9 posts tagged “notes”
... for Lotus Notes 8! (year I know this is techie, but these are quite funny. Bear with me!)
Mary Beth Raven has just posted asking whether we (the Notes community) like window tabs being above the toolbars in the window layout. I personally like the idea, and this it will bring the tools closer to the area where the user is doing their work - all this helps in terms of user productivity. However for me, the big point is that IBM (in the form of Mary Beth and others) are willing to share this debate with end users, administrators and consultants at this stage in the development cycle, and to honestly take account of their views. It's all very refreshing, and gives a real feel-good factor about the amazing work they're doing in the Notes 8 timeframe.
Given that the release date is still slated for 2Q07, the release should be almost complete in terms of design and feature-readiness by Lotusphere, so I can't wait to see it in action there. I really do feel that it will be time for some of the "Notes Sucks" folks to take a fresh look at the product.
Ed says that Notes 7.0.2 on the Mac is now into beta for "managed beta" customers.
Given that 7.0.2 on Windows and all the server platforms is about to go Gold (i.e. finalised ready for release) next week, it is a real shame that the Mac client has slipped until December.
However, given that the previous Mac Notes clients have been of such poor quality, maybe the delay isn't such a bad thing! As long as they sort the quality, performance and look and feel, I'll be very happy!
Migrating from Microsoft Exchange2000/2003 to Lotus Notes
and Domino 7
Published: September, 8, 2006 More
details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247777.html
I've only had time to have a quick look, but the content and scope of the book looks perfect to assist with any Exchange-Domino migration.
For those that aren't aware, Redbooks are guides written by IBM's ITSO organisation, usually authored by a group of IBMers, IBM Business Partners and customers. They are based on real-world scenarios and are developed as a result of practical exploration of the subject in IBM's test labs. Often they are not perfect (the odd typo or spelling mistake is a common ocurrance), but they do give a breadth and depth of information and real-world experience that is not found in regular product manuals.
Check out the Redbook site here...
You may remember my post 10 days or so ago about the interesting survey that Innovation Creators have been running, asking what users feel about the email client they use (Notes or Outlook) and what they would prefer to use (Notes, Outlook or web-based email such as GMail)?
Well thus-far, there have been 550 votes and the results are as follows:
74% prefer Lotus Notes
13% prefer Microsoft Outlook
13% Web Based such as Gmail, Zimbra, Joyent
i.e. the trend has not changed significantly over the past 10 days...
They want at least 10,000 users to vote on the survey so as to get a representative sample, so please head on over to vote at "Which email system would you most like to have at work?"
Great post from Alan Lepofsky today, analysing the GUI inconsistencies in Outlook 2007.
After all the years of Notes being criticised in this way (notessucks.com, GUI Hall of Shame etc.), it only seems fair to present a fair analysis of Outlook's issues in this area...
As you may remember, I'm in the process of delivering training for 100 or so users at a UK corporation who have just been upgraded from the slightly aged and tatty Notes R5 (the Superhuman software wasn't looking quite so super anymore) to the lovely new shiny Notes 7 client...
It has been a very interesting experience, as it has seen an intensive period of re-learning the Notes client having been forced to use Outlook for 12 months or so, and the teaching feedback has forced a re-evaluation of my view of the Notes user experience.
Why?
Well, try as we might, us Domino administrators and developers just don't understand real users... Now that's a sweeping generalisation of course, but I reckon that whilst we might "use" Notes on a daily basis and think we see things how most Notes users do, we can't see the true user experience of the average email user unless we live in their world for a while.
So I'm going to try this for a while, using a spare laptop I have to hand:
- Set the Windows install to normal user status with no local admin privileges
- Install Notes 7 again, but minus admin and designer
- Set all the Domino domain policies for my user to be as locked down as they can be
- Set my mailfile to be editor access only, and to have the vanilla DWA7 template
Now that's a start, as I think that setup will irritate me to bits already, not being able to configure things to me liking or customise my installation at all, but it is only a start... Now try to forget those years (in my case 10+) of experience of Notes settings, configurations, UI "features" and termininology, and try to think that you are seeing the application for the first time... That's what some of the users on my course are doing, and it is a real eye-opener.
I'm collating the questions and issues they bring up and will blog them next week, it's a great list!
Very unscientific I know, but this survey has yielded interesting and slightly surprising results:
"Lotus Notes Email Vs. Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft and IBM both own massive cash cows. Mooo. Microsoft sells Outlook/Exchange. IBM sells Lotus Notes/Domino.
Microsoft and IBM are both developing new non related Enterprise 2.0 stuff.
The point of this survey is not to consider blogs and wiki stuff, but instead, just to simply ask users today which tool they prefer as an email tool."
Current results:
Having just finished at a business where the corporate standard is Outlook and Exchange, I can heartily say that as a humble user I initially hated Outlook with a vengance, and even after 12 months of coming to terms with its differences (both positive and negative) I still found it woefully short of the user experience that Notes offers. Therefore I wasn't surprised at this result, but given that the wider view is still that portrayed by the Notessucks and UI Hall of Shame websites of a few years ago, I am really pleased by these results. It's great to see.
I've been charged with putting together some end user training this week, taking an organisation's users forward from Notes 5.0.11 to 7.0.1, and it has been a fascinating reintroduction to the Notes world.
To be honest I had forgotten just how much has changed between those releases, and so much of it giving true business value back to the users. Of course, there have been some "nice to haves" including such interface changes as colour-coded messages and so on, but additions such as integrated instant messaging, Domino Web Access, support for Linux/Mac have made a real difference to both organisations and their users.
Sometimes looking back is as important as looking forward, and often we forget how far we've come...
