or an episode bound in time and taking place within a given context. Scenarios are scripts for work or interaction and are characteristically rich and realistic.

Although scenarios typically take the form of a continuous narrative, they can also be cast as a sequence of images in the form of story boards. (From Constantine & Lockwood)

Section 508

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. '794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others. (From www.section508.gov)

Site Visit

A visit at the customer's site for watching users in their actual working environment.

The method described here emphasizes the individual end users and their actual work vs. the common function-centered approach for software specification. Development teams benefit from getting a detailed overview of end users' work practice. Approved instructions on how to conduct the customer visits are given.

Figures: Examples for interviewing and observing users at work

See Resources -> Site Visits in the SAP Design Guild for more information.

Story Board

Story board are 'freeze-frame' sketches capturing scenarios of how people will work with a Website.

Figure: Example of a story board

Template

Term used by SAP to denote a Web page written in HTML and HTML Business. A template can also contain references to MIME objects, like images or videos.

While templates can be created dynamically by the ITS, the term is usually used for pages either derived from a dynpro (an R/3 screen definition) and then modified by the developer, or created from scratch by the developer.

See Internet Transaction Server for a discussion of SAP's different Web technologies.

Theme

Uniform Resource Locator, URL

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the address of a file (resource) accessible on the Internet. The type of resource depends on the Internet application protocol. Using the World Wide Web's protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , the resource can be an HTML page, an image file, a program such as a common gateway interface (CGI) application or Java applet, or any other file supported by HTTP. The URL contains the name of the protocol required to access the resource, a domain name that identifies a specific computer on the Internet, and a hierarchical description of a file location on the computer.

Example: On the Web an example of an URL is: http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/events.asp which describes a Web page to be accessed with a Web browser that is located on a computer named www.sapdesignguild.org. The specific file events.asp is located in the directory named /community. (Adapted from www.whatis.com)

URL

See Uniform Resource Locator.

Usability Test

Usability testing is a method by which users of a product are asked to perform certain tasks in an effort to measure the product's ease-of-use, task time, and the user's perception of the experience. Usability testing can be done formally, in a usability lab(oratory) with video cameras, or informally, with paper mockups of an application or Website. Changes are made to the application or Website based on the findings of the usability tests. Whether the test is formal or informal, usability test participants are encouraged to think aloud and voice their every opinion. (From www.whatis.com)

User

Any person who actually interacts with a system (also called end users). One element of the "classical" usability triad user-task-system.

ISO Definition: Individual interacting with the system (Source: ISO 9241-10 (1996-05-00) ISO/TC 159)

Personas are "archetypal" users used in Goal-Directed® design. "Elastic user" is a term by Alan Cooper which characterizes the tendency to "tweak" user profiles.

User and Task Analysis

User and task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action (from Hackos & Reddish). It combines both the user and the task aspects to establish a firm basis for the design of a Website or application.

User-Centered Design

User-centered design puts the user into the center of the software design process.

User-centered design of business and Web applications is fundamental to SAP's software approach. The user-centered development process at SAP is based on the following key elements: Brainstorming and Site Visits, Interaction Design Sessions, User Days (including Usability Tests) and Usability Reviews.

User Day

Meeting with customers and users for presenting, discussing and testing a Website - an economical and efficient user-centered method to check the design of a product. The objective is to identify possibilities for improvement by direct cooperation between developers, user interface designers and users.

See Resources -> User Days in the SAP Design Guild for more information.

User Interface Design

The design of the user interface of a Website or application. This typically involves application developers, user interface designers (Interaction Design), graphic designers (Visual Design), as well as information designers and documentation writers (Information Design).

User Role

A role defines an activity set and all the sources of information and services that an individual needs in order to achieve a desired objective. A role, rather than a person, defines how a process is fulfilled, and how the process leads to achieving a particular objective. Processes become wrapped in roles, and roles are responsible for ensuring that process tasks are carried out. A role can't truly exist without one or more processes that define a necessary activity set.

For more information, see Innovation -> User Roles in the SAP Design Guild.

Visitor

The user of a Website.

Visual Design

Visual design and graphical design are basically the same, but visual design can be seen as the broader term, because it may also include aspects of text and information design. Visual designers are professionals in these areas and complement the contributions of user interface designers and developers in a development team. This cooperation is especially important for the design of Websites and Web applications.

W3C

See World Wide Web Consortium.

Web

See World Wide Web (WWW),

Web Application

A software application based on Internet technology and consisting of HTML pages. A Web application may be part of a Website, a web portal, or stand-alone - in the latter case, typically within Intranets or in specialized scenarios.

SAP calls its Web application Internet Application Components (IACs). These are based on Sap's Internet technologies (Internet Transaction Server, ITS).

For more information and guidelines on Sap's Web applications see Resources -> SAP Interaction Design Guide for Internet Application Components in the SAP Design Guild.

Figure: Example of a Web application

Web Brochure

Term used to denote a Website which primarily offers information - in contrast to Web applications which primarily offer functionality.

Figure: Example of a Web brochure

Web Browser

See Browser.

Web Page

See Page.

Website

Websites (also written Web sites) are the basic organizational element of the WWW. A Website is a collection of Web files on a particular subject. It includes a beginning file called a home page, which links to the other pages of the Website and, maybe, to other Websites. This is typically the address (URL) that is being published by the owners of a Website

For example the address or URL of the SAP Design Guild is www.sapdesignguild.org (or more precisely http://www.sapdesignguild.org). References to other pages of a Websites are possible, but usually not published.

Typically, Websites offer information, but more and more Websites also offer functionality, thus blurring the distinction between information sites, also called Web brochures, and applications - in this case Web applications.

World Wide Web, WWW, Web

The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (often abbreviated "WWW" or called "the Web"), a graphical user interface consisting of hyperlinked pages containing text, graphics, and possibly multimedia elements. Form-like elements can also be added to pages and provide the basis for Web applications.

The Web's outstanding feature is hypertext, a method of instant cross-referencing. When you select a hyperlink, you will be transferred to the site, page, or page section that is relevant to it. Hyperlinks can be words, phrases, but also buttons, images, or portions of images that are "clickable."

Using the Web, you have access to millions of pages of information. Web browsing is done with a Web browser, the most popular of which are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The appearance of a particular Website may vary slightly depending on the browser you use. (Adapted from www.whatis.com)

For more information on the WWW see the Website of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). You also find further information on the Web and Web applications in The Web - A Short Introduction and in the SAP Interaction Design Guide for Internet Application Components in the SAP Design Guild.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was established in 1994 by the CERN (Centre Eurpeén pour la Recerche Nucléaire) as an institution for administering the development of the World Wide Web and for specifying its design components. Especially, the W3C discusses and issues specifications for "user agents" (browsers) which determine how these applications display information, that is HTML pages, from the Internet. The current HTML specification is HTML 4.0.

The W3C is no longer operated by the CERN alone, but has more than 180 members from companies and universities all over the world.