LepoLand - A Blog by Alan Lepofsky

Lotus Notes Mail - The Gems And The Warts

Alan Lepofsky — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:30:00 -0400

Every time I hear some "2.0 evangelist" sing the praises of Gmail my stomach churns a little, my heartbeat quickens and my face tenses as I ponder what could have been if more attention had been paid to the Notes UI years ago. I both enjoy and hate giving the "Lotus Notes did that a decade ago" speech. I enjoy it because I like showing people that these awesome new features are neither new nor innovative. I hate it because it reinforces how IBM was never successful in getting people to like using Lotus Notes. Gmail is perceived as lightweight, simple and clean while the Lotus Notes desktop client is large and clunky and complicated. Sadly, few people know that Notes mail can be accessed via a very nice web UI.

What Gmail does so well is focus on the everyday use cases that 99% of people need. Simple email. Simple calendar forms and views. Simple search. Gmail also has the advantage of requiring no installation, meaning people always having the latest and greatest version. Find me a single Notes user (other than a Developer or Admin) who understands how to upgrade their client and mail file template. Gmail Labs makes it simple to turn on cool new (experimental) features, find me a Notes user who understands installing eclipse sidebar plugins.

So in the wake of all the excitement over Gmail adding a categorized inbox (something IBM's mail template has had for a decade, I think OpenNTF Mail experience may have it as well), I was thinking about the cool things that Notes mail does that most other email clients do not. Here is a quick list off the top of my head.

- SwiftFile
- QuickRule
- Intelligent mail addressing (I love how Notes bubble up the names you use more often rather than just pattern matching)
- Full offline support, including directory catalog
- Livetext and sidebar widgets
- Convert email message to calendar entry
- Create distribution list (group) from email recipients
- rich text is simple to add, ex: tables

The problem is, while these are all great, they are fringe features that I guarantee few people use. Notes does a lot of powerful things, but does not do some of the simple things well*. For example, look at how complicated the calendar form is or how odd search behaves compared to other services people use. (* I've not used Notes for a while, so correct me if I'm wrong)

I use Gmail/Gcalendar/Gchat at work and while I do miss the features listed above, I do not miss the complexity of Notes.

Thoughts?

Firefox 4 You Had Me At "Organize Into Groups"

Alan Lepofsky — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:00:00 -0400

A few days ago FireFox 4 Beta 4 introduced "Panorama" which allows you to group tabs together and switch back and forth between different sets. You can manually do this today with FF3 by having multiple windows open, but this new ability to create the groups and see a visual representation has already greatly improved my web experience. I've created groups for "things I'm doing right now", "email, calendar and social media stuff", "articles to read later", "future to-dos", etc.

The UI experience of Panorama is fantastic. Groups can be resized and moved and the icons adjust (and even stack) accordingly. A nice little touch is that the canvas displays grid lines when objects are aligned.

I've experienced a few bugs (it is beta) but I think they may have to due to some extensions I have installed such as Tab-Mix-Plus.

If you have not seen Panorama yet, check it out.

Is Facebook Places Only for Dudes?

Alan Lepofsky — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:30:00 -0400

The new Facebook Places video is getting a lot of attention online. I'm not sure what it says about me, but the first thing I noticed is that all the narrators are dudes!

Understanding The Pecking Order

Alan Lepofsky — Thu, 5 Aug 2010 08:15:00 -0400

I'm happy to see Twitter gets the hierarchy right.
Now if only my account was verified to prove I'm the real Alan Lepofsky.

Thanks for the image Volker

Hmm, Haven’t I Seen That Logo Before?

Alan Lepofsky — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:45:00 -0400

I've got an idea, let's put three people in a circle. ;-)
Know of any others that look similar?

Fix Your $400 iPhone 4’s Boo-Boo for $5

Alan Lepofsky — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:15:00 -0400

Antenn-aid is designed to be placed over the lower left corner of the antenna.

Visit the Antenn-aid website...

The Greatest Vacation Ever

Alan Lepofsky — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:15:00 -0400

Go to http://www.gapadventures.com , under Region you'll see GAP is offering some pretty awesome destinations, Far Far Away...

Packing for both Tatooine and Hoth on the same trip is going to be tough.

Calling All Developers. Extend Enterprise Applications With Social Features

Alan Lepofsky — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:45:00 -0400

Are you looking to extend your application development knowledge to include open internet technologies such as JSON, WebHooks, Activitystrea.ms and PubSubHubbub?

Would you like to help your company or your customers by integrating existing enterprise systems with today's "2.0" social technologies?

Are you free next Wed?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, then join us Wed July 21st at 9:30 PST for Integrating Enterprise Applications with Socialtext.

Members of our Engineering team will be providing an overview of Socialtext Connect, introducing you to some of the technologies supported, and then showing examples of the integration and automation possibilities.

>>> Click Here To Register <<<

Learn how to integrate enterprise applications with Socialtext

Should Nikon Be Paying Lotus Royalties?

Alan Lepofsky — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:45:00 -0400

Firefox 4 Option For Tabs On Top, Like Lotus Notes

Alan Lepofsky — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:50:42 -0400

I've been hearing a lot this week about how Firefox 4 will be providing an option to put tabs at the top of the screen. Well, once again Notes which is always slagged for its UI was ahead of the curve.

All kidding aside, this is a good video about UI design: