The document outlines SAP's user experience strategy to improve the user experience of its applications. The strategy involves focusing on new applications with consumer-grade UX, renewing existing applications by improving the top-use business scenarios, and providing tools to enable customers to improve additional scenarios. SAP's key approaches are to use technologies like SAPUI5, Web Dynpro, and mobile-friendly designs across new, renewed, and custom applications.

1. SAP® User Experience Strategy
New, Renew, Enable.
April 2013
©2013SAPAGoranSAPaffiliatecompany.Allrightsreserved.

2. © 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
This document outlines our general product direction and should not be relied on in making a
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3. 3SAP User Experience Strategy
© 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP® User Experience Strategy
User Experience
User experience (UX) takes into consideration all aspects of
the end user’s interaction with products, systems, processes,
and services. It is not limited to the usability of a system, but
also includes the users’ perception of the user experience. On
the other hand, usability relates solely to the ease with which
users can achieve their goals while interacting with a system.
SAP constantly strives to achieve the right balance between
feasibility (technology), viability (business), and desirability
(human values) when developing innovative solutions.
Trends, Design Direction, Vision, and Mission
The way people work with software has changed dramatically
over the last number of years. Today people use mobile devices
as part of everyday life. They are used to the speed and simplic-
ity of using Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon. This experi-
ence raises the bar for business software as users demand a
similar from SAP® solutions.
Based on feedback from customers and trends in the IT indus-
try, SAP defined a clear user experience strategy that incorpo-
rates our aspiration, vision, and mission for user experience.
Reflecting IT trends and user expectations, we have distilled
our strategy into the following design directions:
•• Solve the right problem the right way
•• Design for the mobile mind-set
•• Give the user one entry point
•• Provide coherence for common activities
•• Know and show the user context
•• Provide brand coherence
•• Integrate data meaningfully
•• Enable adaptation and personalization
•• Deploy to users in one day
By 2015, SAP will make superior user experience and design an
integral part of the SAP brand experience – just as the SAP
HANA® platform has reconfirmed SAP’s reputation for
innovation.
SAP’s Approach
A key consideration in improving the user experience of SAP
applications was how to include existing applications, which al-
ready deliver consumer-grade experience, while embracing
such new technologies as mobile and cloud. SAP decided to fo-
cus on three areas for applications:
•• Provide consumer-grade UX for new applications
•• Renew existing applications by improving the UX of soft-
ware supporting the most commonly-used business
scenarios
•• Enable customers to improve the UX of the SAP software
they use to perform their own mission-critical business
scenarios
Over time, the percentage of new and renewed applications
representing SAP software will increase to significantly aug-
ment the overall usability of SAP business solutions.
Figure 1: Design Innovation
Vision - Provide the leading user experience for business applications
Mission - Deliver attractive applications that make people successful at work

4. 4 SAP User Experience Strategy
© 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
The UX Strategy: New, Renew, Enable
New
Customers and users agree that SAP already delivers great
new products with consumer-grade user experience. SAP will
continue to deliver these applications in all areas – cloud-
based and mobile solutions, SAP HANA, and on-premise soft-
ware – thereby raising the bar for consumer-grade business
applications significantly. We will also continue to deliver con-
sumer-grade user experiences for consumer apps, such as the
SAP Fan Experience solution and the PhotoTribe, Recalls Plus,
and My Runway mobile apps.
But SAP will not just design new user interfaces. Leveraging
SAP HANA and HTML5 as core technologies, SAP will create a
new experience to address emerging working models for busi-
ness users that will have reach far beyond the traditional SAP
user base.
Figure 2: SAP® Financials OnDemand Solution
The user experience strategy was crafted together
with customers in an intensive and iterative process.
It is both a pragmatic, yet also innovative approach
to bring a consumer-grade user experience to the
majority of users of SAP’s software.
NEW

5. 5SAP User Experience Strategy
© 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
Renew
With a well-established solution portfolio, SAP is focused on
improving the user experience of its most significant existing
software – SAP Business Suite applications. As the business
scenarios it supports and the associated user interface ele-
ments number in the thousands, it’s impossible to improve
them all. SAP will focus on the business scenarios of highest
impact and value for our customers.
Top-Use Scenarios
Analysis reveals that employees widely use a limited number of
the scenarios supported by SAP software, for example, em-
ployee and manager self-services for requesting and approving
leave of absence. SAP refers to these scenarios as “top-use”
scenarios and will build new apps for the top-use scenarios
supported by SAP Business Suite. All functionality that does
not require the user to have a strong business background will
eventually be covered by this approach. The preferred technol-
ogy to develop these applications is the UI development toolkit
for HTML5.
Core-Use Scenarios
A different category of highly-used scenario at most customer
sites is that employed by specialized business users – sales or-
der entry clerks, HR professionals, and financial accountants.
SAP refers to these as “core-use” scenarios. So far SAP has
identified about 25 roles eligible for renewal, which includes:
•• Renew role-specific key transactions
•• Optimize the role for mobile use where applicable
•• Consistently apply generic UX innovation using state-of-
the-art best practices
SAP has already started renewal of core-use scenarios in SAP
enhancement packages 4, 5, and 6 of the SAP ERP application
6.0, and in the related enhancement packages of the SAP Cus-
tomer Relationship Management, Supplier Relationship Man-
agement, and Supply Chain Management applications. The
preferred technology for renewal of key transactions in these
enhancement packages is the Web Dynpro development envi-
ronment and the ABAP® programming language, using the
“floor plan manager” framework and the UI development tool-
kit for HTML5 for landing pages.
Figure 3: Total Distribution of Use Scenarios
The UX Strategy: New, Renew, Enable
RENEW

