Old vs Future

If you know what dot matrix means, and I do not refer to the character in Spaceballs, then you probably are in my age bracket.

To many, we are old.

• We don't work so hard
• We don't work so lat
• We don't use <insert some app name no one heard of and will disappear in a month)
• We use email
• We like our old ways
• We don't like change
• We are too slow
• We need too much in salary
• We don't like to travel for work. 

Maybe.

I could just as well say the same things about the younger generation too, aside from the email part :-)

And yet, inside your company, you are maintaining pretty old hardware and software. Why? Because.it.just.works and is paid for itself many times over the years.

Then one day your company says some old systems have to go. Why? They make you money, they run smoothly and everyone is trained on them.

New systems, to do the same thing as the old system, but from a new company. Why? How much money has to be wasted in conversion/migration fees to get what you already have?

If this was a car analogy, you would be leasing a new car every 3 years and never look back, and it usually does not cost you much more if anything for the next lease. Marginal cost but maximum gain.

I don't see that from your software solutions that you want to change. I see huge money spent with Business Partners from the new Vendor laughing all the way to the bank.

Intrinsically, when you look upon Microsoft Office, yes, it has had a good run, over 30 years old and still works, like a Volkswagen Beetle. Has it really advanced in all these years? Has Outlook? Exchange? Using Google Spreadsheet will really stop you from producing your simple spreadsheets which rely on the same basic functionality as 30 years ago?

Maybe

The same arguments have been used against Domino and Notes and Sametime. Maybe the UI was getting a bit dated, but functionally it was still the same as ever. And yet, what replaces Domino completely?

Nothing

Thus your company will spend a lot of money, millions usually, and get a nice UI but not even 75% of the functionality in return.

Sounds crazy right? Who would let their executives do such a poor deal? What Board of Directors would allow such malfeasance?

But they do.

If a new UI was necessary, or better integration into other applications was required, or something else was desired that you as CIO or CMO or CEO need for your business, wouldn't you try to get the most out of your existing solution?

Oh, right, it's old. Forgot about that nugget of wisdom.

And so instead of getting a new lease on your software, with a minimum of cost to your business, you prefer to go out and buy a whole new package...and then you want that new one to look and feel like the old one, but you know, not in that way, just you know, newer.

Right, because that makes sense. So much for your transformation project.

The future of Domino is what you make of it. HCL is adding items all the time to it so they will be ahead of your curve and know what you need before you do, so it will be there waiting for when your new executive walks in on their first day and starts asking why are you maintaining old software.

You can say, you just wrote this app this year, you advance all your apps every year and it is costing the company nothing but your salaries.

But the choice is yours, teach the new kids, learn from the new kids. Everyone that learned to play guitar, or skateboard, or drive had to watch and learn from others, usually, and this is no different. Together we can build a better future,

So are we old? Yes

Are our apps? Sometimes

Can they be updated? Almost always

Should they be? Absolutely!

You may not be listening to HCL yet, but if you do, you may find what your executives seek.

Friday Frustrations - Online Bill Paying UX Failure

Received our first gas bill today from the Supergas company here in Israel. I can setup an automatic bank draft or pay by credit card. I can't do the bank draft yet so I figured I would pay by credit card.

Go to their site, find the pay my bill page, get to the screen where I put in my information and there is one small problem...the area code. Mine, 058 is not listed. Link to their page here

Naturally like any good hack I figured just pick an area code and let it go, like entering jay@jay.com for the email address. Nope, does not compute. It verifies the phone number on the account with their records. 

Supergas, what are you thinking?

1) Verifying a phone number does not sound like a good idea to me. If you have my account number, address, name, ID # and all, you would think that would be enough to validate me. I want to pay you, make it easy for me. Also which phone did we open the account under? Mine or my wife's? Fail again.

2) Why is area code a drop down AND a required field? Did you think I would not include my area code when I input my phone number? Is it a formatting issue? Then state how you want the numbers entered, using ( ) or . or - is fine. 

3) There is also no help on the page or chat with anyone. I am sure customer service would be unable to help me fix the UI and underlying coding, but they should be able to take my payment, for an extra fee of course. 

