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Flashback: The Low Down On Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Thu, Nov 13th 2008  54
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Balsamiq Mockups...A Very Cool Tool For Building Prototypes
Thu, Nov 6th 2008 48
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Thu, Oct 23rd 2008 75
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SnTT: Add A "Universal Toolbar" To Your Lotus Notes Applications
Thu, Oct 16th 2008 105
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Lotusphere 2009 - Free Stuff! 10 Web 2.0 User Interface Patterns for Notes And Xpages
Thu, Oct 9th 2008 123
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Lotusphere 2009 - Getting to WOW
Sat, Sep 27th 2008 56
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Tue, Sep 9th 2008 99
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Is Lotus Notes Long In The Tooth?
Mon, Aug 4th 2008 240
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Thu, Feb 28th 2008 143
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Add Tagging To Your Mail (Or Any Other Application) Without Design Changes!
Mon, Jun 23rd 2008 143
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Domino Web Developers...Will Our Apps Be Better In New Google Browser?
Mon, Sep 1st 2008 143
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Lotusphere 2009 - Free Stuff! 10 Web 2.0 User Interface Patterns for Notes And Xpages
Thu, Oct 9th 2008 123
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Application Decay...A Must Read Article
Thu, Jul 24th 2008 118
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Please Welcome A New Voice To The Lotus Notes Community
Tue, Jul 8th 2008 117
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Unobtrusive JavaScript...You Should Totally Do This
Mon, Apr 28th 2008 114
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Sample Database From Lotusphere 2008
Sat, Feb 23rd 2008 111
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Spreading A Little Lotus Notes Love
Fri, Apr 25th 2008 107
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Add Tagging To Your Mail (Or Any Other Application) Without Design Changes!
Jun 23, 2008 12:57p |
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If you'd like to find out how to add simple tagging capabilities to your Lotus Notes applications without making any design changes, then keep reading...
As a way to increase my productivity in processing e-mail, I stopped using folders for filing a few years ago. This is especially easy in Lotus Notes 8, since the search capabilities are much nicer and have been enhanced in such a way as to make me very happy I made this choice. Basically, when I process e-mail, I determine if the message is actionable and if so, I decide what to do with it and then remove it from the inbox. I don't file it in a folder...I just choose the "Remove from Folder" action. Clean, simple and gets the job done. I did find, however, that quite often the text that is included in the e-mail does not contain the actual meta data that I would later want to search on. Thus, I found myself editing messages and adding the key phrases related to the e-mail before I removed them. Of course, what I was doing is known by most people as tagging and I realized that a simple mechanism for tagging is exactly what I wanted.
In my last job, I had a highly modified mail file that I used for my GTD system as well as for other productivity enhancements (and as a playground for off the wall ideas, I must confess). When I came into the tech sales role at IBM, I decided early on that I should use the generic mail template, since I would be doing so many demos for customers. As a result, my initial tagging mechanism had to morph to something that required no design changes. I thought that whatever I came up with should be useful for others, but didn't want to spend the time building a complete solution in another NSF. So, I decided to see if I could utilize Formula language in a custom toolbar button. The result, while not elegant by any means, is quite efficient and works well for me, so I thought I'd throw it out here to share.
Here's the scenario. I select the document in question and click my "Tag It" toolbar button. To allow for choices from tags I've already used (for continuity and best search results), I pull up a dialog box of previous tags and also allow new tags to be added. Once I have the necessary tags for the document selected, they are saved into a new field on the document. That's pretty much all there is to it from a user point of view. Here are a couple of screen shots to illustrate:
In order to make this work on a per application basis, I save the list of tags used in a profile document. The first line of the code pulls up the list of previously used tags, while the second line retrieves any of the tags that might already be assigned to the selected document. The next few lines provide for a multi-list dialog, along with logic that checks for the selection of "-add new-". If the "-add new-" option is chosen, the user is prompted to enter new tags (separated by commas) and the updated list of selected tags and any newly entered tags are written to the "txt_CustomTags" field. Finally, the last line makes sure any new tag values are written back to the profile document for use next time.
