So today I was reading Jeff’s Post on The Dramatic Password Reveal, and I had a flash back, to about a year or more ago, when I was working for a large bank based out of Pittsburgh who shale remain nameless. The flash back was to the usability nightmare that Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime provided to anybody that had to do a simple task such as sending an e-mail (or Memo in Lotus Notes terminology). I think Jeff summed it up nicely and probably let Lotus Notes off a little easy by calling it a a massive train wreck.
Lotus Notes was so bad that I was actually considering quiting my job just to get away from the piece of software. Every time I had to look at the client interface I thought to myself where did I go wrong. This wasn’t a bad job either, it paid very well, had good benefits, however the job wasn’t really challenging. Combine that all on a 4 year old computer and a 15-inch CRT and you have my life at this job. So the lack of fulfillment and Lotus Notes drove me to look for another job after only a month and a half at the company.
I refer to Lotus Suite of Products as the AOL for the Corporate World for a couple of reasons. You have to think about AOL in terms of mid-to-late 90′s mainframe terminal interface, not AOL’s website in the new century. Unfortunately IBM hasn’t brought Lotus Notes in to this century or even the late 90′s. The following is my reasons for comparing AOL and Lotus Notes:
- Every link you get in your E-Mail (or Memo) needs to be opened with in the Lotus Notes client. Just like AOL required when clicking on a link in their Mail system.
- Every corporate form to collect information is done in a proprietary Lotus Notes data collector that tries to imitate Microsoft Access imitating a web form. Much like AOL did with all the forms available for their bazillion different pop ups.
- Lotus notes constantly crashed my computer. AOL did the same.
- Lotus notes had a built in proprietary IM client called Sametime. So did AOL. (See Lotus Sametime)
- If you think of everything you company has implimented, time tracking, specialized databases, calendars, task lists, corporate web, internet browsing, etc. You can bet Lotus notes has half assed that feature in to their product some how. Much like AOL did before they realized people hated that.
The login screen. No real gripe with AOL about this, at least AOL didn’t have hieroglyphics.
This dialog box contains several security “features”:
- The hieroglyphics on the left of the dialog box are supposed to distract anyone who is peering over your shoulder trying to learn your password as you type.
- The number of characters you type is hidden; a random number of X’s appear instead of one asterisk per character.
Is any of this nonsense really necessary? If I want to learn someone’s password as he or she types it, I will look at the keyboard, not the screen!
The inefficient use of screen real estate. We all take writing an e-mail for granted with our nice large boxes for TO, CC, Subject, and Attachments. However in the Lotus Notes world your name and some numbers that only mean something to Lotus Notes takes up half of the real estate. I can only image this is in case you forget who you are.
Is it any wonder why it’s often referred to as a train wreck of colossal proportions.
Apple fanboys are always talking about their wonderful interfaces that behave like a user is suppose to interact with a computer. As sort of a sick, but probably boring, reality show I have always wanted to sit them in front of Lotus Notes and tell them to have at it. Sort of a last man standing competition.
Also after a month on Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook and Exchange started to look like a gift from Heaven.
So that is my rant on Lotus Notes, it is now 12:30 AM, but I just had to get that all out. And that was just from seeing one picture on Jeff Atwood’s website. Imagin having to work with the application every day.
Interviewing Tip: Always ask your future employer if they used Lotus Notes, if they say yes, politely end the interview and don’t look back. Or just bolt from the room at full speed with out looking back. Either will allow you to achieve you goal of staying away from Lotus Notes.
aol, Apple, Exchange, IBM, Instant Message, Lotus Notes, Outlook, Rant, Sametime
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Eric Hundin
>So the lack of fulfillment and Lotus Notes drove me to look for another job after only a month and >a half at the company.
Yeah I’d make a career decision based on the mail client I use at a job, sure, that sounds like a great idea. You are coming across as a sound and reasonable individual (not…)
Most of what you complain of is a result of poor tech support. Any product will leave a bad impression if it is setup up improperly.
Changing hieroglyphics? Really?!
So many corporate applications seem to be train wrecks. Feature poor, badly designed and obscenely expensive (Crystal Reports and SAP also spring to mind in these discussions). It must be hard for competitors to get in for some reason or these things would have died out long ago.
Come on Travis don’t take me seriously. It was a little demonstrative prose. If it was really the greatest job since sliced bread I could deal with a green screen and a 13 inch CRT. But honestly the job was boring as hell and the company was unorganized for new developers. So I quickly moved on to a company where I was needed and a job I liked, working on http://www.yellowbook.com
Hi Nick,
I invite you to take a look at Lotus Notes 8, where (finally?!) usability was a major release criteria. Over 2000 usability tests conducted, major changes and improvements that address most of your complaints.
On the hieroglyphics point, this was invented as a way for users to validate that they entered the right password prior to pressing enter… as a way to ensure that the password prompt is actually the Lotus Notes prompt and not a trojan horse. I realize this is not obvious on the surface, but it’s not random, either.
Hi Ed,
I am sure the people at IBM have made great strides since they took over the software from Lotus. However previous version left such a bad taste in my mouth… I did however review the YouTube video on Lotus Notes 8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmgRnk5VSO0 Lotus Notes 8 no longer looks like a Web Page from the early to mid-1990′s. It has now advanced to the AOL 7-9 interface that was introduced back in 1999. Why can’t they just give up on interface design and make it look like the environment? Java apps have supported this for a long time, and presumably they are programming this in Java since they have the Java powered icon in their about window.
I just don’t understand their tendency to create horribly ugly interfaces. Just by viewing this video I get the sense of a 10-ton application. It doesn’t have the light airy feeling of a Mac app. Perception is reality when dealing with users, and the perception of Lotus Notes is that it is bloated by all the custom graphics they use to create the application.
Nick, it’s interesting that you say that, since Notes 8 is delivered atop Eclipse.org. Eclipse in fact does take on the UI elements of the operating environment, which of course would be more obvious if you could view a video of Notes 8 on Linux or the upcoming Mac version.
Lotus did 2000 usability tests prior to shipping Notes 8. 30,000 companies beta tested this new version. Maybe it’s still not the epitome of usability, but it’s moved far ahead.
You should also read the blog of the lead UI designer, http://www.marybethraven.com