Understanding the SAP Fiori UX

Depending on the industry and company involved, various types of users can be identified. There are many different user types, depending on the structure of the specialized area and the IT department, as well as the degree of digitization. However, in almost every company, there are three basic types:

• Occasional user: This user uses the system only occasionally and needs simple, easy-to-use applications. In many cases, single-step transactions are executed.

• Expert user (or key user): This is a fully trained SAP user, who knows the processes and the available applications in detail. The expert user often uses multiple systems and different user interfaces.

• Developer (or programmer): This user has detailed process and system knowledge, and deals with the adaptation and extension of the existing applications. The developer potentially has to look after several applications, possibly with different user interfaces.

Based on the type of access, applications can be categorized as follows:

• Multi-step transactional

• Single-step transactional

• Single-step analytical

When summarizing the different factors, it is clear that a "one size fits all" approach does not work.

The long-term goal of the SAP UX strategy is to offer all business and all analytic applications running on SAP HANA, with SAP Fiori as the unified UI.

Transactional SAP Fiori apps need an ABAP (development and runtime) environment, and are often used for single-step transactions. Analytical apps and so-called Fact Sheets are SAP HANA-based, and often contain functionality that was not yet available in the SAP ERP system.

The SAP Fiori architecture consists of the following levels:

• An HTML5 client: the SAP Fiori launchpad

• An ABAP front-end server, with a central UI component and SAP Fiori roles implemented

• An ABAP-based back-end system

• A database (SAP HANA in the case of SAP S/4HANA)

The SAP Fiori launchpad is a role-based, personalized UI client that enables users to access SAP Fiori apps alongside established UIs. The SAP Fiori launchpad is based on the technology called SAPUI5, and can be used on multiple devices. It can be deployed on multiple platforms. The SAP Fiori launchpad comes with predefined content to streamline implementation processes.

The SAP Fiori launchpad can be visually adapted and customized using the tool called UI Theme Designer. It is designed to provide a simple and intuitive user experience, while supporting established UI technologies (such as Web Dynpro ABAP and SAP GUI for HTML).

The above figure shows the SAP Fiori transactional application Change WBS Element Status, which supports the user in maintaining the status values of WBS elements and network activities. As this is a transactional app, it contains all standard views and functionality.

You can also use most SAP GUI transactions that were already existing in previous version of SAP's ERP solution, in the SAP Fiori launchpad. This can be done together with the SAP Business Client or via your web browser.

Spaces, pages, and sections represent the way the SAP Fiori launchpad is structured. The setup for this is usually done globally by the administrator. In older versions of SAP S/4HANA, each user had to decide if they wanted to use spaces and pages or not. If not, groups of SAP Fiori apps were shown. Spaces are delivered as predefined content, similar to catalogs and (before) groups of SAP Fiori apps.

SAP provides space and page templates per business role for SAP S/4HANA, making it easy for customers to structure the layout of the SAP Fiori launchpad for their end users. This layout remains stable, even if a user is assigned to more roles later.

An SAP Fiori space represents an area of work, typically corresponding to one or more business roles. To further structure a space, you might use one or multiple pages, depending on the number of assigned apps associated with the users’ business role. The usage of multiple pages might be the case for business roles that have many apps assigned. Each page should then reflect one self-contained work-context.

Page (and section) titles help identify the tasks that  the content relates to. You can structure each space using pages for various work contexts. A space comes with a predefined set of apps related to the user’s business role. Tiles are used to visualize the content of a space. The idea is to show only the most important and most used apps per space that users need to complete their daily tasks.

You can optionally use sections to further subdivide the work within a page. Sections can be used to semantically structure the content of a page. Try to avoid too many apps in one section, since this might overwhelm the user. A page should be kept as lean as possible. Apps less used should be displayed as links (instead of tiles).

The screenshot shows the user-specific activation flag for the use of spaces. This was needed/possible in an older version of SAP S/4HANA (/SAP Fiori). This is only needed if the use of spaces has not been activated centrally by the system administrator.