REM {Get tags stored in database};
Tags := @GetProfileField("TagsProfile";"txt_CurrentTags";@UserName);
REM {Get any tags from the selected document};
DocTags := txt_CustomTags;
Selection := @Prompt([OkCancelListMult]; "Select Tag(s)"; "Please select the tag(s) to apply to this document"; DocTags; @Trim("-add new-" : @Unique(Tags : DocTags)));
@If(Selection = 1;
@Return("");
@IsMember("-add new-"; Selection);
@Set("NewTag"; @Prompt([OkCancelEdit]; "Enter New Tag"; "Please enter the new tag(s) you would like to apply to this document. Separate tags with a comma"; ""));
"");
UpdatedList := @Trim(@Unique(@Replace(Selection; "-add new-"; "") : @Explode(NewTag)));
FIELD txt_CustomTags := UpdatedList;
@SetProfileField("TagsProfile"; "txt_CurrentTags"; @Unique(UpdatedList : Tags); @UserName)
For completeness, I also include a toolbar button to wipe out any tags on the document (FIELD txt_CurrentTags := @Unavailable).
So, as you can see, while adding a true tagging mechanism would be ideal, this solution makes it very easy for me to tag documents in my mail file and then use the standard Notes search mechanism to retrieve them more easily. While your mileage may certainly vary, it's a great way to give users the tagging ability without changing any database designs. |
| Blog Posts |
54
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Flashback: The Low Down On Low-Fidelity Prototyping 
Thu, Nov 13th 2008 9:16p Chris Blatnick
Note: This is a repeat of one of my more popular articles. It is reprinted here after several requests. Since I have a lot more readers now than I did when originally posted, I thought it would be a good time to recycle it. :-) You don't have to be on this site for very long before you'll start picking out some common themes. Two of the topics that I am very passionate about when it comes to the development process are low-fidelity prototyping and usability testing. I truly believe that every d [read] Keywords: notes
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48
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Balsamiq Mockups...A Very Cool Tool For Building Prototypes 
Thu, Nov 6th 2008 7:51p Chris Blatnick
As long-time readers know, I'm somewhat of a zealot when it comes to singing the praises of low-fidelity prototyping. Over time, I've found that it allows me to get to the best possible user interface faster than any other method. While I love breaking out the crayons, markers and paper, I do admit that it sometimes becomes more time consuming than I'd like if I have to keep redoing a certain screen. This is where I see a computer-based tool being very helpful. In a past post, I introduced you [read] Keywords: desktop
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75
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SnTT: Quick Follow-up To "Universal Toolbar"
Thu, Oct 23rd 2008 8:52p Chris Blatnick
It seems some folks liked my idea from last week, especially the example screenshot showing a drop down menu in this "universal toolbar" area. I received a comment and a few e-mails asking how this was done. Well...I actually wrote this up (along with a sample database) a couple of years ago, so today's show and tell will be a cheat, as I am just going to link you over to that entry. With that, here you go. Enjoy. SnTT: Cascading Navigation In Notes Editor's Note: The sample database that i [read] Keywords: lotus
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SnTT: Add A "Universal Toolbar" To Your Lotus Notes Applications
Thu, Oct 16th 2008 7:57p Chris Blatnick
Hey, look at that: A Show-n-Tell Thursday post. Woohoo! OK...I've got to think up a better/more descriptive name than "universal toolbar", but I'm creatively challenged today. At least I got a post out...geez. :-) If you think about most of your applications, there are probably certain functions that are executed more than anything else. Perhaps it is a particular search mechanism, running a certain agent or navigating to a given document. Whatever the most common action is, do you make it easy [read] Keywords: agent
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123
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Lotusphere 2009 - Free Stuff! 10 Web 2.0 User Interface Patterns for Notes And Xpages
Thu, Oct 9th 2008 8:51p Chris Blatnick
Hi again...as we gear up for Lotusphere 2009 and abstracts are being reviewed, you still have the chance to vote on the sessions that you want to see in the Best Practices track. I'm very pleased that besides getting to submit an abstract with Mr. Duff, I also had the opportunity to submit another with my partner-in-crime from the last two Lotuspheres! Nathan Freeman and I really enjoyed presenting our user interface sessions to many of you and now we want to take it to a new level. Actually, ou [read] Keywords: ibm
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56
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Lotusphere 2009 - Getting to WOW
Sat, Sep 27th 2008 8:12p Chris Blatnick
Yesterday was the deadline for Lotusphere abstracts, so I hope you got your ideas in. I'm really excited that there seems to be such a buzz around the conference this year (even more than normal, it seems). One of my former colleagues submitted a couple of ideas too, so I'm hoping he gets a chance to get up there and show off his stuff. I actually ended up with two entries thrown into the hat and one Birds of a Feather idea. Both of the session submissions are with a couple of fantastic speaker [read] Keywords: lotus
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Epic Fail...Error Message Worst Practices (And How To Fix Them)
Tue, Sep 9th 2008 9:59p Chris Blatnick
Error messages...the bane of users. We all dread the software crash or programmatic wrong turn that sends our productivity crashing into a brick wall. To add insult to injury, I think most of us would be hard pressed to find examples of good error messages in the software we use. Remember that one of the key goals of interface design to strive for is making the interface unobtrusive so that the user can focus on the task at hand, not on how to use the software. When users encounter an error, we [read] Keywords: policies
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twitter
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47
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WOA vs SOA...The Battle of the "Oriented Architectures"
Sat, Sep 6th 2008 9:52p Chris Blatnick
Everybody Loves Web Oriented Architecture Hmmm...interesting read indeed. While this isn't the party line for my employer, I think WOA is the way to go personally. It just seems lighter weight to me and more "agile", which of course I like. Then again, a lot of this stuff is all semantics anyway! ;-) [read] Keywords: soa
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57
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Lotusphere 2009...Should I Even Try?
