http://www.sapdesignguild.org/rss/ SAP Design Guild News 2008 en-us (c) SAP AG, Germany Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT Today, we updated the page "SAP Usability Testing at ASUG Events: Collecting Feedback From End Users" in the Resources section. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/asug.asp Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT As members of an internal SAP project about perceived performance, we are often asked: "How do I give feedback in the event of delays?", and "How do I deal with start-up time?" In this article, our author will look at the issue of start-up time in more detail and will highlight a number of approaches to making it shorter and thus more tolerable for users. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/startup.asp Mon, 8 Dec 2008 14:30:00 GMT Today, we updated of our performance glossary a second time. This will be the last major update of the glossary. In addition, we updated the respective glossary version in the Goodies section. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/highlight_articles_02/perf_glossary.asp Wed, 3 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT This report summarizes a design and research project about location based appplications. It was carried out within the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_loc_bas_apps.asp Wed, 3 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT Colin Ware conceived his new book, Visual Thinking: For Design, as "an introduction to what the burgeoning science of perception can tell us about visual design" and thus to help "make us better designers." He wrote his book because of the current "revolution in our understanding of human perception that goes under the name active vision," which "allows us to think about graphic design issues from a new and powerful perspective." Ware's book "is intended for anyone who does design in a visual medium and it should be of special interest to anyone who does graphic design for the Internet or who designs information graphics of one sort or the other." http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_visual_thinking.asp Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT Today, we made a major update of our performance glossary. In addition, we added the glossary to the glossaries in the Goodies section. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/highlight_articles_02/perf_glossary.asp Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT Today, we updated the accessibility guideline for keyboard control of UI elements. The German version of the document has also been updated. http://wwwdfap4.wdf.sap.corp:2080/resources/keyboardControl_NW04_EN.pdf Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT We are proud to announce that we published our second highlight topic on the SAP Design Guild (see top news). This year's articles focus on performance, or more precisely, on various aspects of human performance at the computer. Since there are already a number of introductions to the highlight topic on this site, our author would like to reserve this editorial to a specific aspect: performance-oriented (UI) design. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_05_2008.asp Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT Our second highlight topic is devoted to human performance at the computer and includes topics such as responsiveness, perceived performance, and busy feedback. The articles have been published in different areas of the SAP Design Guild over the course of about one year and are now presented within a coherent framework for easier access. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/highlight_articles_02/overview_highlight.asp Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:30:00 GMT In this article, our author focuses on the aspect of improving system responsiveness. He points out that the challenge here is to find ways of reducing the waiting times for users even when processes are still running. He also shows that responsiveness is by no means a purely technical topic, because waiting times also impact users in certain ways. The article lists recommendations for making applications more responsive and concludes with discussing how control can be returned to users in the best possible way. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/responsiveness.asp Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:30:00 GMT In this article, our author focuses on perceived performance. He takes a look at the factors that influence how users perceive the system's and their own performance, and presents approaches to improving perceived performance. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/perc_perf.asp Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT In the second article (even though named part 4...), our author focuses on improving the users' performance. He points out that user interface design plays a critical role in this endeavor and proposes to establish "performance-oriented" guidelines, which support UI designers and help them to improve the user's performance -- or, at least, prevent them from degrading it. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/perf_or_gl.asp Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT In previous articles, our author has discussed human performance at the computer and distinguished between three aspects of performance: system performance, system responsiveness, and human performance. He pointed out that in order to improve the overall performance of the human-computer system, all three aspects need to be optimized. In this series of four articles, he picks up the topic of human performance at the computer, includes new insights, and discusses performance-related issues that can be approached by UI designers. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/perf_general.asp Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT In the third and final article of the series on system feedack, our author finally focuses on the important questions under which conditions and at which point in time the different types of feedback should be given. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/busy_feedback_3.asp Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT We updated the Accessibility edition with a new ICCHP 2008 presentation and a corresponding presentation outline. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition9/overview_edition9.asp Thu, 9 Oct 2008 13:30:00 GMT Today, we updated the UI Guidelines for CRM WebClient User Interface in the Resources section to version 1.5. Please note that the guidelines are in PDF format and nearly 18 MB in file size. