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Design Principles

SAP Engagement Cloud Design Principles are shared guidelines that capture the essence of what good design means for our company, and advice on how to achieve it.

The principles are ordered by importance.

1. Purposeful​

The purpose of SAP Engagement Cloud is always obvious. We provide easily accessible turn key solutions for common marketing problems, not just a toolbox of technology. We have an opinion about how marketing should be done, and this narrative is visible in our workflows — we never leave our users to their own.

Provide turn key solutions:

  • SAP Engagement Cloud should provide easily accessible solutions for common marketing problems, not just a toolbox of technology.
    • Identify primary use cases and build the flow around these meaningful defaults.
    • Include meaningful blueprints and templates.
  • SAP Engagement Cloud has an opinion about how marketing should be done.
    • Make sure the workflow reflects our narrative.

2. Adaptable​

SAP Engagement Cloud is adaptable to our users' specific needs. We prepare for scalability, as some of our users are huge, some of them are small — but they might grow huge as well. We consider collaboration, since most of our users collaborate across multiple departments.

Prepare for scalability and collaboration:

  • Some of our customers are small — some of them are huge. Prepare your design to be used both in a small scale and in a huge scale.
    • Anticipate problems that might come with scalability over time: layout, data, performance.
    • Some of our customers use workflows alone, some collaborate on them across multiple departments.

Make functionality adaptable for specific needs through systemising:

  • Our customers are varied, one size fits all doesn't work.
    • Explore and research less vital but perfectly valid use cases, and build a system around them.
    • Don't cut off functionality if it makes sense to have in the system.
    • Don't ignore edge-cases.

3. Clear​

SAP Engagement Cloud always communicates clearly with our users. We show our logic, how our software calculates the results. We make sure our users never feel lost in SAP Engagement Cloud. We speak to our users in a language they know, with consistent tone and terminology across the product.

Show our logic:

  • Build trust by communicating to the user how SAP Engagement Cloud thinks and works. Be transparent with calculations and results.
    • Make connections between data and resources clear by matching them with styles and visual cues — colours, typography, layout.
    • Show the input and the output, and how we got to it. Don't put the math and the process in a black box.

Put the marketer in our workflow:

  • The marketer should always know where they are in SAP Engagement Cloud — where they came from, where they are now, and what's ahead.
    • Workflows should have a definitive start and end point.
    • A single step in the workflow should be focused on a single goal.
    • Always call to action for what's next. Don't put dead ends in workflows.
    • Always provide an escape route, so the user can cancel their action and return to a safe state.

Speak to our personas:

  • Use language that marketers know.
    • Refer to objects in common marketing terminology.
    • Don't burden marketers with technical terms.
  • SAP Engagement Cloud terminology should be consistent.
    • Use SAP Engagement Cloud terminology consistently across the whole platform.

4. Trustworthy​

SAP Engagement Cloud appears as a professional tool that marketers can rely on. We never ship interfaces that don't feel complete, and make sure they are coherent and consistent across the product.

Make the interface feel complete:

  • Half-finished designs shouldn't be shipped.
    • Take care of the Design System fundamentals before making the interface fancy.
    • Pay attention to even the smallest details — they add up to form a big problem for our customers.

Keep the interface consistent across the product:

  • Interfaces should not stick out as something alien to the product.
    • Don't make pages or components that are vastly different perceptually or functionally from the others.
    • Keep the styling consistent across the product (e.g. white spaces, font scaling, colour usage).
    • Keep the interactions coherent and reliable.
  • Leverage existing components and practices.
    • There are always opportunities to expand the Design System, but be mindful about it.

5. Comfortable​

SAP Engagement Cloud feels comfortable to be used all day long. We make sure not to tire our users' eyes, hands, and brain. We provide an aesthetic, state-of-the-art interface, designed to be future-proof.

Provide a state-of-the-art interface:

  • Aesthetics should be a tool to communicate with the marketer, not merely ornamental.
    • Use visual anchors to lead the eye (e.g. primary button).
    • Reduce noise by removing visual elements which aren't communicating efficiently.

Ensure all-day comfortability:

  • The interface shouldn't tire the user's eyes, hands, and brain.
    • Make interface legible by using proper contrast, sizing, visual anchoring.
    • Reduce number of clicks and interactions as much as possible.
  • SAP Engagement Cloud should liberate our users from doing repetitive, time consuming tasks.
    • Don't ask for the same things multiple times.

Think of the power users:

  • Our products should be easy and quick for both newbies and SAP Engagement Cloud experts.
  • Enable quick navigation with keystrokes and shortcuts.

6. Empowering​

SAP Engagement Cloud empowers the marketer. We educate them about SAP Engagement Cloud itself and inspire them to do amazing work by showing them what's possible.

Educate marketers:

  • Marketers should know everything about the functions they're using.
    • Display contextual tips.
    • Signal limitations, always give reasons (e.g. permissions).
  • SAP Engagement Cloud rookies should be turned into SAP Engagement Cloud experts.
    • Tell marketers how they can use SAP Engagement Cloud more effectively and efficiently.

Inspire marketers:

  • Show marketers what amazing things can be done.
    • Show outcomes they can achieve in SAP Engagement Cloud.
  • Enable marketers to experiment in a safe environment.
    • Avoid persistent destruction by making things recoverable and cancelable.