Thu, Sep 4th 2008 7:59p Chris Blatnick
So Lotusphere time is upon us again in a few short months and people are getting all hyped up and excited since registration opened yesterday. This is always a fun time, as the folks in the blogging community start talking about some of the sessions they hope to submit, while others keep their thoughts very close to the vest. I'm currently wondering what, if anything, I should submit as an idea this year. Are there any topics that you'd specifically like to see at Lotusphere based around the s [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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application
applications
blogging
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36
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On Total (e)Productivity In Lotus Notes
Wed, Sep 3rd 2008 7:59p Chris Blatnick
I've mentioned the eProductivity system a few times here and there and wanted to share some additional thoughts about it. It's great to see applications that enhance and extend the power of the Lotus Notes platform. Eric Mack and his development team have done a great job in this respect. (Don't forget to check out the video demo) If you are a practitioner of Getting Things Done (GTD), David Allen's system for managing the overwhelm almost all of us feel due to the myriad things that require o [read] Keywords: lotus
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143
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Domino Web Developers...Will Our Apps Be Better In New Google Browser?
Mon, Sep 1st 2008 10:00p Chris Blatnick
Exciting times, eh? Tomorrow, Google is releasing "Google Chrome", a new, built-from-the-ground-up web browser that promises to be a modern platform for applications and web pages. With announcements like this, plus all the new goodies like xPages coming from IBM, you really do need to start brushing up on your web skills. While I *love* rich client development, I believe it's equally important to be able to use your skills when developing for the browser. I've met far too many Domino develope [read] Keywords: domino
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xpages applications
css
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87
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OK Lotus Geeks, Time To Pump Up!
Mon, Sep 1st 2008 7:59p Chris Blatnick
Hey Everybody...Are you ready for a challenge? I came across the OneHundredPushUps site a few weeks back and put it on my list of things to explore in more detail. I finally did this weekend, so I'm ready to get started. The gist of the program is that you do the required work for six weeks with the goal of being able to do 100 pushups (consecutively) at the end. I've been running lately and doing a bit of lifting, all in an attempt to get back into prime fighting condition. I'm lucky enoug [read] Keywords: lotus
microsoft
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79
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Twitter...Are We Doing It Wrong?
Tue, Aug 12th 2008 11:20p Chris Blatnick
I should be spending a little more time preparing for the social software proof of technology seminar that I am giving the next two days, but instead I'm spending time reading blogs about social software. Hmmm...maybe that actually counts. :-)
There's been quite a bit of buzz about Twitter in our community lately. Rocky asked what all the fuss was about a few days ago. I saw Andrew talking about Twitter being used incorrectly on Twitter yesterday, which I thought was funny and ironic. Toda [read] Keywords: connections
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lotus
community
social software
twitter
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66
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Where Are These Coming From?
Sun, Aug 10th 2008 11:29a Chris Blatnick
I don't know about you, but I've always been a fan of the Muppets. That said, I've been loving the fact that these videos keep popping up on YouTube. Here are two of my favorites: [read] Keywords: application
wiki
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You can rent this space for 30 days. Interested?
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240
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Is Lotus Notes Long In The Tooth?
