SAP User-Centered Design

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From SAP Design Guild

　　By Ux Design & Research Methodology, User Experience, SAP AG – 02/03/2006
　　This page presents SAP's new design process, called SAP User-Centered Design (UCD).
　　
Overview
　　The SAP User-Centered Design (UCD) process is a philosophy and set of methods focused on designing for and involving end-users in application development to achieve high-quality user experiences and high-quality SAP products. The SAP UCD process is based on proven design processes, iteration, and accountability across the entire design lifecycle.
　　The three functional phases of the SAP UCD process are:

• Understand Users,
  
• Define Interaction, and
  
• Design UI.
  

　　Understand Users begins UCD by forming an understanding of who will use the product. Define Interaction, primarily constructing use cases, is the central pillar of UCD, bridging user understanding to design and the rest of the development process. Design UI is the visible face of UCD built from user understanding and defined interaction. It is important to view UCD as an integral component to the full product development process from idea to product. UCD cannot succeed alone; a product cannot meet user needs without UCD.

Figure 1: Overview of SAP User-Centered Design
　　Below, we will describe the three phases of UCD im more detail.
　　
The Phases
Phase One of the SAP UCD Process: Understand Users
　　Product development begins with a vision of a product, which includes a vision of the users for that product. A vision, however, is not enough to start design. Every product has different users. Some products have many different types of users. Even new versions of old products can have a changing user population. Business, and business software, is a complex and ever-changing domain. Therefore, it is critical to accurately understand end-users' needs and pain points.
　　The UCD process relies on iterative user research to understand users and their needs. Knowledge databases of existing users are a good start; however, it is important to involve potential end-users at the onset of UCD. Focus groups, interviews, and field research form the basis of the first two phases of UCD. To ensure that end-users and their needs are sufficiently understood, the first phase specifies user profiles, work activities, and user requirements for the intended user populations. Nothing involving defining a product or designing a UI is considered in this phase.
Phase Two of the SAP UCD Process: Define Interaction
　　The most common failure point in a UCD process is transferring the understanding of users to UI design. Even simple products struggle without a clear product definition. For SAP products, the key is to first define the product architecture, without design.
　　Understanding the users heavily influences defining the interaction. The user requirements contribute to the goals that define the use cases; work activities guide how the goals, and thus product, are organized; and the user profiles influence the level of detail needed. The data definitions are the only building blocks of an "interface" that need to be determined in this phase; dialogs, buttons, tabs, labels, and all other rendered elements are not included.
　　Phase 1 & 2 Validation (Users & Interaction)
　　Immediately following phase two, both users and SAP stakeholders validate the user understanding and interaction definition. This is a checkpoint to see if the vision is being achieved and the value is clear to customers and SAP.
Phase Three of the SAP UCD Process: Design UI
　　The third phase of UCD is to design the user interface (UI), which evolves from the interaction architecture definition. A primary concern with design is to not get locked into a single solution too early. Until the full product is mapped out, too much detail can sidetrack progress, causing schedules to slip. To help prevent design traps, this phase is explicitly broken into two stages; low-fidelity prototyping and high-fidelity prototyping. Low-fidelity designs allow experimentation. High-fidelity prototypes provide full-featured previews of the final product. Iterative user evaluations of designs and prototypes are geared to be fast and effective in improving design.
　　Phase 3 Validation (UI Design) / Pre-Development
　　After UIs are designed, another validation is necessary to monitor progress. The checkpoint at the product definition determines if the foundation is correct. At this checkpoint, the Ux team and SAP stakeholders review the UI before major development resources begin building.
　　Post-Development Validation
　　Lastly, after the UIs have been coded, but before code freeze, a final UCD check is made to determine if the developed product meets UI standards. A CIF usability test is then run to provide usability metrics for existing and potential customers and for SAP.
　　
Conclusion
　　SAP User-Centered Design accompanies application development across the whole development cycle, that is from the product vision up to post-development validation. Centered on users, it ensures that SAP's application come up to the promise that users can rightfully say, "The software works the way as I do."