Overview

Announcement messages provide users with important news and changes about the product, service, or user account. In our database, data management & analytics products, most announcements are shared by SAP.

Custom announcements can be shared by the users within their tenant for SAP Analytics Cloud.

Usage

Use announcements to share news and updates or to make users feel engaged and informed. You can add a call to action to invite users to learn more or to explore new features.

<div> <div>Type</div> <div>Description</div> <div>Example</div> </div> <div> <div><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sap.com%2Fr%2F6J8687k238m26r5_jvcyCFazyRHkpSsLSQP1OC2AW3c">SAP Announcements</a></div> <div>Important news and changes about the product, service, or user account created and shared by SAP.</div> <div> <ul> <li>New features announcement after a release</li> <li>Maintenance announcement</li> <li>Security and privacy settings</li> </ul> </div> </div> <div> <div><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sap.com%2Fr%2F1bhwynp-w_8acRgCoplgMgt2ujPlitOKCXOZ8YZmhEc">Custom Announcements</a></div> <div>Custom announcements can be shared by the users within their organizations. (This is available only in SAP Analytics Cloud.)</div> <div>Organizational announcements shared within a client’s tenant.</div> </div>

SAP Announcements

SAP announcements inform users of important changes and updates regarding the product, service, or accounts. They should be shared with users in a clear and timely manner. They should contain information about the changes or updates, when these changes will take effect, and include call-to-actions for users to read more details.

<div> <div>Use Case</div> <div>Messaging Component</div> <div>Example</div> </div> <div> <div>Maintenance announcement</div> <div> <p>For scheduled maintenance:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sap.com%2Fr%2Fnf8CPy2lUWoafVqNka77IhJLBZigSMC9vtoP-X-IKAY">Notifications</a></li> <li>Top banner, if Notifications is not available.</li> </ul> <p>For maintenance countdown and under maintenance:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sap.com%2Fr%2Fnf8CPy2lUWoafVqNka77IhJLBZigSMC9vtoP-X-IKAY">Notifications</a></li> <li>Top banner, if Notifications is not available.</li> </ul> </div> <div> <p>For scheduled maintenance:</p> <ul> <li>"System is scheduled for maintenance from [date and time] to [date and time]."</li> </ul> <p>For maintenance countdown and under maintenance:</p> <ul> <li>"System is scheduled for maintenance in X minute(s) and may not be available between [date and time] to [date and time]."</li> <li>"System is under maintenance and will not available until [date and time]."</li> </ul> </div> </div> <div> <div>Announcing privacy changes or usage tracking</div> <div> <p>For usage tracking or cookie settings, use the default banner that comes with a tracking tool such as SAP Web Analytics.</p> <p>For privacy changes, use <a href="https%3A%2F%2Fexperience.sap.com%2Ffiori-design-web%2Fdialog%2F">Dialog</a>.</p> </div> <div> <p>For usage tracking, SAP Web Analytics asks users' consent on collecting usage tracking data.</p> <p>For privacy changes, the system needs to get consent from users to send emails that include news and updates.</p> </div> </div> <div> <div>Announcing product or service changes</div> <div> <p>Announcing new features after a release:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sap.com%2Fr%2Fnf8CPy2lUWoafVqNka77IhJLBZigSMC9vtoP-X-IKAY">Notifications</a></li> <li>Top banner, if Notifications is not available.</li> <li>Use <a href="https%3A%2F%2Fexperience.sap.com%2Ffiori-design-web%2Fdialog%2F">Dialog</a> for critical or large-scale features only.</li> </ul> <p>Replacing or sunsetting a feature or product. This needs to be communicated multiple times via different components.</p> <ul> <li>Top banner</li> <li><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sap.com%2Fr%2Fnf8CPy2lUWoafVqNka77IhJLBZigSMC9vtoP-X-IKAY">Notifications</a></li> <li><a href="https%3A%2F%2Fexperience.sap.com%2Ffiori-design-web%2Fdialog%2F">Dialog</a></li> </ul> </div> <div> <p>The system informs users of new features when they are available after a new release.</p> <p>SAP Analytics Cloud encourage users to try the new Value Driver Tree Designer in a story instead of the legacy Value Driver Tree module.</p> </div> </div> <div> <div>Announcing account changes</div> <div>Use <a href="https%3A%2F%2Fexperience.sap.com%2Ffiori-design-web%2Fdialog%2F">Dialog</a> so that users can take action on changes.</div> <div>SAP Business Technology Platform Cockpit extends the trial account to 365 days for users.</div> </div>

information

NotePlease remind that Notifications is a recommended component for announcement messages. It can help users easily keep track of important messages in one place. Use top banners only if notifications is not available in your products.

Best Practices

How to Display

Use dialog for critical announcements. For example, updated privacy policy or a large-scale/disruptive product change that has an important impact on user workflows.
Use top banner for brief announcements that only contain one link or call-to-action. This will be replaced with notifications when it's available.

How to Write

Keep announcements short with maximum of 140 characters (including spaces) and a maximum of three lines.
Use the active voice.
Use “we” to refer to SAP and “you” to refer to the user.
Show you understand the impact of the announcement on the user. If the user will be interrupted in their task, you can apologize. For example: “Sorry, we’re down for maintenance. We’ll be up and running again as soon as we can.”
Don’t use exclamation marks for announcements except in the case of What’s New or Release Highlights information, when you can use an exclamation mark to emphasize the positive, additional value delivered in the latest version.
Write like a human. System messages don’t need to sound robotic!

false

Use a top banner for brief announcements.
Add one link or call-to-action when needed.

dont

false

Don't use robotic tone and voice in messages.

false

Use a dialog to share important information that users need to acknowledge.

dont

false

Don't use a dialog for non-critical or any new feature as it can be obtrusive to users.

false

Indicate clear date and time of the event.
Add notes for preventing loss of progress.

dont

false

Don't use semantic icon (warning) for scheduled maintenance.
Don't just use a number of days for scheduled maintenance.

Custom Announcements

information

NoteCustom Announcements are SAP Analytics Cloud specific.Read more about how it works from the SAP Help Portal: Customize the System Notification Banner

Customers can add a top banner to share custom messages with their SAP Analytics Cloud users. These messages are mostly created by the administrator in a customer's tenant. They are visually distinguished from announcements by SAP.

<div> <div>Use Case</div> <div>Messaging Component</div> </div> <div> <div>Custom announcement</div> <div>Top Banner</div> </div>

Best Practices

How to Display

Use the top banner in SAP Analytics Cloud to share custom announcements. This might be replaced once the Notifications is implemented.

How to Write

Customer announcements are written by users with an Administrator profile and are not controlled by SAP. We provide instructions and guidelines in the customer-facing documentation.
See example for SAP Analytics Cloud here.

Support

If you have any questions or feedback about this page, please contact our team. For further information and questions in regards to the Design System, please visit the DNA Design SharePoint.