Mon, Aug 4th 2008 9:12a Chris Blatnick
By now, if you are a member of the Lotus community in any way, shape or form, you've probably seen the great new press release that articulates the momentum we've been gaining (quarter after quarter) over our competitors. It's so great to see the commitment we've all made to this platform be validated in real world terms. I, for one, welcome our new Lotus Notes overlords. ;-)
In light of all the great press and positive upswing I've seen out in the wild lately, I thought it was interesting [read] Keywords: ibm
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36
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The Importance Of Micro-Experiences
Mon, Jul 28th 2008 9:08p Chris Blatnick
Do you think about the simple bits that make using your application, website, etc., easier for end users? With the continuing specialization of certain applications, both within the firewall and out, I find that users are frequently interacting with these applications for very small chunks of time. Usually it is in the context of looking up some item of data, and it made me reflect on the ways I've tried to simplify life for end users, especially in light of short transactions. Here are some exa [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
application
applications
google
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100
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On Why Design Just Might Drive You Crazy
Sat, Jul 26th 2008 10:28a Chris Blatnick
STOP...and take a look! ;-) [read] Keywords: application
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118
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Application Decay...A Must Read Article
Thu, Jul 24th 2008 12:26p Chris Blatnick
Once again, Nathan Freeman has provided us with a thought-provoking article that I think is a must read for every Notes developer. In this post, Nathan continues his "The Truth As I See It" series (also check out Part 1).
Nathan and I had a quick Sametime chat on how his ideas relate to the user interface. I think as a result we'll have another interesting post to read in the not-too-distant future. I was going to give my two cents on how this phenomenon also results because of our indiv [read] Keywords: lotus
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117
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Please Welcome A New Voice To The Lotus Notes Community
Tue, Jul 8th 2008 4:43p Chris Blatnick
Hi All...I hope everyone is well. I'd love to say that I've been heads down working on a super secret project that will revolutionize Notes UI development for years to come but...yeah...not so much. I do have a whole treasure trove of ideas in my brainstorming notebook, though, and with any luck, I'll be completely refreshed after my upcoming, long-awaited (and needed) vacation and will dive into developing these brilliant gems into working prototypes to share with all of you.
In the meantim [read] Keywords: collaboration
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61
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eProductivity for Lotus Notes...Want To Be Way More Efficient?
Fri, Jun 27th 2008 12:44p Chris Blatnick
Many of you have already heard of Eric Mack's eProductivity software, a tool for implementing the Getting Things Done methodology in Lotus Notes. If you haven't, it's definitely something you should check out. If you want to increase your effectiveness and efficiency in dealing with all your stuff, then eProductivity might just be the application to take you over the top. It's an outstanding tool and a great example of the power available in Lotus Notes-based systems.
If you hurry, you might [read] Keywords: lotus
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143
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Add Tagging To Your Mail (Or Any Other Application) Without Design Changes!
Mon, Jun 23rd 2008 12:56p Chris Blatnick
If you'd like to find out how to add simple tagging capabilities to your Lotus Notes applications without making any design changes, then keep reading... As a way to increase my productivity in processing e-mail, I stopped using folders for filing a few years ago. This is especially easy in Lotus Notes 8, since the search capabilities are much nicer and have been enhanced in such a way as to make me very happy I made this choice. Basically, when I process e-mail, I determine if the message is a [read] Keywords: document
formula
formula language
ibm
lotus
notes
template
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applications
database
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57
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Collaboration Comes To Mind Maps
Thu, Jun 19th 2008 8:55a Chris Blatnick
One last post about mind maps and we'll move on, I promise! :-) It's no secret that I am a big fan of visual mapping techniques. Mind maps allow you to capture, quantify and organize information in ways that mirror how our brains actually work. They allow you to see beyond simple linear lists to understand relationships between ideas. While traditional mind mapping as developed by Tony Buzan utilizes paper and colored markers, pencils, crayons, etc., the sheer amount of information we deal with [read] Keywords: collaboration
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integration
interface
microsoft
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97
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Lotus iNotes on the Apple iPhone
Fri, Jun 13th 2008 3:46p Chris Blatnick
Pretty funny that we are back to calling it iNotes! ;-D It may not be the perfect soluton (yet), but the new iNotes "Ultralite" functionality on the iPhone is pretty nice from a UI perspective. Check it out... [read] Keywords: domino
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44
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Heck Yeah - Of Course I'm Experiencing Cognative Dissonance! 
