I've been using Notes 8 for awhile now - over a year - and there are some ways that it has fundamentally changed the way that I work. Many of you have also jumped on Notes 8 early on. The question on the table is - have you actually changed your computing habits based on your usage? Have you consciously modified your behavior (as I have had to do in some cases) to take advantage of new features?
Here's my list:
1. Embedded Sametime. I only use the embedded Sametime client in Notes. It's the same one as the standalone, so you don't miss any of the basic features. (Yes, I'm aware of cases where certain plugins are not available and we're working on that.) The other day I was even able to install a new ST plugin from an internal group.
2. Day at a Glance - I rarely look at my full calendar any more except to look at the entire week. This was one of those habits I had to change since my calendar was always the second tab in Notes. I had to re-train my mouse muscles to go to the sidebar instead.
3. Workspace, what workspace? Who needs it? :) Disclosure: I transitioned to bookmarks a long time ago and I am a terrible filer. However, now I exclusively use the Open List search capabilities. Hit Alt-B and start typing. No fishing through folders or workspace tabs to find my stuff.
4. Widgets - I made a widget that shows me the status and plans across the entire UX MA Studio, so I can easily get to the information when I need it. This is in a Notes app, btw.
5. Send/Receive Mail. Also known as Replicate Mail Only. I either use the action bar button for this or the tools menu - Alt-O-M-Enter.
6. Conversations. How handy is it to see all the responses to an email in one place?? Very handy.
7. Type ahead addressing that's smart. So useful you don't even know it's happening, but it's something I use every day.
8. Include Location info in Calendar invitation. A lot of folks had a custom icon that put this info into the location field. Now, just tick the checkbox.
I guess it's appropriate that I stop at 8 for now (oh, wait, there's undo and spellcheck underline!). What's your favorite everyday feature?
Chris Reckling
Program Director, Lotus Software UX
Chris Reckling | 13 August 2008 01:30:00 PM ET | Home | Comments (7) | Permanent Link
Ah, the memories of bright, eye-burning yellow swag...it was hard to give up this vintage R5 vest, but well worth it for Mr. Lepofsky. It's not really my color pallette.
I look forward to seeing your own yellow pics on Monday.
Chris
Chris Reckling | 8 August 2008 01:57:06 PM ET | Home Office | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
I've had my vacation and the post-vacation lag in blogging, so now it's time to get back into it. I find that I always see good topics to blog about, but it takes me a bit of time to just sit down and do it...so here goes.
In last Sunday's (July 20) Boston Globe Magazine, there was an article about companies doing away with a set number vacation days. The primary example was from Netflix, the DVD/Movie rental company. Apparently, they don't have specific vacation time there, you just take what you need. However it seems like the expectation is that you are available - or, anyway, they only hire folks who are like that, obsessively checking email and responding in an instant!
"And that seems to be leading to an even more insidious message: Committed workers should not want a total separation. "Some people really need to get away and rejuvenate. That might not be the right kind of person for Netflix," Steve Swasey says."
Yikes! I can hear the interview questions now. "When you go on vacation, how many times/hour do you check your email?" "If you were on a deserted island and had a choice to bring either your ipod or your blackberry, which would you choose?"
(full disclosure: I meant to not check email while on vacation, because usually there is no connection possible, but this year there was a surprise internet connection in our cottage, so I replicated a few times and cleaned out the stuff I could just delete.)
Our very own Sandra Marcus was quoted in the article about how IBM doesn't really track your vacation time. My own experience agrees with that, both as employee and as manager. In fact, I sometimes have to go back through the year and make sure that I've taken all my vacation because I don't really think about it. I would not say that IBM has as liberal a policy as Netflix - i.e. we have a set number of vacation days that accrue throughout the year, plus holidays and "floating" holidays (these are holidays that you don't take on the day that they occur - don't ask me what they are!). Usually, the only time the vacation issue comes up is when someone leaves the company and you have to fill out the exit form so they can get paid for any unused vacation.
I do worry that if you don't completely get away and recharge, then in the long run it doesn't do the company any good. Now, if your idea of fun is to sit down with Domino Designer and learn a bunch of new things, or take the time to learn how to program Dojo or something, then you can both "have fun" and learn something new while you are out (I did that one year, since it was raining and I wanted to re-learn DD.) The best solution is to go some place where there is no connectivity, and therefore no temptation to check email.
What's your vacation philosophy/policy? Get away completely? or keep in touch with the office?
Chris Reckling
Program Director, UX MA Design Studio, Lotus Software
Chris Reckling | 23 July 2008 03:20:00 PM ET | Westford, MA | Comments (4) | Permanent Link
We're in the planning stages for the our fall (UPDATED to be clearer) customer council conference and it's reminding me a little bit about Lotusphere planning (shudder). Plus, it's in Florida this year instead of Boston.