6. 6 SAP User Experience Strategy
© 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
The UX Strategy: New, Renew, Enable
Enable
Every customer has a set of scenarios considered most strate-
gic to the business. SAP refers to these as “customer value-use
scenarios.”Value-use scenarios vary from customer to custom-
er and from industry to industry. SAP cannot improve all value-
use scenarios. Instead, SAP can and does provide enabling
tools to improve the UX of current products and to develop
customer-specific user interfaces.
Enabling tools
Tools enabling customers to improve the UX of current prod-
ucts include SAP Screen Personas software, side panels within
SAP NetWeaver® Business Client software, and “floor plan
manager” and Web UI frameworks. SAP Screen Personas helps
customers redesign SAP GUI screens, not just to hide fields to
achieve focus and simplicity, but also to deliver a slicker user
experience.
Tools to develop customer-specific user interfaces
Several options to develop customer-specific user interfaces in
a nondisruptive way include “floor plan manager” for Web Dyn-
pro using ABAP and the UI development toolkit for HTML5. An
“AppDesigner” for developing customer-specific applications
based on the toolkit is planned.
Figure 4: Before (on left) and After (on right) Screens with SAP® Screen Personas
ENABLE

7. 7SAP User Experience Strategy
© 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
Key UI Technologies and Frameworks from SAP
The key UI technologies which render the application user in-
terfaces as of today are:
•• UI development toolkit for HTML5 (SAPUI5)
•• Web Dynpro ABAP with Floorplan Manager
•• Web UIF
•• Dynpro
SAPUI5 is SAP’s HTML5 UI technology best suited to flexibly
build user interfaces across different devices (mobile and desk-
top) on top of SAP NetWeaver Gateway. Web Dynpro ABAP
with the Floorplan Manager and Web UIF are proven UI technol-
ogies that allow the configuration of form/pattern based appli-
cations on desktop browsers. Focus is on UI consistency and
development efficiency. A set of highly usable customization
and personalization options is also provided. Dynpro remains
the most used UI technology. The Dynpro transactions are typi-
cally very rich in functionality. Data consumption, application
logic, and the UI are typically deeply mixed.
SAP will use SAPUI5 or Web Dynpro ABAP with Floorplan Man-
ager to build new applications in SAP Business Suite.
User Interface clients like SAP NetWeaver® Business Client
software and the SAP NetWeaver Portal component act as the
entry point for users to enable a coherent user experience
across different applications and UI technologies.
Recommendations for Customers
SAP recommends that customers base their own user experi-
ence strategy on the benefits they require from using SAP soft-
ware. This enables business and IT to jointly develop a UX road
map aligned with the SAP UX strategy. To help customers de-
velop their UX strategy, we provide the following
recommendations:
1. Investigate the new and renewed applications available by
consulting:
•• SAP Business Suite road map for user experience: (https://
websmp204.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000215472
013E.pdf)
•• www.sapsolutionbrowser.com
•• www.sapimprovementfinder.com
2. Evaluate enabling tools
3. Follow the design directions for building new SAP applica-
tions at:
•• www.sapdesignguild.org
•• www.experience.sap.com
4. Follow the user interface technology strategy SAP provides:
•• Use “floor plan manager” and the UI development toolkit
for HTML5 (SAPUI5) for building new applications
•• Use SAP NetWeaver® Business Client software and the
SAP NetWeaver Portal component as the user interface
(UI) client
5. Leverage UX services from SAP:
•• UX optimization services – To assess current software us-
ability and make UX improvements
•• UX enablement services – To develop an individual UX road
map
•• UX advisory services – To get advice and guidance on
building UX capabilities towards a Center of Expertise
(COE).
Figure 5: SAP’s Key UI Technologies and Frameworks
(Desktop Perspective)
Technology and Recommendations

8. www.sap.com/contactsap
Sam Yen, Andreas Hauser, Carsten Polenz, Nis Boy Naeve, Volker
Zimmermann, Jörg Rosbach, Gerrit Kotze
(April 2013)
© 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
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