Wed, Jun 11th 2008 2:02p Chris Blatnick
One of the things I love about reading Tim Ferris' blog is that he gets a chance to sit down and talk with many very interesting people. I have to point out his latest post, since it's a dilemma I identify with...how to be a superstar at work (not doing so hot at that right now) while being a superstar at home as well. Usually, such conflicting demands diminish your performance in one or both domains, so the trick is finding the right path to balancing them as best you can. In today's post, Tim [read] Keywords: |
76
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Unlock Your Creative Side And Create More Compelling Designs
Fri, May 23rd 2008 7:04a Chris Blatnick
Programmers and IT types in general are not usually well known for their creative and spontaneous ways. Most in this profession are very logical and linear thinkers, and often those qualities lend themselves nicely to this field. An unfortunate byproduct of this fact, however, are the thousands upon thousands of badly designed applications that have been forced upon poor, unsuspecting end users. If you've been here for any length of time, you know that I have a couple of sacred mantras. One is t [read] Keywords: lotus
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44
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Collaborate From Anywhere...The Value Proposition of Lotus Quickr
Wed, May 14th 2008 5:25p Chris Blatnick
If I had to pick a common Achilles' Heel among the various collaboration systems I've worked with through the years, I would probably point to the fact that each system usually has a single point of entry. That is, you have to (virtually) leave the place you are currently working in order to go to the "place to collaborate". I've found this to be true of Lotus Notes document libraries and Team Rooms, Documentum, Quickplace and other web-based repositories and even Sharepoint (depending on the to [read] Keywords: collaboration
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quickr
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New Blogger @ Dominoblog.com
Wed, May 14th 2008 4:23p Chris Blatnick
Yo, yo...welcome to my peeps...Andrea Waugh-Metzger is now blogging at Dominoblog.com. She is one of my colleagues, but way, way smarter than me, so you should definitely get over there and visit. Tell her I sent you and maybe I'll get some brownie points. :-D Peace out... [read] Keywords: lotus
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blogger
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76
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Say It With Me Now...User Focused Design Is KEY
Thu, May 1st 2008 10:01p Chris Blatnick
If there's a particular drum I bang over and over again, it's the "keep it simple, stupid" drum. This term has almost become a cliché , but hey, "if the shoe fits, wear it". (Oh sorry, that was bad...just couldn't help myself ;-) Anyway, when I was doing project work, I was always the guy advocating for people to "take it slow", "do things in stages", "no big bangs", "Amazon wasn't built in a day", etc., etc. I believe that quick, iterative steps yield better results, less bugs and get you to [read] Keywords: enterprise
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114
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Unobtrusive JavaScript...You Should Totally Do This
Mon, Apr 28th 2008 10:40p Chris Blatnick
In my JavaScript session at last year's version of LotusDeveloper (an excellent conference, by the way...you should go), I discussed the concept of unobtrusive javascript and showed several examples. Just as CSS was a blessing to us as we started to shift to the mindset of separating presentation from content (not so hard for us Notes folks really!), so is unobtrusive javascript the next stage of evolution. It's about separating behavior from content. If we can take out all the formatting junk f [read] Keywords: domino
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notes client
css
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17
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The Phantom Agony
Mon, Apr 28th 2008 6:24p Chris Blatnick
Ah...cool orchestration, keyboards, a little Cookie Monster, soaring choir vocals, a beautiful mezzo-soprano, metal guitars. Life is good. :-) [read] Keywords: application
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107
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Spreading A Little Lotus Notes Love
Fri, Apr 25th 2008 12:07a Chris Blatnick
Besides Lotus Notes, the other software product I'm most passionate about is MindManager from Mindjet. I've talked about it a little in the past on this blog, but for those unfamiliar with this product, it is an tool for creating mind maps on your computer rather than with paper, pens, crayons, etc. It has a UI that is as simple to use as paper, but with very powerful features that provide results you couldn't expect to achieve in the analog realm. I just upgraded to the new version the other da [read] Keywords: ibm
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notes client
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93
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Simulating Fieldset and Legend In The Notes Client
Sun, Apr 20th 2008 9:58a Chris Blatnick
You may have noticed that the signal-to-noise ratio of UI posts on this blog has been rather low the last few months. This is, unfortunately, a bi-product of my current job at IBM. While I'm cranking away on a development project, the ideas are coming fast and furious. When I'm not, it's much harder to come up with ideas. It's really the fact that solving a business problem spurs creativity, while actively trying to come up with new ideas as you stare at a blank page doesn't result in much usefu [read] Keywords: designer
domino
ibm
notes
notes client
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css
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26
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Let's Help Kick Cancer To The Curve
Mon, Apr 14th 2008 10:44p Chris Blatnick
A few months back, a little site called Planet Lotus appeared and took us all by storm. If you follow Lotus blogs at all, you know about it already, and if you're like many of us, you probably visit it first thing in the morning or several times throughout the day to see what the Lotus Community is up to. Well the incredibly cool guy behind Planet Lotus is also one hell of a dad and is doing something to help his son and indeed society in general. So, please, if you are a fan of Planet Lotus, he [read] Keywords: lotus
community
planet lotus
planetlotus
planetlotus.org
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Free Meeting And Web Conferencing Service
Mon, Apr 14th 2008 10:10p Chris Blatnick
Hi, everybody...Hi, Doctor Nick! (Whoops...another out of place Simpsons reference there) Bruce was looking for a web conferencing service today and although I got to him too late, I wanted to share a cool alternative for those of you looking for a "personal" web meeting space. The service is called Dimdim and it's billed as "the world's free web meeting where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required for att [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
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47
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Get The Best Of Lotusphere While In Your Pajamas!
