SAP Data and Analytics Design

What is DNA Design?

The Data and Analytics (DNA) Design team provides UX support for SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), SAP Datasphere (DSP), and SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) – SAP’s integrated suite of analytics products.

These products empower businesses to unify, visualize, and analyze their data at scale, enabling smarter, real-time decision-making through business intelligence and augmented analytics.

As part of a multinational company, the DNA Design team spans 8 countries and includes over 90 designers and technical writers.

The Problem

We didn't have a centralized design library for DNA Design.

At the start of the project, our team lacked a centralized design library tailored to our products' needs. While SAP provides a general SAP Web UI Kit, it serves all SAP products and doesn't fully address the specific patterns, components, and requirements of the DNA product suite. As a result, three key challenges emerged in our team's workflows:

The Solution

Introducing... the DNA Web UI Kit!

The DNA Web UI Kit builds on the existing SAP design system to centralize custom components, patterns, page layouts, and guidelines across our analytics products.

Key features include: usage guidelines for designers, common usage examples, visual specifications for developers, and accessibility annotations.

Step 1: Stakeholder Alignment

Gathering component requirements from designers across our product suite.

When building components for cross-product use, the first and most significant step was consolidating existing use cases across all DNA products. This involved close collaboration with designers from various product areas – sometimes up to 10 contributors for a single component, like the Data Token – before aligning on a unified design proposal.

Before: How can a data token have so many variations?

After: A consolidated data token design proposal for SAC and DSP

Quick comparison: Before vs after cross-product alignment

Step 2: Building Components

Creating intuitive, customizable, scalable, and accessible components for designers.

After the unified design was approved by the design leads from relevant product areas, I built the components in Figma with a focus on ease of use, customizability, and scalability. Accessibility considerations, such as minimum target sizes and keyboard navigation support, were also prioritized throughout the process.

At this stage, I also documented usage guidelines for designers and curated common usage examples to showcase how the component could be applied in practice.

Step 3: Collaborating with Development

Delivering detailed visual specifications and implementation testing.

To ensure a smooth implementation process, I collaborated with the development team early on to identify the key visual specifications needed for handoff. This allowed me to format annotations in a way that was clear and developer-friendly – providing the right level of detail without overwhelming documentation.

Once development completed their implementation, I conducted a detailed review of the test server using browser inspection tools to ensure pixel-perfect alignment with the design specs. Any inconsistencies were documented and sent back to development for refinement before I provided final UX sign-off.

Step 4: Leading Internal Communications

Driving adoption through a global launch and ongoing engagement.

Over the course of nine months, 17 core component and pattern pages were completed by various members of the design systems team — including 8 that I designed and documented myself. While the full DNA Web UI Kit is expected to include around 80 assets, these core components were ready for use and served as the catalyst for the official launch.

To support adoption, I led the internal communications strategy for the Web UI Kit rollout. A key milestone was presenting the kit at our global Q2 DNA Design meeting, bringing together teams across time zones and product areas.

Beyond showcasing new components, the goal was to increase visibility into available features, align on shared processes, and establish a feedback loop for continuous improvement. This alignment helped streamline collaboration, reduce redundancy, and strengthen the foundation for scalable, system-driven design.

Step 5: What's Next?

Establishing communication channels and feedback loops.

To maintain momentum post-launch, the team plans to introduce a recurring design systems newsletter to share learning resources and Web UI Kit updates. We also established a comment-based feedback loop to gather usage questions and requests for new components directly from designers.

Looking ahead, the DNA Web UI Kit is an ongoing project and more components are expected to be added in subsequent library updates.

Impact

Creating a single source of truth to help designers work faster.

Since launching the DNA Web UI Kit, adoption of our core components has grown rapidly across multiple DNA product areas. As of May 1 – just three weeks post-launch – the Data Token component alone had been used over 1,000 times by designers from six different teams.

Reducing UX debt and future-proofing our designs for scale.

The DNA Web UI Kit marks a major step forward in streamlining and unifying our design and development workflows. Bringing this kit to life required close coordination with global design teams and thoughtful consideration of technical constraints across development frameworks. In doing so, we’ve laid a strong foundation for minimizing UX debt and supporting scalable, consistent design practices moving forward.

Feedback from Collaborators

Here are a few thoughtful messages from the designers and developers I had the pleasure of collaborating with throughout this project!

Final Takeaways

Learning to scale design through systems thinking and cross-functional partnership.

This project was a major learning experience that deepened both my understanding of design systems and my appreciation for cross-functional collaboration.

Working closely with multiple development teams exposed me to the realities of legacy technical constraints and the variety of development libraries in use across products. I quickly learned the importance of building strong, open relationships with developers – fostering a shared language and mutual understanding to bridge design and implementation. As designers, we often play the role of translators, aligning stakeholders from design, development, and product toward a common goal.

This experience also solidified my interest in design systems as an area of long-term growth. I’m excited to continue exploring how systems thinking can improve scalability, consistency, and collaboration across teams.

Throughout this process, one of the guiding principles I kept returning to was: “strong opinions, held loosely.” I've learned to advocate for my ideas with clear rationale and research, while remaining open to feedback and willing to evolve solutions through conversation and collaboration.

Getting Involved + Other Fun Opportunities

As someone who is deeply passionate about building inclusive and engaging communities, I thrive on creating opportunities for people to connect and collaborate.

Luckily, SAP feels the same way! During my internship, I've had the opportunity to get involved in various Employee Network Groups (ENGs) and participate in many community initiatives.

SAP Canada Intern Committee d-shop Vancouver Tour Guide UXxUX Conference 2024