Transformative User Experience—
Beyond Packaged Design
Markus Latzina
SAP | markus.latzina@sap.com
Joerg Beringer
SAP | joerg.beringer@sap.com
March + April 2012
interactions
The term transformative has different
connotations, but it usually refers to
the concept of significant, irreversible change, often considered game
changing due to its ability to redefine an entire value system. Recently
we have observed new technologies
that are deemed to be transformative, for example, by enabling us to
maintain relationships remotely via
social networks, access information
anytime anywhere via mobile devices, or obtain search results instantly.
What has not yet become transformative is the user interface itself.
The fundamental design rationale
for designing applications goes back
to the 1980s, when mainframes
were replaced by personal computers and PC software was packaged
into applications. Since then, the
concept of a software application
packaged at design time with proper
functionality has dominated the
design of end-user software. In this
approach, each application comes
with its own data model, and the
user interface displays these data
structures as application content.
Data objects presented at the user-interface level are designed to match
the user’s mental model, but this
also ties them to the semantics
defined by the application scope.
The application scope is typically
defined by a specific set of use cases
identified prior to implementing
the application. Generally, system
design is understood as a solution
to a well-defined set of requirements. Requirements derived from
an agreed-upon set of use cases are
mapped to features [ 1]. This design
rationale implicitly creates hard
boundaries with respect to its coverage of use scenarios and ability to
consume application content.
A software application design is
considered to be usable if it enables
people to perform the identified set
of tasks and matches their men-
tal model. However, in traditional
software solutions, the task models
inform only the design and are
implicit at runtime. Transformative
User Experience frames contexts
in terms of spaces of interaction
potentials where users can realize
their current goals by moving across
various task contexts along self-
determined transformative vectors.
This approach requires a much more
explicit presence of task models in
a product’s runtime—not just at
design time. To allow users to cre-
ate a proper task setting, a system
must provide mechanisms to detach
application content and move it into
different task contexts. Software
applications often lack this concept
of elasticity, primarily because
applications are designed for specific
tasks. But in reality, task contexts
are often not mechanistic; rather,
they grow organically as needed in
a given situation [ 2]. Task flows do
not always follow the typical task
life cycle, alternating between non-
routine and routine situations and
materializing as an idiosyncratic
one-time practice. We therefore
see a need to identify principles of
designing for elasticity to support
seamless transitions across contexts
rather than forcing users to switch
between isolated packaged applica-
tions or parts thereof.