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/CRM-UI-Guidelines-Customers.pdf Wed, 8 Oct 2008 13:00:00 GMT When our reviewer attended the INTERACT 2005 conference in Rome, Bill Buxton was one of the invited speakers. In his talk, Buxton promoted the use of sketching as a tool for the early stages of design and for exploring as many design ideas as possible. At the CHI 2008 conference, our reviewer encountered Buxton again who this time, among others, gave the closing plenary address. Shortly before the talk, he saw people carrying Buxton's latest book, Sketching User Experiences. Our reviewer bought the book after he had returned home. What do you think is it about? Read the review... http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_sketching.asp Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:00:00 GMT In the second part of this short series of three articles, our author looks at different types of feedback that can be given in the event of a delay: Immediate feedback and different forms of busy feedback, such as busy indicator feedback, working indicator feedback, as well as informed feedback, such as progress bars and system messages. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/busy_feedback_2.asp Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:30:00 GMT SAP User Experience - Infrastructure offers a position for a work student at Walldorf, Germany. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/jobs.asp Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:00:00 GMT SAP User Experience - Research, Standards and Methods offers a new Sr User Interface Designer position at Palo Alto, CA, USA. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/jobs_rsm3.asp Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:30:00 GMT For the third time, the SAP User Experience Team will sponsor usability activities at SAP TechEd Europe. The conference will take place in Berlin, Germany, from October 14 to 16, 2008. All SAP TechEd Europe attendees who are interested in one or two of the test sessions contact Simone Holz at simone.charlotte.holz@sap.com. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/news.asp Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:30:00 GMT From September 23-25, 2008, the DSAG annual conference (DSAG Jahreskonferenz) will be held at the Congress Center in Leipzig. Once again, SAP User Experience will have a SAP DSAG Usability Testcenter there. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/news.asp Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:30:00 GMT This fall, SAP collects feedback on design concepts and applications at the 2008 ASUG FALL FOCUS: Operations Optimization, which takes place on September 15-17, 2008 in Nashville, TN. SAP Usability Activities conducted at ASUG are coordinated and supported by SAP's User Experience team. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/news.asp Wed, 3 Sep 2008 15:30:00 GMT Now, the bestselling book "Developing Accessible Applications with SAP NetWeaver", written by members of SAP's Accessibility team, is also available as accessible e-book. We are very proud that Galileo Press has chosen our book as first e-book in their product portfolio. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/acc.asp Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:00:00 GMT Seven years after the original publication of his famous GUI Bloopers book, Jeff Johnson published the second edition, GUI Bloopers 2.0, announcing on the cover that it has been "totally updated and revised." Of course, "updated and revised" points to the fact that the essentials of the book have remained unchanged -- and that is a good thing, because GUI Bloopers was already a useful book in its first edition. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_gui_bloopers2.asp Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:30:00 GMT This report summarizes a design and research project carried out earlier this year within the Department of Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf. The University and LG Mobile initiated a project to develop innovative design concepts for future scenarios of mobile interaction. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_mobile_enterprise.asp Fri, 8 Aug 2008 08:00:00 GMT In his summer editorial for 2008, our author would like to take his readers on a tour of many of the buzzwords that have been used for our profession of designing usable software applications. Do not expect him to be objective, complete, fair, or politically correct in his observations. This is just a subjective tour of some buzzwords that he has encountered, and he will share his personal opinions and, finally, his personal favorite. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_04_2008.asp Wed, 6 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT The SAP User Experience - Visual Design team is proud to present a brand new visual design for SAP products. Designed and developed in Walldorf, Germany by our in-house design team, the new Signature design is a milestone in product design at SAP and in the business software industry. Four new article in the Resources section cover this exciting topic (link leads to introductory article). http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/visualdesign_bus.asp Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT SAP User Experience - Applications, ERP offers the opportunity to write a Diplomarbeit or Master Thesis at Walldorf or St. Leon-Rot, Germany. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/jobs.asp Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT We also added the article about the SAP CRM Web Client, which has been published in the Stories section today, to the SAP User Experience Edition. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition10/crm_web_client.asp Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT SAP first started to offer a completely Web-based CRM user interface with release 3.1 of the SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. This UI was virtually the first "pattern-based" interface for an SAP software product. The simple hierarchical pattern of SAP CRM 3.1 was then enhanced and improved, culminating in the launch of SAP CRM version 5.0. It was then time for a radical overhaul of the CRM Web UI. Read how the CRM user interface was given a more contemporary and modern look and feel in line with the general trend for Web applications. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_crm_web_client.asp Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:00:00 GMT SAP User Experience - Research, Standards and Methods offers a new Sr User Researcher position at Palo Alto, CA, USA. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/jobs_rsm2.asp Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:30:00 GMT Have you ever counted how many remote controls you have in your household? Our author just did that, and he found 10 different remote controls. However, remote controls are just a small subset of the electronic devices and gadgets lingering in modern households. So he expanded his selection of interactive devices to include phones, calculators, thermometers and weather stations, translators, digital cameras, and more. This led to a collection of 29 devices, but would not be surprised if the number exceeded 100. Harold Thimbleby's textbook Press On book addresses exactly this issue, namely the variety of interactive systems and devices that surround us and how we can improve their design. He shows that we can design better interactive systems and devices if we draw on sound computer science principles. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_press_on.asp Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:00:00 GMT Today, we published the UI Guidelines for CRM WebClient User Interface in the Resources section. Please note that the guidelines are in PDF format and nearly 13 MB in file size. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/CRM-UI-Guidelines-Customers.pdf Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT In a short series of three articles, our author would like to discuss a "performance issue," namely, the "worst-case" scenario: Provided that further technical optimization is not possible and users have to wait at the computer for a certain amount of time, what can developers and designers do to make the waiting more tolerable for users? Read the first part of the series. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/busy_feedback_1.asp Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:00:00 GMT We added one more new book presentation to our Books & People page: Ben Fry: Visualizing Data. The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:00:00 GMT Today, we published a presentation (7.4 MB) about SAP's Signature Design in Resources (The Signature Design -- The New Visual Design for SAP Products). http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/New_Visual_Design_for_SAP_Products_External.pps Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:00:00 GMT SAP User Experience - Research, Standards and Methods offers a new UX/ASUG Communications Specialist position at Palo Alto, CA, USA. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/jobs_rsm.asp Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:00:00 GMT CHI 2008 is over -- once again, time to look back and write a report for the SAP Design Guild. First, our author would like to warn his readers: This collection of CHI 2008 snippets is neither balanced, nor fair. Readers may even find that this report turns into a rant, but there are also a number of positive observations. Large conferences are always like a shopping bag -- you have to pick what suits you best. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_chi2008_gw.asp Thu, 29 May 2008 14:30:00 GMT We also added the article on visual design, which has been published in the Stories section today, to the SAP User Experience Edition. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/editions/edition10/ux_vd.asp Thu, 29 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT Shaving kilobytes off images to save precious time, and matching design with function – the SAP User Experience - Visual Design Team has been busy equipping more SAP applications with the new visual design. SAPPHIRE 2008 was the company’s first chance to show off the new design on a wide scale. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_ux_vd.asp Thu, 08 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT When talking about the performance of computer systems or applications, we soon realize that we have to consider an "android" system. That is, the performance of the whole system, not only the performance of its components, namely, the computer system and the human user. So, we might ask, "Is there an approach that takes the whole system, the computer and the user into account?" In this article, our author will look at this issue more closely. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_03_2008.asp Tue, 06 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT The theme of this year's CHI was "Art, Science, Balance," and what better location than Florence Italy, the city of great artists and scientists, to contemplate this concept? The venue for CHI 2008 was the historic Fortezza da Basso, a medieval outpost in the heart of Florence. For the one week that CHI was in town, the halls of the old fort echoed with terms such as "Web 2.0," "Research methodologies" ... a mere blink of an eye in it’s 500 year existence. Read what SAP UX colleague Janaki Kumar has to report from the conference. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_chi2008_jk.asp Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Reas and Fry's book about the Processing programming language and its applications for designers and artists comes in at a hefty 600 plus pages and includes a multitude of programming exercises and examples. Read what our reviewer has to say about the book. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_processing.asp Thu, 17 Apr 2007 16:00:00 GMT We collected a couple of photos showing the SAP booth at the CHI 2008 conference, life at the booth, SAP UX participants in CHI panels, and more. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/readers/reader_chi2008_sap.asp Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:30:00 GMT We added two book presentations to our Books & People page. (1) Bill Buxton: Sketching User Experiences, (2) Colin Ware: Visual Thinking for Design. Both books have also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp Mon, 12 Apr 2008 11:30:00 GMT The Design Services Team offers a new Design Consultant position at Palo Alto, CA, USA. