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SAP User Experience : sometimes I am wondering ...

Former Member
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Today has been launched an new SAP Site called https://experience.sap.com/.

I have discovered it with my personal Google alert.

As you may have observed, there has been a lot of SAP buzz on Great User Experience.

I am not only referring to Mobility.

Day in the life of a SAP User

I have found an entry on Personas on this new website and decided to post a comment (in fact few questions-observations).

After spending 10 mns to write my comment (I am not a native english speaker) I push the button to post my comment.

And then I got a wonderful screen "SQL Error Apache" which include some wonderful SQL statement.

No need to say I have lost all my typing.

This is a violation of the basic User Experience Guidelines.

Then I decided to enter a short comment .... and then very strange characters are displayed (and I am wondering if some words at the end sentence have not been lost).

My sacarstic take-away

What a disapointment !!!

On a website around Experience, basic application development practices are not followed.

Long time ago (last century) I was writing code and this kind of error was avoided (or detected before going in production through testing).

Of course the screens seem to look nice .... but there is not a 1 to 1 relationship between beauty and great user experience.

It looks like to paint a car to hide the rust.

What a poor marketing impact (no need to say I had a similar disappointment when SCN was revamped).

SAP is eager to sell story to their customer .... but is not applying it.

Is SAP running SAP ... from a User Experience, Design Thinking point of view ?

From time to time I am loosing faith, patience with SAP on some subjects (I do agree it is a minor fact but I have other more important facts that I am trying to work with SAP).

How can I convince my internal stakeholder if I am not convinced ?

Conclusion

Sometimes I am wondering if SAP should not outsource some of their development to their customers .....

It is my first blog so I do not how it will be treated and how the SAP automated sentiment data analysis will identify this blog.

Last but not least let's hope the post message will work properly here.

9 REPLIES 9

MattHarding
Active Contributor
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Hi Patrick,

I'm guessing you've just got in their early due to the power of Google...But tend to agree that there's some clunkiness and Web 1.5 style pages there that aren't really expected on a UX page - but then again, do we judge SAP for the UX of their UX site??? Probably yes, but hey.  I also noticed there's no real tablet view of the page when I first looked at it. Another obvious consideration for UX but hey (again).

Keep up the posting - and thanks for pointing this out.

Cheers,

Matt

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Have to admit it's refreshingly fast however!

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Hi matt,

in fact I realize I had in mind to blog ... and I have used the discussion forum.

But it does not matter.

I am a customer of SAP and they sometimes try to explain "my business","my life" (for example Design Thinking, User Centric Design).

So Yes I am judging SAP for the UX on their UX Website (that's not the only way to judge it).

Are you not calling that Marketing ?

If themselves can not provide a good user experience with their own tools-process ... why should I select their product ?

I have a basic "quality" quote : Tell what you do and do what you tell.

Like Simon is highlighting there is something behind the scene .... called "Rationalisation".

Last but not least maybe I should convert my original question in a blog ....

Patrick.

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Hi Patrick (and Simon),

It actually didn't occur to me this was a blog or discussion because I watch this space and jump straight to interesting topics but definitely a blog worthy discussion.

And yep - I agree it should be judged.  Maybe they should create a persona web site over the top of their site to improve usability

Oh well - The site was announced officially last night, so hopefully us last minute beta testers helped sort out the last usability issues???

FYI - Would love to here Former Member 's opinion on this web site since this is appears to be a new community very closely related to SCN (or the SAP Design Guild as Simon notes).

Cheers,

Matt

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Hi Matt: I was surprised by this one, and agree that it doesn't need to be yet another new site and new community. I would have personally preferred this to be part of the SAP Community Network. I suppose imitation is a form of flattery, but I think a more holistic approach better serves our customers/members. 

Former Member
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Well that's a bit embarrassing! Teething issues I guess, but still

I also wonder the need for another site, a separate community for UX - what about this space in SCN and what about the SAP Design Guild http://www.sapdesignguild.org/ do we need so many?

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I agree, Simon, that the proliferation of disconnected and new websites and communities becomes a problem for users/members as time and energy and attention are fragmented. Others feel differently, as they want their own to design, manage, etc. themselves. I suppose they feel that either they are not well-served with the current community, or that the new focus and target audience is different enough to warrant a separate and different approach.  This is another example of a group/team and leader believing differently than you or I do; I predict it won't be the last.

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Hi Simon, to try to answer your question about why SAP hosts so many different communities and websites, each one has a specific target group and purpose in mind. The SAP Design Guild, for example, is aimed at design professionals and is an online resource about design, not just design at SAP, but also design topics in general. The UX Community is very much focused on SAP products and the target group is our customers. We want to make sure that each group has a platform which best suits his or her needs. Thus the various sites.

former_member182902
Participant
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Hello Patrick,

The site is still quite new. We appologize for any technical or usability issues you have encountered. We are working very hard now to iron out the wrinkles.

Best regards,

Esther