Domino Interface

Chris Blatnick talks in his blog about how important interface design is in making software a success. Recently I became aware of a major development project that broke many of the guidelines that we use to design interfaces. A major retailer started implementing a new POS software for their stores that was suppose to revolutionize their operation. You would think that they would work with store employees who will be using the POS systems to design the best solution, run test pilots to make sure that the software met the needs of the store employees, and have a detailed implementation and training plan. Answer NO NO NO. Software that are created by developers who live in a box and never get the customer (users) involved with most likely fail. Here are a few example of why getting users involved in the interface design is so important: Since the screen sizes of POS system usually are small you would think that they would be very concerned about font sizes, no. The designers decided ...

At Lotusphere there was a couple of interesting comments that a technology reporter covering Lotusphere for the first time mentioned to us when he visited our booth and also by an attendee who was at Lotusphere for the first time. Both commented about how friendly and helpful people from the Lotus community were at the show compared to other non-Lotus events. Both liked the experience that had at Lotusphere. Since it has been a very long time since I attended a Microsoft conference and I have never attended an IBM conference that is not Lotus related are they correct that we are just a bunch of nice guys and gals?

The first GRANITE Lotus User Group meeting of 2008 will occur on February 11. As usual it will be at the IBM Center in the Hyatt Center in Chicago. We will be covering all the Lotusphere 2008 highlights, Lotus Notes with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, hopefully integration of Quickr Connector with Lotus Notes, and a technical workshop on improving the functionality of Lotus Notes dialog boxes. Hope you can join us if you are in the Chicago area. To learn more go to the GRANITE Web site .

In previous Lotuspheres, Business Partners who signed up for Business Development Day were able to download the BDD presentation slides. During many BDD sessions at Lotusphere 2008, we were told that the slides would be available. However, if you go to Lotusphere Online there is a message in the Help section that tells you that the slides are not available. Does anyone know what happened?

At Lotusphere 2008, there was discussions about XPages and how it would change how Notes applications are created. Since I was so busy with booth duty and other events I did not attend any of the sessions that involved XPages. However, Rob Burton from my group did attend a session that talked about XPages. Yesterday, he asked if I attended any of the sessions that talked about XPages and I said no. I did briefly hear someone talk about it, but did not pay attention. Surprising he said from what he has learned XPages does a similar thing we having been do for over a year in our Integrated Business Framework system by removing the data from the form. Similar to the concept of XPages, in the Integrated Business Framework design when you open a document you are really opening up a form that can collects data from many databases. The form is automatically populated based on a set of XML configuration data. During the save process the data is stored not as a single document, but the ...

I am finally recovered from Lotusphere 2008. Standing at the booth for 8 to 12 hours a day for three days plus waking up at 5:30 AM to get to the BOFs and breakfast at 7:00 AM and ending at 11:00 PM is very tiring. However, it was worth it. As an exhibitor I believe this was one of our best shows ever. I am very happy with the number and quality leads that we got. Of course, I would not mind even more leads. Our crew did a great job. Our two newbies held together well. The blogger dinner at ESPN was great. I finally had a chance to meet others that I blog with. I hope we get even more to attend next year.

The closing session for Lotusphere 2008 was great. That had the chef from one of the Food Network present and he was a blast. Since I do not have cable or satellite, I do not know who he was, but he was very funny. Does anyone know the final attendance for Lotusphere? I thought they would announce it at the closing session, but there was not any mention of it. From what I observed it was very good. I was so busy at our booth that I missed a number of sessions that I wanted to go to. Today was the first day I had a chance to go to the sessions that I wanted.

Each year at Lotusphere, we look forward to the afternoon coffee break on Tuesdays because there will be either Dove bars Haagen-Daz bars. Rob, my partner was crushed to find out that there was no Dove or Haagen-Daz ice cream bar. Instead, we had healthy italian ice. What is the world coming to?

Our team got to Lotusphere in one piece yesterday. The plane ride was the second worst that I have ever had. I do not think I will need to ride the roller coasters at Universal Studios on Wednesday. The turbulence on the plane ride through the thunderstorm was more exciting than any roller coaster. I believe the attendance is much higher this year considering that auxiliary parking is now back at Blizzard Beach. It is cooler than yesterday, but it sure beat the -10 F back in Chicago.

I predict that 2008 is going to be a great year for us in the Lotus Notes and Domino world. Many customers that we have talked to are planning to reinvest in Notes and Domino 8. Lotusphere 2008 looks to be bigger than last year and we are very excited to be back exhibiting at Lotusphere. Later today, I will present part 1 of my two part discussion on creating composite applications for the classic Lotus Notes client. It only took me one day to create the applications and demo, but it has been a struggle to write it up because of other obligations. So far it has taken me a week.

It has been a few years since our training company, ReCor Corporation, has exhibited at Lotusphere. There was not much demand for Lotus Notes training for the past few years since the Notes interface didn't really change much. But we are back for Lotusphere 2008. With the new Notes 8 interface, it was logical for us to exhibit our new Domino-based Notes training solutions. We will be exhibiting our LearningDocs for Lotus Notes 8 and Domino Web Access 8 training courses. We made major additions to the products. We improved our Java-based Enrave tools to simulate the Notes 8 environment. We will be at booth 533 either under our ReCor or Taishan Works company name. Either way stop by our booth. We will also be demonstrating our SOA-based Integrated Business Framework technology. Since we were turned down for Lotusphere, we will be presenting our SOA methodologies in the GRANITE Lotus User Group in 2008 instead. Having a booth at Lotusphere has its advantages but also has its ...