It is All About the Interface, Baby !

Lotus Notes is now prettier with the Eclipse wrapper, but making a functional user interface is not about looking pretty. Google's interface for their applications is not as pretty as Lotus Notes. It is simple but logical. Though Lotus Notes now has a nicer looking interface it still has things that are not logical and layout incorrectly for the end user. For example is contact synchronization. You would thing that if you have to synchronize your contacts with your blackberry or other mobile device that you would go to your contact database and there would be a button or link to click on to start the process. That would be the most intuitive approach. But NO!!!! In 8.02 you need to go to your mail file. I understand the reason it is done that way, but come on it is not that hard to have a button in the contact database to start the process. Same thing in Notes 8.5, if you need to go to the replication page if you need to force a contacts synchronization. These are the little things that drives users against a product. Remember C-level executive are end-users.

Comments

Roland said…
Hey Richard,
Perhaps this new desktop policy Mary Beth Raven describes here addresses your concern:
http://www.notesdesignblog.com/NotesDesignBlog/NDBlog.nsf/dx/introducing-a-new-desktop-policy-for-ennabling-synchronize-contacts-on-the-replication-tab.htm
July 11, 2009 at 4:46 AM
Domino Interface said…
Roland,

Thanks for your reply but that only addresses the issue in respect to the IT operation not the perspective of the end-user. So if an end-user adds a contact and wants to immediately synchronize the contact they still have to go to the replication page. If not he or she has to wait for the schedule agent to run. That is not end-user centric.
July 11, 2009 at 12:24 PM
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