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/design_consultant.asp Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:00:00 GMT Rich Gold was probably one of the most creative and multi-faceted persons of our time. Born in 1950, he performed as an experimental musician, designer, and artist in the seventies. Thereafter, he worked at various times at diverse locations, such as Xerox PARC and the toy companies SEGA and Mattel. In his later years, Gold was also a sought-after speaker. In the last year of his busy but regrettably too short life – he died of cancer in 2003 – Gold wrote The Plenitude, a short inspiring book, which captures his ideas about creativity, innovation, and the human desire for "making stuff." http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_gold.asp Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:30:00 GMT Today we added another new presentation for the CSUN 2008 conference: Benefit of Good UI Design in Web-Applications for Disabled and Non-Disabled Users http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/CSUN_2008_Boeker_Schaetz.ppt Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:00:00 GMT The SAP UX Visual Design Team offers an Industrial Designer position and two positions for working students at Walldorf, Germany. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/job_offers/jobs.asp Thu, 12 Mar 2008 13:30:00 GMT We added two more examples to the article and changed its title. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/controls_horror.asp Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:30:00 GMT We would like to start a collection of "controls of horror," that is, a selection of user interface controls that terrorize users in a number of ways - be it that they annoy them, steal their time, mislead them, or whatever. We begin the collection with three controls, hoping that it will grow over time. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/controls_horror.asp Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:30:00 GMT Today we added a new presentation for the CSUN 2008 conference: Adding Additional Accessibility Capabilities to Installed Software After Shipment http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/csun_2008_v3.ppt Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:15:00 GMT The second article of the series has been published together with the first one. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/attributes_2.asp Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:15:00 GMT In this short series of two articles, our author looks at a fairly common task – namely the selection of one or more objects on the basis of their attributes – and presents a number of ways of performing it, ranging from a text-based, formal query statement to new visualization techniques. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/design/attributes_1.asp Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:30:00 GMT Looking back over the last eight years at least, it looks like there is a tradition to hold the CHI conference outside of North America every four years. Our author does not know whether this is a firm rule. In any case, in 2008, the CHI conference will be held in Florence, Italy, a wonderful city boasting plenty of beautiful Renaissance buildings and art treasures. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_02_2008.asp Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:00:00 GMT We updated the guideline "Frontend Requirements and Infrastructure for Accessibility" in the Accessibility part of our Resources section. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/acc.asp Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:00:00 GMT We added new accessibility guidelines for keyboard access for Web Dynpro for ABAP / Web Dynpro for Java to the Accessibility part of our Resources section. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/acc.asp Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:30:00 GMT Seven years after the first edition of his textbook Information Visualization, Robert Spence published the second edition of his book, increasing the volume by more than 70 pages, although not the book's thickness – the new edition seems to be made of lighter and thinner paper. A The publisher explains that the second edition has been updated as follows: a new structure, new case studies, new material material on cognitive issues in human performance, and updated examples and illustrations. In addition, there are new student exercises at the end of each chapter, and a new DVD full of videos illustrating diverse visualization techniques. So, let's see what the new version of the textbook has to offer. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_info_vis2.asp Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:30:00 GMT From time to time, our author gets somewhat frustrated about the progress that the software industry has made with respect to delivering usable applications. In his opinion, one of the many reasons for this situation is the barriers that still exist between software developers and UI professionals. Developers and UI people seem to live in different worlds and speak different languages. In this editorial, our author wants to delve a bit deeper into this dilemma and look at the proposed solutions. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/editorials/editorial_01_2008.asp Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:30:00 GMT We added three new biographies of well known UI/design people to our Books & People page: Sarah Horton, Henry Lieberman, and Robert Spence. The biographies have also been added to the archive. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:30:00 GMT Our author cannot think of any other topic in the electronic universe for which so many guidelines and recommendations have been written as for the design of Websites. So, here is one more style guide for Web designers. This time, it has been written by Sarah Horton. Actually, Horton is an "old hand" in the Web style guide business. Together with Patrick Lynch, she co-authored one of the earliest and best known sets of guidelines for the Web, now called the Web Style Guide. Horton calls her latest style guide Access by Design – a Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers, indicating that she now follows a universal Web design approach. Our review examines what this means. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_acc_design.asp Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:00:00 GMT We added one more, long overdue, new book presentation to our Books & People page: Alan Cooper, Robert M. Reimann & Dave Cronin: About Face 3.0. The book has also been included in our book list. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/book_people.asp#booke