Developing purportedly dazzling apps is easy. Getting people to use them is something else entirely. The only surefire way to build apps people want to use is by involving them in the design and development process every step of the way.
Having written about Build before, I jumped at the chance to see a demo during SAP TechEd Las Vegas. Here’s my video interview with two experts from SAP, Nir Kol, head of UXD Development Studio and Ben Ceaser, vice president of Product Management.
Bring in the Human Touch
According to Kol and Ceaser, it’s easy to have assumptions about what people find valuable. To create delightful experiences for users, you have to align yourself with their journey – what they deal with every day and hope to achieve. Build gives both seasoned and less experienced developers the tools to understand how people actually work, from their daily frustrations to their aspirational wish list. Reflecting the tenets of design thinking, Build radically changes the development process, allowing designers to tap the power of SAP Web IDE (Integrated Development Environment), a cloud-based HTML5 mobile app tool that’s part of the SAP HANA Cloud Platform.
As the demo shows, Build gives new meaning to fast, real-time collaboration. Developers can quickly turn use case sketches into prototypes, speeding up the iteration process with their project team and end-users. Visualization tools make it easier to turn concepts into designs because the developer can see what everything looks like without having to manually draw it. They can jump start designs with one of many SAP Fiori prototype examples and readily share ideas with end-users for feedback.
It’s time to admit that the “build it and they will come” days are long gone, especially for business software applications. The most dazzling innovations give people what they want most so they actually love to use them.
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