It seems like, on a pretty-regular basis, and for a pretty long time now, I run into people who say, "I don't like Notes." Usually, when pressed, they don't have much in the way of reasoning behind it, they just don't like it.

Well, I think I know why. And, sorry, but you may be to blame.

One of the greatest and worst things about Notes is you don't have to be a professional developer to build applications with it. Heck, in the early days (before R4), you didn't even need a design client: All clients could do design work.

The good side of all this, even today, is that people with, um, shall we say, modest skill sets can still do basic things: Build simple forms and views, stuff like that. They can kludge together something that does, well, something. At one level, the idea that, with 15 or 20 minutes of looking over somebody's shoulder, somebody with no development experience could build a simple little application is pretty spectacular.

But that's a double-edged sword because the applications beginners build are really amateurish. They are, after all, amateurs.

So, what's this have to do with you?

Maybe nothing. Maybe a lot. How do your applications look? I'm not asking how they work. I'm sure you're a fabulous coder and can make Notes get up and get you a cup of coffee if you want it to. I'm asking how it looks.

Why do I care? Because I have an idea that the problem with Notes--that is, the reason people think they don't like it--is their experience is with ugly applications. Why do I think this? Because--I'm sorry to tell you this--it is exceedingly rare that we go into a project and find an application anybody else has built that looks worth a damn.

Does it matter how it looks if it does the job it's supposed to do? Most developers think not. Most just don't care how an application looks. They care how it works. And, that's OK as far as it goes, but looks do matter. Even people who have no sense for layout or graphics can tell a beautiful form from an ugly one.

You don't have to understand genetics to be able to recognize a beautiful woman. It's pretty much the same thing with applications. You know when it looks like crap. You just may not know what to do about it or, more likely, don't care enough to do something about it.

And then guess what happens?

It looks amateurish. And, because it looks amateurish, the people using it assume it's just as bad underneath the covers as it is above them. And then, the manager down the hall says he doesn't like Notes. Why? Because it's not for real applications. Because he thinks it's for amateurs. Because it looked amateurish.

Give me a brand new Ferrari with a rusted out Chevette body and guess what I'll think? Ferraris are pieces of shit. Why? Because it looks like a piece of shit, regardless of how it actually runs.

Yeah, yeah, but it's just forms and views. How much difference can you really make? Short answer? A lot. You can make a lot of difference.

And, the thing is, it's not that hard to do.

Mostly, it's a matter of organization and simplification. Get rid of that ugly green background. Pick a font and stick to it. Use colors sparingly. And, line things up, for chrissake. This is not rocket science, people, it's common sense. It's like cleaning up your office. When you clean up your office do you look for more ways to put more things in more places OR do you try to have fewer, neater stacks, more organization and even a few things lined up with one another (like the stapler and the tape dispenser)?

Ok, whatever...that's how I clean my office.

Notes applications can look as good as any other application. Better, really, than most, but you have to put some effort into it. If you don't have any idea how to make an application look good, find somebody who does and copy what they do.

But DON'T, whatever you do, keep putting ugly applications out there for people to see. You're making us all look bad, man!

1. Erskine Harris05/02/2005 07:58:03 AM

Scott,

I could not agree with you more. My first direct client was an art restoration company located in the East Villiage in NYC. Artist definetly think differently then people from the banking industry, which was the type of client that I was used to up until then. Color and presentation were highly prized. They did care that I was able to accomplish there requirements, but they equally wanted to have an application that was good to look at on a day to day basis. I learned a lot about color and form and view layout from this company. After three years of being in production the staff still praise me on how easy the application is to use and how "pretty" it looks. Who would have though a Notes Client based app that looks pretty. Go figure.

If I had to add anything to what you have said today, it would be don't be affraid to think outside the box and present your client with options that fit them. At the same time showing the client something new and exciting. Who knows they may just say WOW that looks great or Notes can look like that! People will be surprised how much of a Wiz you are, even if you are a rookie at this stuff.

Just my two cents of experience .

E

2. Scott Good05/02/2005 08:41:37 AM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com

I couldn't agree more. A few years back we had an experienced developer join our staff. On his first project, he was adding a new database to extend the functionality to an existing suite of databases I'd built a few years before.

The first prototype demo was like pulling teeth. The client questioned absolutely everything. Afterward, he said, "is it always like that with them?" I told him my experience had been quite the opposite; that they were usually very easy to get along with. He said, "so why was it so hard today?," and I had to tell him it was because it didn't look like he knew what he was doing.

Even though he had every intention of making the database and the forms look good (like the rest of the suite), he'd left that for the end, planning to finish all the core functionality first. The problem is, when clients see something that looks rough on the outside, they assume it's just as rough underneath.

Over the next week, he made no changes to the functionality but, instead, concentrated on the look and feel. The next demo, to a slightly larger group who hadn't seen the first one, went off without a single question.

Clients regularly tell us they don't want to pay for us to pretty it up, that all they need is the functionality. The truth is, they are always happier with a good-looking application. Period.

3. Mike Wagner05/02/2005 05:48:59 PM
Homepage: http://www.digitalinsites.gotdns.com/index.nsf

Great article Scott. I have had those very same opinions for a while now. I hate going into applications and finding out that somebody went crazy with drop shadows on tables and every form in the database has a different background color. Everytime some new design feature comes out with every release of Lotus Notes some one always feels compelled to see how many times they can use it.

I have always adopted the K.I.S.S. approach. Choose a font, use it everywhere. Choose a colorscheme and use it everywhere. And, like you so eloquently said in your post "And, line things up, for chrissake."

I agree that functionality is the primary factor in developing any database, but aesthetics has to account for something. I have recently tried to create Notes applications that don't look like Notes applications. I think that most developers have settled for the same old schtick of putting menus to the left, views to the right and some god awful bitmap image stretched out of proportion at the top. I think it's about time we shake things up a bit.

4. Christopher Byrne05/04/2005 10:29:47 AM
Homepage: http://www.controlscaddy.com/

One of the points I make when doing compliance/governance sessions for application developers is "User Acceptance" as a business control. UI is key to this. If user acceptance of an application is low to non-existent, they will not use the application or will find ways around it. this weakens intended control frameworks.

A couple of weeks ago, I integrated the blogshere template into a orhanization website running, gasp, on ASP. You should have seen the reactions! "I did not know a notes application could look like that!", "How did you do that?", etc.

Going further back, Louisiana State University, which is (was?) a huge Notes Shop, was using Notes as the content management tool for their web sites. Users hated it because it was "Notes". They then migrated it to Domino and the web and did not tell users what the underlying architecture was. And guess what? because they did not know it was Notes/Domino, user acceptance went through the roof. Go figure...

5. Christopher Byrne05/08/2005 12:46:28 AM
Homepage: http://www.controlscaddy.com/

Posted at http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-6C75FJ

"Have you ever seen one of the people who will be users of your current project?
Jakob Nielsen in "Usability Engineering"

A week or so ago, Scott Good of Teamwork Solutions mused that one of the reasons that people do not like Lotus Notes is that many of the applications they use have a amateurish or poor user interface. As a result, they think the application as a whole, as well as the software used to run it, is lousy or inadequate. What happens here in cases like this is that user acceptance of the application is low to nonexistent, introducing risk that the business objectives that the application was designed to meet will not be met. How then does user-machine interface fit into an information systems controls framework such as "Control Objectives for Information and related Technologies" (COBIT)? "