A hot topic for me these days is the nature of UI tools and technologies. Now, to be fair, I have a fairly unique set of requirements in that I'm focusing on a non-traditional class of users for SAP - manufacturing or factory workers - which bring a fairly challenging set of use cases and special needs. What are some of these unique aspects?
Highly variable and flexible business processes on the factory floor
Near-real-time interaction
Varying degrees of computer skills and literacy
Touch screens, barcode/RFID, and other multimodal input/output require large input "targets" and specific input focus control
Limited screen sizes and client-side computing power
Visibility requirements (e.g. large displays, font sizes, etc.
Hazardous environments requiring gloves, masks, etc.
Lots of unstructured data
Plenty of "composition" needed to interact with multiple systems
Special kinds of UI widgets needed to represent data
...and plenty of others...
It also bothers me somewhat to hear the frequent discussion of the "information worker", seemingly always referring to the so-called "white collar worker" in an office. I'd certainly make the case that the factory worker is a very special kind of "information worker" who, in many cases, has a lot less time to make very important decisions that can affect quality, customer satisfaction, safety, productivity, and so on. So, given these requirements, the question is what UI approach(es) are ideal. I think a common characteristic of these requirements is flexibility While WebDynpro and VisualComposer are very capable UI tools, they tend to be better suited to the "office application" use case(s). The UI tools we offer in our SAP xMII application are extremely flexible, but there is room for improvement. Certain tasks such as creation of customized data input forms and overall UI layout could be optimized, and adding a sexy look-and-feel such as VisualComposer (or, more specifically, Flash/Flex) would increase the visual appeal and add functionality. Interestingly, these same issues aren't unique to manufacturing applications. Many of my early customers at Lighthammer used our technology to build non-manufacturing applications in the areas of sales analytics, IT system monitoring, Six Sigma, motorcycle dealer performance tracking, and other non-traditional applications that we hadn't foreseen. Why was that? Because it struck a balance between highly productive (e.g. rapid development) and highly flexible. The two do not need to be inversely proportional. I also think it enabled them to achieve the "WYWIWYG" objective - a specific user experience, integrated with a unique business process, that gave them some type of functional advantage or unique capability. I used to joke that if the customer wanted Mickey Mouse to run across the screen with a flag bearing today's performance numbers, we could do that... 😉 Even with my crystal ball on "full burn", I can't predict all of the possible requirements or ways that people will want to present and interact with systems and data. As a result, in addition to flexibility, I think that extensibility is an essential part of a modern UI infrastructure. We need to provide mechanisms for both internal SAP organizations and partners to add value to our UI tools with specialized display elements, logic, and so on. There needs to be a balance struck between the "consistency" and "supportability" (a major concern) of highly structured/pattern-based UIs and the "flexibility" and "extensibility" of free-format UI tools - or does there? Maybe the approach is to have multiple tools for the job? Let's not forget things like Duet, Widgets, and so on that are being used as well. And we really haven't even begun to see the cool things that WPF/XAML and Adobe Apollo will enable. I guess the key question is, should SAP provide free-format UI authoring tools or should the user/partner find their own best-of-breed general purpose tools? My current thinking is "all of the above" - extend the general purpose tools with high-value, prebuilt UI components, intelligent binding to SAP back-end services and data, productivity "wizards" for common UI tasks, manageability via integrated configuration management, accessibility via templates/best practices/design guides, and extensibility models to allow external value-add while maintaining a consistent architectural approach. Enough rambling on - I'd be interested in hearing your perspectives on this topic!