This is the gas company that everyone in my city gets their gas from and pays their bills. I can not be the only one that has this problem. Then again, if everyone pays by the bank using automatic drafts I can see how this web page was missed during the QA process.

It happens, someone updated code or forget to add in our area code. I know this, I've done it myself. I am not angry, slightly amused and slightly frustrated though, because what should have taken a few minutes to setup turned into a long process and now a blog post.

New IBM Commercial Ideas

With the future well known, and sadly someone has probably already stole this thunder, but imagine what a cool ad campaign it would have been if there was "there's a plugin for that" for websphere or Domino, Sametime etc..

Or in Notes parlance, there's a db for that, well there used to be, now there's a sidebar widget :-)

Maybe we should be creating a set of ads making fun of the UI issue? Even use MBR as the spokes model, like the UPS commercials using the original designer?

There's a UI for that :-) Perhaps a past/present thing, like the college photo vs today which is better? Or look at what some cars were versus today?

Something that shows the product, enjoys the past but encourages the future as well as provide a variation on themes.

An Idea that we are thinking about

After my post about it, figured I shouldn't leave you hanging.

Now before you read this keep in mind we were looking for new directions, in business, and speaking to customers and clients and of course for Lotusphere. It is not meant to imply anything about anyone at all, but I am strong enough to accept it's criticisms. This was really meant in the spirit of looking forward, although I am sure some will not see it that way, which is why I decided not to pursue it.

So teflon on, here we go.

Designing Application UI's with Women in mind an unsubmitted abstract

When you read items like these and see the percentages:
Women Graduates More Likely to be working

Women Shoot past men

Fewer Women Graduates lose jobs

Blackberry Exec on women in tech

Women Continue to Outnumber men

Lastly, although from 2003, Perceptions of the Design Process: Gendered Aspects

According to one student, “I never knew there was such a difference in technology for men and women.”

And you see and hear it in the work force, it makes you stop and ask, what if we have been or are writing applications for the wrong type of person? What makes it different? Surely everyone involved provided opinions or forethought as to why or how the application would look and feel and act. What does the younger generation prefer? My guess is widgets that auto update themselves and their owners and auto reply via voice for communications all from their cell phone or Star Trek universal translator Communications link. But do they even know themselves?

Some may argue pink Blackberries are cute and color definitely sells some devices just like cars, although I prefer Miami Dolphin colors. However, a device which is more practical for a woman's hand size or to work with their longer nails in mind, or even have a different shape of the ear piece to avoid earrings might bring a whole new crop of business to RIM. Of course to be fair I'd like my devices to be built more rugged for all the times it falls and my kids toss my phone.

But that's hardware, this is about software.

Apple has made their macs UI easy to look at and work with and continue that with the iPhone and peripherals. Software should be simple, easy and do what you expect.

And so when first thinking about this, I wondered what a Lotus Notes client would look like, and act like, if it was not still thought of as "needing" everything from the last 20 years. The 8.5 iNotes client comes close in this aspect although the UI is still rather formal, to me, to look at in what is a very non formal world, from 1992 when I first saw Lotus Notes. Looking back on it now, it was in some ways a more fun client in appearance than it is now or some might say it was a less serious/corporate UI. Don't get me wrong, Outlook is not here or there and the Ribbon just screams at me,"do what we tell you" because that's how i want to customize my experience.

This is where I intended to go, but couldn't put it all in 75 words of an abstract. What is there now that allows one to customize the client or apps in a way that I or you want, not in the way IBM or Microsoft or even Google wants? What if I want an NFL experience to include my mail client? Just doesn't happen right now.

Why can't it be as easy as Zazzle?
Rebrand my UI with corporate colors, graphics, look and feel. Yes, I am aware one can do some of this, but only to a point and definitely not accomplished by your average every day employee.

You don't think David Butler at Coke hasn't pondered this as well in his plans to stabilize the Coke branding and awareness?

Only to be told no, sorry , it can't or doesn't do that. Why? What is wrong with the way we are designing applications?

The bottom line is if people don't like it, they won't use it, unless forced to do so.

