Mastering ERP Interface Complexity A Scalable User Interface Concept for ERP Systems

In recent literature, numerous research efforts addressed the usability of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Although several heuristics, surveys and interviews provided valuable results to understand and improve the user satisfaction of ERP, explicit research on the user interface design has been rarely discussed. As ERP systems have a high dissemination in many enterprise areas, usability issues located in the user interface have a significant impact on millions of users. This paper gives an overview of the related work in the fields of usability studies, complexity reduction strategies and visual information presentation in ERP systems. The conclusion reveals a niche currently not considered in research. Therefore, an abstract interface model is introduced that aims to establish a new understanding of accessing ERP systems. The scalable user interface concept attempts to reduce the problem of user guidance and overall system complexity to ease the user's system access.