The SAP User-Centered Design Process

by Design & Research Methodology, User Experience, SAP AG –

This page presents SAP's new design process, called SAP User-Centered Design (UCD).

Introduction

The SAP User-Centered Design (UCD) 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, essential design processes and accountability across the entire design lifecycle.

UCD results in more usable and satisfying systems, making SAP software more effective, efficient, easy to learn, pleasant to use, and predictable – in essence, a high-quality user experience, contributing to high-quality products, and ultimately, more sales, market share, and revenue for SAP.

UCD is based on four fundamental principles:

1) focus on real end users, 2) validate requirements and designs, 3) design, prototype, and develop iteratively, and 4) understand and design for the holistic user experience. The SAP UCD process embraces these principles in three functional phases:

Figure 1: The phases of SAP User-Centered Design

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