When I asked someone if software should be easier to use or harder. Of course easier is the answer. But if I ask should one require a 20 page instruction manual to program a VCR for example, everyone would say no. Yet how many of these VCRs were really so simple that you didn't need the instructions?

Or to put it in modern times, your home theater, how many buttons on your universal massive remote do you not only never use, but have no idea what they are there for or why?

To return to the abstract,
IBM named a top company where women succeed

At IBM, women represent IBM's largest global constituency. Worldwide, women are approximately 28 percent of the total IBM population, 24 percent of management, 19 percent of executive management, two women are senior vice presidents, and three women are members of IBM's Board of Directors.

\

And from IBM

women now comprise more than 30 percent of the total U.S. employee population.

Indeed last year at Lotusphere there was a Geek 102 session which I attended and blogged about here. Clearly IBM has recognized this need and interest in a growing population of workers that can not be glossed over and in fact is encouraging them from within.

And the Lotusphere team, at least last year I am not privy to LS2010 info of any sort from anywhere, wanted to pursue a line of thinking which I thought was bold, but perhaps unattainable.Still, I am interested to see if Kristin follows through with some of the ideas from last year.

My intention was to pursue last year's information one step further and try to understand the expectations and audiences our customers will have that use their applications, even if they themselves may not envision it. But on a grander scale at Lotusphere 2010 input, so I submitted it as a BoF, in the end, to see what the world is thinking or if it cares at all, maybe UI is out and voice controls are in from now on.

My view was the Notes client is a rather masculine looking and swiss army knife acting client. What if we changed it to be more feminine, whatever that means to each person, and simpler/stripped down yet efficient? What if that affected how we in turn built apps to run in Notes or on the web?

Bad terminology? I agree. But not much came to mind for the comparison. And thus you can see why I ended up not submitting it. Although the few co-presenters I asked about it were interested in where it would lead and the feedback it would garner, if it was a session.

Probably better suited for LoLA, maybe next year, if we get invited, we will bring this up. Or not.

In looking to stay one step ahead, perhaps I took one step backwards, the idea was right but the wording was wrong or maybe it's just too niche or perhaps all the designers out there get it already. Although from apps I saw this week, you could have fooled me.

We now continue with our regularly scheduled blog posts that do not upset anyone except Microsoft and Google folk.

PS- Remember oct 9th is the last chance to submit your abstracts for LS10.

The Mojave Experiment....FudBuster #2

I got side tracked this week and wanted to look into this.
The Mojave experiment as Microsoft called it was an interesting idea.
For those not in the know,
100 people off the street, so to speak, were shown a "new" Microsoft OS after some questions about how they viewed Vista. Of course what they saw was Vista.
And low and behold, eye candy makes them decide to go with Vista.

Because in Microsoft's world, it's all about Eye Candy.Even if it takes sometime to produce it.

In the real world, well at least the business world, it's about business, expenses, revenue, ROI, and a million other things, but because software looks good? Nope.
It should integrate well with other software, yes.
It should run on multiple solutions, from Macs to Linux to windows to PDA's, phones, sunglasses(hey a guy can dream), blackberries and evidently nowadays on your refrigerator, dish washer and other appliances. Oh and a coffee table, thank you Microsoft.
Fahrenheit 451's author, Ray Bradbury would be either ecstatic to hear this or ashamed.
So you should go buy and use Vista because it looks good.
I use Vista. And aside from a few VPN clients rarely have problems. Ok recent times were Microsoft updates to Vista, so maybe I have some issues on occassion.

But really no worse than my XP machines after updates break all my mailto options and other security settings.

So where am I going with this? Easy, the UI sucks label on Lotus has to stop.
If you are in a company still using R5,6 or even 7, go yell at your IT staff or CIO who is paying Lotus big money to get updates and they shoulsd install them and use it.
I can show you in 5 minutes of a web conference everything you are missing!

Can your Outlook allow windows to float on their own?
Can your Outlook you so desire stop opening a ton of windows just because you are trying to do a simple task?
Why doesn't your Outlook do name lookups properly? My biggest gripe with Outlook 2003 at least.
Wouldn't you liek to not have a full AD directory all the time?