Fri, Apr 11th 2008 8:04a Chris Blatnick
Besides being a snappy dresser, Lotusphere Comes To You is so nice, it's taken time out of it's busy schedule to make life easy for you. Why leave the comfort of your easy chair when you can get a private showing while still wearing your jammies? For details, see below. This public service message is brought to you from the fine folks at LotusUserGroup.org. LotusUserGroup.org is hosting Lotusphere Comes to You Online. This is an online event series featuring updated presentations from Lotusphe [read] Keywords: administration
, collaboration
, connections
, designer
, domino
, ibm
, lotus
, lotusphere
, mashups
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, application
, desktop
, email
, enterprise
, lotususergroup.org
, security
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38
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Easily Lookup Books From Amazon At Your Local Library
Thu, Apr 3rd 2008 12:39p Chris Blatnick
I occasionally like to share some of the productivity hacks I use. This is one of them. If you're a book lover, it's likely that you have overflowing shelves of books at home (yes, Tom...this means you! ;-). I decided a few years ago to pare down on my actual book buying and try to utilize the local library more often. Even so, I find myself on Amazon quite a bit (either via a blog link, a suggestion from a friend or just to see what's new). If I find something of interest but I'm not sure I wa [read] Keywords: bookmarklet
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46
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Movie Quotes...I Have A Theory
Wed, Apr 2nd 2008 8:57p Chris Blatnick
Sometimes, when my mind is on overload, I really enjoy the fact that driving lets me pause and get some good thinking done. Often, I come up with my best ideas in this way (and huzzah to Jott for allowing me to capture these so easily). Today, however, my mind was so blotto (translate: fried, frazzled, ready to blow), that I was just daydreaming. And on the way home from taking my son to drum practice, I hit upon this amazing, and most likely completely correct (;-) theory. The question at hand [read] Keywords: |
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Collaboration: And Knowing Is Half The Battle
Tue, Mar 25th 2008 3:58p Chris Blatnick
Yes...I blatantly used a G.I. Joe-ism in the title. Why? Perhaps just to reel you in from Planet Lotus ;-) In my recent work with customers and all the hubbub around social networking and collaboration, it's quite evident that collaboration is cool again. I'd like to think that Lotus is playing no small part in this, as our offerings in this space are truly exciting. I'm more enthusiastic about Lotus than I have been in years and that's saying something since you know I'm a fanboy! :-) But one [read] Keywords: collaboration
, lotus
, notes
, consulting
, enterprise
, network
, networking
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80
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In Which I Say "Hallelujah" To Simplicity
Mon, Mar 24th 2008 8:56a Chris Blatnick
By now many of you have probably seen the great little comic on the "It's Just a Bunch of Stuff That Happens" site about Simplicity, but if not follow the link then come right back... Pretty true to life, eh? I recognized the bottom example in many, many (many, many, MANY) Notes applications I have seen through the years and I'm sure you did too, which is why we all thought it was so funny in a sad sort of way. But I tell you what my friends, the idea of simplicity is sorely lacking in the ente [read] Keywords: designer
, document
, forms
, ibm
, lotusphere
, lotusscript
, notes
, ajax
, apple
, application
, applications
, database
, enterprise
, google
, interface
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7
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Gathering of Mustangs & Legends - Flag Jump
Mon, Mar 17th 2008 4:28p Chris Blatnick
Cool... [read] Keywords: |
8
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Lotusphere Comes To You - Columbus Edition
Fri, Mar 14th 2008 12:01p Chris Blatnick
Hi Folks...Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be coordinating the Open Labs at the Lotusphere Comes To You event in Columbus, OH, next Thursday the 20th. If you have a chance to come by, please do and don't hesitate to introduce yourself! The Open Labs give you a great opportunity to sit down and play with our new products, from Notes to Sametime, Quickr to Connections. Hope to see you there! [read] Keywords: connections
, lotusphere
, notes
, quickr
, sametime
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7
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Direct Note Access...This is Revolutionary!