I've started including Lotusphere planning on all of my product timeline charts since it has such a large impact on us and it's not like we don't know when it will be. In fact, I just added this gadget to my sidebar.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Chris
Chris Reckling | 22 July 2008 11:39:47 AM ET | | Comments (2) | Permanent Link
Well...this year they installed an internet connection at the cottage we stay at on the Maine coast. The bad news is that I can connect to the rest of the world. The good news is that I can post this picture of a huge rainbow that appeared one day last week after one of the afternoon thunderstorms. It was so big that I couldn't get the whole thing on camera, even with the wide lens on the Nikon (argh - batteries ran out on that one and no charger until tonight!). In the 18-20 years we've been coming here, there hasn't been a rainbow like this that I've seen, anyway. Luckily we all got our cameras out and were able to snap a few photos before it disappeared again.
enjoy....
Chris
Chris Reckling | 8 July 2008 07:03:58 PM ET | | Comments (2) | Permanent Link
Back July 14 to slog through email. Have fun without me....here's what I'm looking at now (except for the sun part, but who cares at this point).
Chris
Chris Reckling | 30 June 2008 09:10:02 AM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
Found in internal newsletter today.
For companies scattered across locations, collaboration is critical. New IBM tools can help employees, partners and customers connect on-line and work in the same room virtually. Watch it
Actual marketing that talks about the business value of collaboration, including customer examples.
Chris
Chris Reckling | 27 June 2008 07:08:11 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
Now that the 2-day tutorial on Xpages in Domino Designer is over, a few enthusiastic converts are starting to blog about it. In addition to Nathan, Rob, Andrew, and John's postings on their blogs, check these out, from John Mackey (who happened to be an early adopter of Workplace Designer back in the day, so he has a head start on some of you).
xPages Example: updating data from multiple forms from a single xPage
xPages Example part 2: Generating dynamic editable fields for a document collection
John also includes a sample download db so you can get started right away. Thanks, John!
One thing I will reveal in this blog post is that when we were making the app for Maureen's Lotusphere 2008 demo, the process went like this, mainly because the builds weren't exactly stable at the time, so I didn't want to install Domino Designer 8.5:
me: ask Denise to create cool looking form in two contrasting styles so we could flip the CSS and show how you can completely remake the app, just with CSS.
Denise: provide me with the cut up images and color values.
me: create the CSS and HTML mockup, using Dreamweaver. (I had the usual fun with IE6! ugh!)
me: Open Lotus Component Designer running on WAS CE, no longer available on alphaworks, by the way. Import the CSS, images, etc and make the form in Xpages. Send to Maureen.
Maureen: Add the Xpage and CSS into her demo NSF.
Key point is that I could develop the xpage in Dw and LCD first, then hand it to Maureen for the final demo in DDE. You could use a similar process where the HTML coders and graphic designers can hand a near complete mockup to your Domino developer so they can add the business logic and data binding. This opens up a lot of possibilities.
Chris Reckling
Program Director, Lotus Software UX
Chris Reckling | 21 June 2008 01:15:16 PM ET | | Comments (1) | Permanent Link
A nice review of Lotus Symphony in CRN.
The Test Center found Symphony a snap to use, and switching to Symphony after years of using Microsoft Office was painless. While Open Office was a nice alternative, Symphony looks and works much more elegantly while keeping the free price tag.
Go UX team!!
Chris
Chris Reckling | 18 June 2008 06:10:04 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
You should know by now that I like to take photos - I think I'm making up for the fact that I regret not taking pictures when I worked at the Opera Company of Boston, building sets and putting on operas. Oh, well...I captured the happy demo duo, Suzanne and Heidi. I hope to make it back there on Wednesday for more sessions and to check out the demo pavilion.
It was clear to me that Sharepoint wasn't exactly designed to be a social networking platform and the MS team had some trouble sticking to the topic. They showed some blogging in Word, which could be handy (we have something similar in the works in Symphony) but then they launched into a typical doc mgmt type scenario. It appeared to me that the blog and wiki were built out of SP Lists, but I couldn't be sure, since I don't really know that platform well. The team also showed My Sites, which was more of a personal portal (see K-station), which surfaces documents that you authored or are part of your team spaces. The other thing about Sharepoint is that you need to supplement it with either partner add-ons or the Community Kit for Blogs in order to add the social networking pieces, like tagging and ratings. I'm guessing that is a short-term strategy until they can add more features. Profiles seemed to be more integrated, but the demo-ers ended up showing endless config options and the crowd was getting restless.
Anyway, that was my impression!
Chris Reckling
Program Director, Lotus Software UX
Chris Reckling | 10 June 2008 01:54:42 PM ET | | Comments (7) | Permanent Link
