SAP Launchpad
Entry point to all SAP Marketing Cloud Suite apps.
As an individual contributor, I led this project and designed the new Fiori Launchpad for SAP Marketing Cloud Suite used by 480+ companies worldwide.
My Role
Sole UX Designer
Interaction design
User interviews
Team
Kanika (Myself)
Markus Lauff (Manager)
Organization
SAP Labs
Duration
3 months
The Problem
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Serves mostly for navigation.
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No visual hierarchy.
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Lack of action items.
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Under utilization of the entire screen.
The Solution
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From just being Launchpad for apps to Dashboard for marketeers.
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All-time accessible navigation.
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Easy creation and monitoring of all their necessary tasks.
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Flexible layout to personalize and prioritize tasks.
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Shareable tiles, reports, approvals for easy evaluation.
Designed Interactions
1.
Quick links and Easy Navigation
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Creating a campaign is easier
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It reduced number of clicks previously needed to find the campaign app and then create a campaign.
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Quicks Links are based on marketeers specialization with various apps of SAP Marketing Cloud Suite.
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Previoulsy, Launchpad was serving just as a navigation for entire Suite. Also there was redundancy with horizontal navigation bar at the top.
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Now, the navigation is been moved to left and the launchpad serves more as a dashboard to create and monitor all their necessary tasks.
2.
Personalized Dashboard: Adding and Editing
All editing controls are co-located which makes easier for user to understand the dahsboard's capability to be able to add group & tile which enables the user to keep the dashboard organized and prioritized.
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Makes editing your dashboard easier for eg- for removing expired KPIs, campaigns or events.
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Adding Tile: KPIs
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Shortcut to Apps through KPIs
3.
Accomplishments and Sharing: More than just a Dashboard
In the hustle of fulfilling the monthly targets, often marketers need encouragement to keep going and the Accomplishment feature helps in reminding their achievements and also share it with their managers for quick review or performance review.
Background
Fiori Launchpad is a dashboard cum launchpad providing access to all the SAP Marketing Cloud Suite apps. Before redesigning the launchpad it was a mere collection of apps arranged in a grid fashion. The tile for every app consisted name of the app with a picture or icon representing the app. It also had few custom groups and a horizontal navigation bar on top to access apps.
Current Launchpad for SAP Marketing Cloud Suite
Launchpad in SAP Marketing Cloud (SMC) System
A quick illustration showing the connection between:
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SAP Marketing Cloud (SMC) Suite
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Launchpad
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Other apps (Target groups, Campaigns, Events etc)
A simplified diagram demonstrating the Launchpad as an access point for SAP Marketing Cloud Suite which consists of more 40+ apps.
System Challenges
In order to maintain visual and UX consistency I utilized UI components from SAP Fiori Design guidelines(pre-defined set of library used to design all SAP products) while designing the Launchpad. Within the limitation of adhering to available UI elements of Fiori guidelines there were few more system challenges that needed to be addressed with respect to SAP Marketing Cloud Suite.
Since SAP Marketing Cloud is a system/ ecosystem where many apps co-exist and are dependent on each other for data and analysis I worked meticulously on understanding the relationships among all the apps in order to provide that holistic view for the user.
Insights from User Interviews
I conducted 6 user interviews with the users(marketeers) across SAP and with SAP customers. These interviews helped me in understanding the motivation and challenges they face while fulfilling their responsibilities as marketeers.
Collaborating towards complexity and compliance
I also did few rounds of interviews with the product managers, UX Designers, and lead architect. I worked closely with the lead architect of the product suite to avoid re-inventing the wheel and save time on widely known facts so as to work on a piece that can fit into the existing system. I also joined forces with designers from other teams to understand the integration across apps within the product suite. I also worked with product managers of my parent team to leverage their customer engagements and feedback.
How might we optimize the Fiori Launchpad for its users(marketeers) in a way that helps them to efficiently lead and optimize their businesses?
Design Considerations
The learning curve
Launchpad was expected to be more than a launcher where the learning curve has to be minimum as all age groups(25-45) uses it.
Motivation
Accounting for user accomplishments to keep track of the tasks/ successful campaigns etc.
Including quick shares for timely approvals and evaluation.
Prioritization
The challenge occurred to rightly prioritize the tasks and apps on which users (marketing managers) would be required to perform or take an action.
Optimization
Need to know the overall progress without having to switch through different apps. While displaying the progression & failures (of campaigns/events) upfront,
Visualizations
Launchpad had an immense set of design expectations like data visualizations, charts, lead progress, lead conversion etc,.
Customization
As the access of few apps also depends on the role of the user/marketing manager it is important to provide a level of customization which works best based on their responsibilities.
Wireframes & Iterations
Testing & Interview Metrics
Leading Design Thinking workshops and demos
Apart from my UX design work, I also led a design thinking workshop to raise awareness about UX and its process amongst my colleagues, non-designers in other teams and introduce my teammates to design thinking to contribute to the ideation process. I organized multiple demos and review sessions, that helped me to build consensus between my team as well as gain customer's buy-in into our decisions.
Leveraging my diverse skillset
My role was specific to UX design but my past academic experience with software engineering gave me an upper hand while working with software developers in my team. My inclination towards working with a diverse team made it easy for me to become a part of the team. I practiced my soft skills and while my journey in SAP Labs was not very long but it was one of the memorable workplaces for me both personally and professionally.
"From August 2018, Kanika was appointed for a project titled ‘Marketing Events’. While she was introduced to the topic, in the very first go her ability to quickly acquire complex domain knowledge such as Fiori Guidelines and the marketing cloud suite design principles was highly commendable. She was able to quickly acquire complex domain knowledge such as Fiori Guidelines and the marketing cloud suite design principles. She worked very effectively with all types of users, customers, co-workers and management at all levels. And developed creative and well- thought solutions that also reflected a focus on for the business and customers both. As a result, I was able to confidently assign her to another very crucial yet high visibility project of Redesigning Fiori Launchpad. Where she developed design mock-ups and assisted the UI team to achieve the goal as per company standards. "
Markus Lauff
Head of User Experience - SAP Marketing Cloud
Takeaways
System Design - I learned a lot about designing for an existing system that is closely connected and intertwined on multiple levels. I learned to design for those layers and how to tackle one design problem at a time without hindering the current flow.
Share experiences- Being a part of a large team of 85+ team members I learned a lot about leveraging available resources for example, by interviewing subject matter experts (SMEs) from my team. Since SMEs are constantly and frequently engaged with customers, they are well updated with the knowledge and the feedback about the product. Having a discussion with them helped me a lot to understand the product as well as customers' needs.
Personal development- While fulfilling my roles and responsibilities as UX Designer I also grabbed the learning opportunities. I took part in Innvent 2019 (an intrapreneurship event by SAP Labs) and become DT (Design Thinking) coach. All this was possible with the help of supportive team members and my manager Markus Lauff (Head of UX, SAP Marketing Cloud Germany).
My other featured projects from SAP
I worked as a UX Design specialist at SAP Labs in Bangalore for about 1.5 years, where I was recruited as a sole designer for SAP Marketing Events team of 12 software engineers, 1 architect, 2 testers, and 1 project manager. While working in SAP I worked on 2 projects as a sole UX designer: Marketing Events and Marketing Cloud Fiori Launchpad both of these apps are web-based.