Wed, Mar 12th 2008 4:50a Chris Blatnick
(Disclaimer...this is not Notes related) If you are a musician or music geek (or if you want to be fascinated by the things you can do with music on a computer), you have to check this out: Wow! [read] Keywords: notes
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46
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ILUG...The Question of the Day
Thu, Mar 6th 2008 10:02a Chris Blatnick
So...the question of the day is: How do I convince my boss to let me go to ILUG? In my current role at IBM, I'm in technical sales for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas. Thus, it seems a little hard to justify that heading over to Dublin in June will help me sell Lotus software here at home. Then again, I would be "expanding my thought leadership". :-) Hmmm...what do you guys think? Perhaps I could give out his address and we could all spam him! ;-D (Just kidding...I know he's started readi [read] Keywords: ibm
, ilug
, lotus
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57
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Limiting Text Entry In The Lotus Notes Client
Tue, Mar 4th 2008 8:10p Chris Blatnick
I got asked a question the other day that I didn't have a great answer to. A reader wanted to know of a way to limit the number of characters that could be typed into a field (e,g. restrict the user's entry to 30 characters). I don't remember having a business requirement like that in a Lotus Notes application for a long time, but in the past I'm sure I would have handled it with some form of input translation or validation formula using @Length. I'm vaguely aware of a script library I had at so [read] Keywords: document
, formula
, javascript
, lotus
, notes
, notes client
, script library
, application
, database
, interface
, properties
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45
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RIP - Gary Gygax
Tue, Mar 4th 2008 6:41p Chris Blatnick
It's a sad day for gamers around the world, as Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons and the man considered the father of the role-playing game, passed away today. He was 69. When I heard the news, I was surprised by how sad I felt. Although I haven't played the game in many years, it was a big part of my life when I was younger. I still remember the excitement when I saw that red box on the shelf at the toy store in the Foothills Mall. It had an epic picture of a fighter about to eng [read] Keywords: |
65
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Hey...Why Should I Care About The Interface? (Or...That's Just Touchy Feely Stuff, Isn't It?)
Mon, Mar 3rd 2008 4:05p Chris Blatnick
Hi all... Because I'm a big fan of code reuse, I'm going to shamelessly copy and paste an essay I wrote when I first moderated a forum for LotusUserGroup. It's about why I think UI design in Lotus Notes is necessary and I believe it's an important talking point. I'm finding that as organizations are getting serious about deploying Notes 8, more developers than ever are interested in the concepts of usability and interface design. I've noticed an uptick in the amount of mail I'm getting from peo [read] Keywords: designer
, document
, forms
, lotus
, notes
, application
, applications
, database
, development
, interface
, ipod
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58
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Book Review: "Web Usability For Dummies"
Sun, Mar 2nd 2008 10:55p Chris Blatnick
I've not read a lot of the "Dummies" series, but whenever I've picked one up, I've been impressed by the quality of the product. "Web Usability For Dummies" is no exception. In about 300 pages, the authors do a good job of laying the foundation for a solid understanding of the important aspects of usability. It looks like this book might be out of print now, but you can probably find a copy at your local library or via Amazon.com. What I particularly liked about this book was the focus the auth [read] Keywords: lotus
, notes
, application
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69
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I Killed My TV!
Sun, Mar 2nd 2008 11:46a Chris Blatnick
OK...well, I didn't really kill it, but I did do something I've been threatening to do for a couple of years. I cut the hardline. Yep, no more signal getting to any of the TVs in my house unless they are coming via DVD or a related component (I still have my LaserDisc player! :-) We're free of so much of the complete and utter crap being beamed into our house and I have to say it is one of the best things I've ever done. Let me explain. I've never been a huge TV fan myself. There are certain sh [read] Keywords: forms
, lotusphere
, network
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143
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Building A Widget Dashboard
Thu, Feb 28th 2008 10:07a Chris Blatnick
For me (and obviously a lot of other people based on the number of searches on Planet Lotus), widgets are one of the most compelling new features of 8.0.1. Version 8 is all about embracing the idea of performing tasks within the context of your work and the concept of widgets and Live Text is going to allow us to take this idea to a whole new level. I've seen some good initial references on creating widgets and actually created a quick primer myself for one of my customers. What I haven't seen [read] Keywords: ibm
, lotus
, notes
, google
, planet lotus
, widget
, widgets
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49
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Simplicity Sells
Mon, Feb 25th 2008 9:08p Chris Blatnick
You've heard me talk about simplicity quite a bit on this blog and in my presentations. It's really one of the most important things I stress to designers. The easier you can make your software to use, the happier your users will be. For a bit of fun and some insight into the art of simplicity (and some enjoyable Microsoft bashing as well ;-), check out this great TED Talk featuring David Pogue, tech writer for the New York Times. David Pogue: When it comes to tech, simplicity sells (Thanks [read] Keywords: microsoft
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Sample Database From Lotusphere 2008
Sat, Feb 23rd 2008 10:22a Chris Blatnick
I've been remiss in posting here lately since I'm still working on getting up to speed in my new job. Next week, I'll be in Chicago for a few days working on a Dashboard Frameworks project. This is a really cool tool and I hope I get to both use some Domino data in building the dashboard as well as expose it for consumption in Notes 8. We'll see how that goes. Since I've been absent, I forgot to point you to the sample database from the Interface Matters Advanced session at Lotusphere. Hopefull [read] Keywords: domino
, lotusphere
, notes
, database
, interface
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This came in the mail today...
