Some years ago I sat in on a lecture at the Tekom conference given by a technical writer from SAP. At this lecture I learned some valuable principles SAP used, and possibly still does, to builds its products. These principles are encapsulated in the SAP Flori Design.
SAP’s new design principles came about as the result of a decision. SAP realized their product UI design sucked! They learned their customers hated it and made a decision to change it. So, they brought in an expert designer to completely rethink and redesign SAP UIs. The result was a set of principles known as SAP Flori.
According to their website, the philosophy behind Flori is based on these five core principles:
| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Role-based | User focus first. What are the user’s actually doing and what do they need to accomplish with the product. |
| Delightful | Make the user experience free of distracting elements that have nothing to do with the task at hand. |
| Coherent | Have a consistent experience across all elements of the product and ensuring each step along the way is intuitive. |
| Simple | Make tasks intuitive and uncomplicated by focusing on what is important and getting non-essentials out of the way. |
| Adaptive | Provide the same experience on whatever device a user may choose to use. |
Designer response
At first designers resisted these changes. In the existing design they knew where all the functions where to be placed and how to program them. That didn’t mean customers felt the same way. Of course, users sometimes accepted crappy design because that is the way it has always been. But it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Expert users of a product may know how to do things with a UI but it does not mean they are happy about it.
Esther Blankenship who is a User Experience Evangelist at SAP SE wrote this about usability:
Let’s banish this myth that expert UIs by nature must look terrible. This is the lazy way out! Here are some basic design principles to which all users, whether expert or not, have a right:
- Consistency in visual elements such as fonts and colors
- Correct usage of UI controls (ideally following the appropriate UI guidelines)
- At least a bit of padding and white space
- On-screen labels and text that target users can easily understand
- Progressive disclosure to move less important information off the screen and let the user concentrate on the task at hand
- And finally, a design that adapts to the device being used
Beauty and usability in balance
The usability expert Don Norman wrote in Emotion & Design: Attractive things work better:
Positive affect makes people more tolerant of minor difficulties and more flexible and creative in finding solutions.
In the same article, he makes the point that:
Good design means that beauty and usability are in balance.
I couldn’t agree more. A user interface need not to look terrible to be usable. Good design makes people more willing to work with a product that may have some minor problems. They will overlook a small flaw because the product is just so darn easy and great to work with.
As a technical writer, I see good design and bad design all the time. It’s part of my work experience. Documenting a product with good design is so much easier and quicker than documenting a product with poor design. In the later case, I need to be the interpreter and guide to help a user navigate poor UI design.
With good or even great UI design, less documentation is needed. Just consider the documentation that comes with an iPad or iPhone. Is there really any documentation for it? Not really in the sense of a proper user guide. It is just well designed.
So at its heart, a good product, application or even online documentation needs to be usable.usability is basic design principles that encompass both beauty and function. This makes working with these products a joy, a real pleasure. This ultimately is the end of the matter - bringing a bit of joy into the life of someone. And what can be wrong with that?
For more information take a look at these: