As a member LotusUserGroup.org, you are entitled to a special offer from Lotus. From now until November 20th you can register at a special discounted rate for LotusUserGroup.org members only: The lowest fee available, only $1795.00!

Pretty solid discount, considering that after November 21st the registration fee jumps to $2295.00 USD and then - from January 14th - it's $2495.00 USD. Check out the official release from LotusUserGroup.org for more details.

(This post refers to Time Tracker v1.0 - Open Source Efficiency Tracking Utility for the Lotus Notes Client.)

Setup of your Time Tracker Sidebar Widget

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Managing your Time Tracker Preferences

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Free to all attendees, the Fall Tri-State Lotus User Group Meeting will be held at IBM's NYC Office to handle what we expect to be a large turnout as Bob Picciano - IBM Lotus General Manager - takes the stage for the keynote address.

Offering Management, Administrator, and Developer tracks, the Fall Tri-State Lotus User Group Meeting promises to be fun AND informative.

Lotus Knows sometimes the best way to collaborate is by getting together with fellow yellow bleeders and geeking out - so register while attendee space is available at http://www.tristatelug.org/tristatelug/tristatelug.nsf/Registrant?OpenForm.

For more information about this event, check out the Tri-State Lotus User Group website at http://www.tristatelug.org!

Facebook users:

Fall Tri State LUG Meeting with Keynote Speaker Bob Picciano
Lotus Knows Bob will rock the Tri State LUG crowd!
Location: IBM NYC Office
590 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
Time: 8:00AM Monday, November 9th

In follow-up to my post from the other day, I thought I'd pose the following question via Twitter:

Lotus Notes Client design question: Do you still use Framesets in your Application UI?

The response from both Twitter and the various other social networking sites prompted me to create a quick MicroPoll:

Now, understandably, this is a pretty wide-open alternative with Frameset vs. 'Web', but I have this idea...

Look at the more successful cloud service solutions out there today. You're presented with - in most cases - a 3-column fixed layout with highly-stylized UI interaction with various functional nodes. Navigation to top-sections is fairly basic, with in-content drill-down options to specific content or functional sections.

This should be fairly simple to re-create within a Lotus Notes Client application without the *[conventional] use of Frameset Design Elements.

* - Have to give myself an out if there comes a situation where I'll need to use a Frameset in some unconventional ways.

And I know this won't be possible for every application-type within the Lotus Notes Client, as certain applications have certain user experience expectations... which begs the questions for those of you who might answer "We have a corporate standard UI": maybe that's a bad thing in some cases?

I've been - as several people suggested - following a Twitter keyword search for "Lotus Notes".

Note: I warn any yellowbleeder thinking of doing this - you will hear the most inane, hate-filled, and saddening complaints about Lotus Notes you've ever heard. Twitter - if anything - has given everyone creative license to air their grievances, and creates 140-character Internet Tough Guys.

Some complaints are valid, of course, but one in particular made me stop and think. Here's the exchange:

In training for lotus notes 8.5. Now it sucks *and* uses all your ram!

My response:

curious - and not trolling - what don't you like about Lotus Notes?

And their responses:

it's slow, uses strange non-standard ui for no reason, and I've never used an app with a more cluttered interface

it's all about the ui. its 2009. Don't give me a 1994 interface! I'm used to macs and iPhones!

This got me thinking... How should we be developing our Lotus Notes Client applications? I understand the move to Web 2.0-UIs for Domino Web Applications, but the vast majority of Lotus Notes Client Applications have a similar basic layout:

Left-hand navigation, top-row action menu, and a NotesView pane where all of the action is. NotesDocuments are often modified via Open in New Tab, ModeChange to Edit Mode, Save and Close. Some Notes Client Applications allow for multi-NotesDocument processing via gutter selection, clicking an action from the View Design Element's Action Bar, and finally refreshing the NotesUIView.

Is this wrong? Wait... that's not fair. Does this meet the user experience expectations set by the majority of today's consumer-facing, popular, and heavily-adopted solutions?

I guess my real question is this: If you were not restricted by limitations of the given client, how would you design your application user interfaces?