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Visual Design at SAP – Revolutions and Evolutions

By Esther Blankenship, SAP User Experience, SAP AG – 08/06/2008

Over the years, the visual design of SAP products has undergone several revolutions – as well as many smaller evolutions. In the 1970’s and into the early 1990’s, aesthetic appeal was of little consideration in the software creation process. The look and feel of SAP software was dictated by the dominant operating system (OSF/Motif and then later Microsoft’s Windows). Then came SAP’s first design revolution in 1998 with the Enjoy design. SAP broke new ground in business software by boldly moving away from the standard operating system look and redesigning our software to reflect a new, distinctive and unique branding language. Rich in color, texture and dimensionality, the Enjoy branding made SAP software instantly recognizable and, at a glance, distinguishable from other software products. The quality of the new design in terms of attractiveness and usability combined with the mere act of expressing our own branding at the GUI level catapulted SAP into a leadership position in visual design for business software. After the Enjoy design, SAP entered the arena of business software delivered through the browser. In order to appeal to the internet aesthetics of the new millennium, SAP products were harmonized under a lighter visual design, called Tradeshow, which was the second revolution in the visual design of SAP products.

 

Visual Design Themes

Before zipping on to the most recent revolution, I’d like to say a word about themes. Figure 1 below shows the same transaction in several visual designs, in this case, in several “themes.”

The same transaction running the SAP GUI in different visual design “revolutions”

Figure 1: The same transaction running the SAP GUI in different visual design “revolutions” (click here for a larger image)

It’s important to keep in mind that when we talk about “theming” or “skinning,” the interaction design (layouting, positioning of UI elements on the screen, functionality, etc.) does not change. The entire geometry of existing applications remains intact. Each time a new theme is created for an existing product, extreme care must be taken so that all its applications are still completely usable and look even better than before. This is a huge challenge when you consider that R/3, for example, has some 120,000 screens! Clearly, not every one of those screens can be reviewed. Therefore the design must be crafted with care and expertise for it to work. Many millions of users world-wide depend on that.

 

The Signature Revolution

The third revolution in visual design at SAP is the new Signature design. Our in-house SAP User Experience – Visual Design team in Walldorf, Germany started work on Signature early in 2007 (then code-named “Nova”). That may sound like a while ago, but keep in mind that in the software business, it often takes several years from the time of design conception until the first customers actually can start working with a brand new visual appearance. It can then take several more years until the new design has reached a majority of our products and customers! That’s why design revolutions at SAP are few and far between, occurring only after careful consideration by a team of design and business experts.

 

Example of the Signature design, here an SAP Business ByDesign screen running in the SAP NetWeaver Business Client

Figure 2: Example of the Signature design, here an SAP Business ByDesign screen running in the SAP NetWeaver Business Client

The driving intention behind the Signature design is to give the UI a very real, physical feel so as to engage users on a more emotional level while they are working in a virtual environment. Although SAP Business ByDesign was the first product to be outfitted in the Signature design, the aesthetic qualities can be applied to any technology and to any interaction paradigm. The key visual aspects, such as the clasp metaphor, the material qualities, the colors and the imagery must be adapted to each product in order to provide an optimal UI experience for users. This process is undertaken on a case by case basis as a joint project among visual designers, interaction designers from the product area and front-end developers with a deep knowledge of the rendering technology of their framework.

 

The same SAP GUI transaction as in figure 1, but here running in the Signature theme

Figure 3: The same SAP GUI transaction as in figure 1, but here running in the Signature theme

With ten design patents pending for the Signature design and loads of positive feedback from customers, the SAP User Experience – Visual Design team is exceedingly proud of this new design and will be evolving it for quite a few years to come. That is, until we start the next revolution.

 

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