I can show you in a side by side demonstration that if nothing was branded you could not tell them apart, Mr. CEO.

BUT if you have a mixed environment of Lotus and Exchange shame on you! Spending twice the amount of money to get what you already pay for from Lotus, just because of a UI? Butthat's another post, past and future for another day.

What? No gutter in 8.0.1? And why unread is Bold Black

I can confirm from a high level IBM Executive I met very briefly today that the gutter which I and many so wanted to return and were told it would return in 8.0.1 is not.
It will be in 8.0.2 which is due in Q3 most likely. Of course by then 8.5 is expected(well Dec 32nd)so just wrap the code together get the developers to stop overlapping and get 8.5 out sooner.
Oh and it will be an option and UNABLED by default.

In a 2nd question I asked him why we went to a bold black line for unread emails after the red and I was told because that was a Windows(Outlook) I presume he meant standard.
That is NOT a good reason to do anything. While I admit Microsoft has some nice UI work from their team(although consistency in toolbars/ribbons and function keys still has a long way to go)I do not consider bold black part of that UI work.

Sure, red is a bad color in some cultures and if I was so interested in changing it I could track down the .css file 8 levels down in a some directory and change the color.

Would it be so hard to add a simnple 8 color check box into preferences to accomplish this for the END USERS who want to change it without bothering the poor overworked developers?

Microsoft Lies, Lotus Laughs, Support Rules

Ed Brill quotes from an email he received:
"I was just in a Microsoft presentation where our company's decision makers were told that the Microsoft share in email has grown from 52% to 86% here in the [sub-region of the USA], and that while companies are constantly converting "from Notes to Exchange" there has never been a conversion in the other direction."

Now I am not privy to the sales of either company let alone sales to a region or state.
But it's an interesting usage of statistics.

I am however interested in which region it is. Surely MS would like everyone to think they own the messaging world, and maybe they do, but why do so many companies admit to not liking Exchange but not liking Domino either?

Is there a better soluton out there? Yes and no.

Simple answer is yes there are always other possibilities. And depending on your size business some may make sense for you.

But the reality is NO for most companies. Why? Because of one word, Support.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Microsoft and IBM have robust and excellent support for their products, until they end of life them, and then us business partners come into play.

But let's talk about the other support. Personnel resources support.
Doing a simple search on Dice.com for Lotus Notes Administrator gets 26, Domino gets 15, Exchange gets 73, Outlook gets 2. Total for their database just now.
So a total of 41 vs 75. Or in statistics terms(stats lie?!) 35% for Lotus and 65% for Exchange.

Some discussions have centered around the lack of jr admin available for Domino. And others argue in a similar light that the senior people move on and leave an organization without a proper evangelist or just move on for greener pastures.
Some argue long time professionals ask for too much money for work that could be done cheaper, IF you can get someone.

So what is happenning is eerily similar to the Mainframes. Now you can't find younger staff to code to it, so IBM made it accessible to Linux and other OS's. Brilliant by IBM, really it was. Saved a whole business line and gave younger coders an opportunity to possibly do more.

What can Lotus do for software? R8 is the answer, today. Based on the Eclipse platform and clients which can/will run on Mac and Linux, browsers and phones makes a push to the younger generation. BUT the younger generation still does not care about Lotus. Or do they? I look to Lotusphere 2008 for some insight.

Where's the love? What's in it for them? Do they like learning new languages every 2-3 years or prefer a stable platform? I would guess they prefer a stable platform as they get older but only time will tell.

They do want a fully customizable experiencee, note to car manufacturers, get with the program if they want black seats and black paint with a yellow lightning painted on the hood, you better be offerring it to them, price is what it is, they don't seem to care.

So, for instance, why is it so difficult to change the grey workspace background?
Why do I only have a choice of which pieces to look at it from my start page instead of SIMPLY setting them up?
No one wants to code their email client, well most of us don't.

So help the jr admins grow, find them and train them and ge them interested.

But the bottom line is if you are in a company that has Notes and you hear the MS guys are coming, call IBM or your Business Partner now. Why roll over for them? It will only hurt productivity, waste money AND put you out of a job(possibly).