Since SAP ECTR 5.2.6.0 & SAP ECTR for S/4HANA 1.1.6.0, the SAP ECTR has a new UI look & feel and certain new UX features.
Details are explained below.
Content:
Background
Over time, we've made minor adjustments to the user interface, but never fully modernized it.
Now we have addressed the issue and modernized the user interface and the user experience.
Of course, without losing the good things of the past.
The following LinkedIn article goes into detail about the overall context:
Making the good even better - an outlook 🔭 of the planned user interface modernization of SAP ECTR
UI modernization
Framework
The user interface gets a fundamental redesign. To do this, we use the open source look&feel framework in SAP ECTR.
This look&feel framework gives us the possibility to influence the appearance of SAP ECTR in general.
Color design, fonts and windows
We use of the mentioned look&feel framework to lean heavily on the SAP Fiori design in terms of design concept, appearance, colors and fonts.
For the general design and especially for the color scheme, we followed the SAP Fiori design guideline to make SAP ECTR look similar to a SAP Fiori application.
More specifically, the following UI topics were implemented with it:
Windows within SAP ECTR are now displayed much more clearly and without squiggles (no rounding).
The primary color for backgrounds is white, making fonts and icons stand out more clearly.
For highlighting, a blue from the SAP Fiori color palette is used as the accent color.
All relevant system icons (such as Close, Maximize, Minimize, Expand, ...) have been replaced by modern icons with the new look&feel.
The SAP proprietary font 72 is used as font in SAP ECTR.
The font does not have to be installed on the operating system, SAP ECTR uses it directly and the font is part of the shipment.
Themes
The use of the look&feel framework also makes it possible to offer different themes (currently light and dark).
Two themes for SAP ECTR are delivered as standard.
- EctrFlatLight (Light): Default and recommended theme for SAP ECTR.
The EctrFlatLight theme (default) uses the color scheme based on the SAP Fiori Quartz Light theme. - EctrFlatDark (Dark): Dark theme that can be used for SAP ECTR.
The ECTRFlatDark theme uses the color scheme based on the SAP Fiori Quartz Dark theme.
The EctrFlatDark theme can be used, but it is not optimized in terms of icons.
The themes can be set in the options of SAP ECTR:
Example of SAP ECTR in dark mode:
UX Modernization
Thumbnails
Another issue we addressed in addition to the new look&feel framework is the usage of thumbnails in SAP ECTR.Thumbnails - small preview images - are now used in various places in SAP ECTR.
Thumbnails - small preview images - are now used in various places in SAP ECTR.
This provides graphical support at many points in SAP ECTR and thus a better and more effective way of working for the user.
Usages
Preview images are now used in many places (windows, structures, dialogs, tables, ...) in SAP ECTR.
In the following some exemplary usage points incl. screenshots are listed.
Assemblies Window
Bill of Material Window
Active List Dialog
Mass Change Document Dialog
Object Browser Table View
Notes
We would like to point out that the quality of the thumbnails depends, among other things, on the CAD integrations and the associated generation.
SAP ECTR cannot influence or even improve the quality of the thumbnails and only displays what is available.