Michael Isaac Almond is a Visual User Experience Designer in San Francisco.

Role: Lead Visual UX Designer

Summary: In 2015, SAP mandated that all their software, applications and UI technologies converge to a new UX, named "SAP Fiori." SuccessFactors decided that all new products would be built using UI5, the code base used for native "SAP Fiori" applications. These new products would automatically adopt the Fiori look and feel because the style was part of the UI5 framework. However, the SuccessFactors suite included 20 existing products that were built using different technologies and different visual styles.

Solution: I led a project that updated the SuccessFactors suite to simulate a "SAP Fiori" application experience without the need to implement UI5 code from scratch. The working team applied "SAP Fiori" visual and interactive design treatments to the SuccessFactors global framework. The update covered standard controls, global CSS, layouts, UI themes, color palettes, iconography, and typography for all legacy pages.

Details: View case study (PDF)

Role: Lead UX Designer

Summary: SAP SuccessFactors' Accessibility practices help prevent people with disabilities from being excluded from accessing content. The practices include designing for users with color vision impairment (also known as color blindness).

Challenge: We don't recommend using color alone to communicate information in data visualizations ("color coding") because it can cause problems for those with color vision deficiencies. They have difficulty perceiving certain color contrasts due to colors shifting. However, the use of color can enhance comprehension. There are also times when it's hard to avoid any color coding; for example, in many charts and graphs.

Solution: Create a feature that screens users with color blindness for the particular type they have so that the system can then automatically apply a custom color palette to data visualizations across the SuccessFactor suite. The color-safe palettes have colors that won't shift, so information is communicated correctly to users with any one of the three most common types of color vision impairment: Deuteranopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia.

Details: View case study

Role: Lead Product Designer

Feature: UI Theme Creator
Summary: I designed, managed and updated a UI theming tool for SAP SuccessFactors. The feature allowed customers and sales people to change the style of their copy of the software suite to match their company's branding. The feature was consistently cited by sales people as one of the top factors in winning competitive sales engagements.

Feature: Pronounce My Name
Summary: I conceived of and designed a feature that was added to SuccessFactors' Employee Profile page that allowed employees to record the pronunciation of their name in their voice. The recording was then available to anyone visiting the profile page. The feature was very well received by customers.

Feature: Action People Search
Summary: I worked with a team to design and build a global search feature for SAP SuccessFactors that allowed users to type characters in a field and immediately get a list of results that included employee names as well as a list of actions based on a company's custom list of terms. Actions were completed faster because users didn't have to navigate to find a link or control to launch a task.

Details: View presentation (PDF)

Role: Lead Visual UX Designer

Summary: I led the redesign of two of SAP SuccessFactors' core products: the Performance Review Form, which is the primary workspace for the Performance Management application and the Goals Plan UI, which is the core of the Goals Management application. The design solutions included updates to the visual design, interaction design, information design, page layouts and UI technologies.

Details: View presentation (PDF)

HTML Prototypes:

Performance Review
Password: sfux
(Best viewed at 1440px resolution)

Goals Plan 1.0
Password: sfux
(Best viewed at 1440px resolution)

Goals Plan 2.0
Password: sfux
(Best viewed at 1440px resolution)

Role: Lead Visual UX Designer

Summary: I led a project that explored moving the SuccessFactors Suite toward adoption of "SAP Fiori 2.0" features, UI Patterns and technologies through design explorations, proof of concepts, testing, and advocacy.

Details: View presentation (PDF)

Prototypes (The following are explorations only):

HTML prototype of the SAP Fiori 2.0 "Launchpad Viewport" with "Belize - Light Flavor" theme applied to an exploration of the next version of SuccessFactors' Home Page.
View screencast

HTML prototype of the SAP Fiori 2.0 "Flexible Column Floorplan" with "Belize - Dark Flavor" theme applied to an exploration of the next version of SuccessFactors' Goals Plan UI.
View screencast

Modification of an SAP HTML prototype by Jeong-Sook Lee showing the "Belize - Dark Flavor" background animation applied to pages with SuccessFactors' content.
View screencast 
View HTML prototype

Role: Lead Visual UX Designer & Product Owner

Summary: Vodafone Group is a British multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London, UK. It has revenue of £42.22 billion GBP (2015).

Vodaphone asked for SuccessFactors' assistance in creating a custom theme that matched their branding. They didn't feel they or their partners could push theming to its limits to create a great UI – their teams simply didn't have the expertise.

As Product Owner of the UI Theme Creator, I worked directly with sales team members and Vodaphone on a well-received theme based on Vodaphone's online branding guidelines.

Details: View case study (PDF)