Tue, Feb 5th 2008 3:28p Chris Blatnick
...and made Chris a very happy boy! :-) If you are a fan, you *NEED* to buy this!!! [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review: "Don't Make Me Think"
Sat, Feb 2nd 2008 3:42p Chris Blatnick
One of the must have books on my reference shelf is "Don't Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug. I've recommended this book to many people, so I thought it was about time to give it a proper review. One of the things that first drew me to this book when it first appeared was the subtitle. I've said it again and again, but it bears repeating...much of the "science" of good UI design is just common sense. This begs the question as to why some people find it so h [read] Keywords: lotus
, notes
, notes client
, interface
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54
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Getting Things Done: The Cognative Science Perspective
Fri, Feb 1st 2008 8:33a Chris Blatnick
I'm a big fan of the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, even if I occasionally fall off the wagon. The concepts of GTD helped me become much more productive than I ever was, which is vital for me as I struggle to accomplish a lot from a work perspective and still have quality time to devote to my family. This is especially true as Haleigh gets older, because being Autistic means many additional challenges on top of the normal things you deal with as a kid (i.e. she takes a lot of my time! :- [read] Keywords: |
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Lotusphere 2008...Wrapup
Tue, Jan 29th 2008 4:43p Chris Blatnick
(Editor's note...wrote this a few days ago...but as usual too busy to be timely!) Wow...what an amazing week @ Lotusphere. I still can't believe there are naysayers out there regarding the work being done at Lotus and IBM. We'll be here for a long time and I'm certainly looking forward to being along for the ride! There are many, many great recaps of the week to be found on the internet already, so I won't rehash any of that. From the UI perspective, I am glad to hear that people are getting th [read] Keywords: designer
, ibm
, lotus
, lotusphere
, notes
, notes client
, odf
, ods
, show and tell
, template
, apple
, applications
, database
, interface
, mac
, widgets
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20
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Show Your True Colors...BleedYellow!
Fri, Jan 18th 2008 3:13p Chris Blatnick
It's here kids... BleedYellow.com is live, thanks to our friends at Lotus911. Now let's all go and play. [read] Keywords: notes
, bleedyellow
, bleedyellow.com
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26
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Interface Sessions @ Lotusphere - What Would YOU Like To See?
Mon, Jan 14th 2008 10:28p Chris Blatnick
Hi Folks... If you are attending Lotusphere and don't already know about the incredible Lotusphere Sessions database that Ben Langhinrichs makes available every year, then you owe it to yourself to get over there and download it. It will make your Lotusphere experience immensely more productive and enjoyable. Thanks to Ben for making this available to the community! :-) Recently, he added a really cool feature allowing attendees to ask questions or tell us what you would like to see before the [read] Keywords: collaboration
, lotusphere
, community
, database
, interface
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72
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Bleeding Yellow...The Return
Mon, Jan 14th 2008 5:07p Chris Blatnick
Alan seems to enjoy teasing us about Lotusphere as we get closer and closer. His latest post should definitely get people wondering. Head on over and check it out and don't be afraid to comment in an attempt to guess what is going on. I wrote a post last year entitled "Do You Bleed Yellow", but it's not my site...hmmm... [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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21
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Designing For Flow
Fri, Jan 11th 2008 3:43p Chris Blatnick
If you've been around here for awhile or seen any of my presentations, you've heard me speak a little on the concept know as flow. When building your interface, the absolute ideal that you should be striving for is helping your users achieve a flow state, that frame of mind in which everything else seems to fall away and you become completely immersed in your task, distractions are eliminated and time flys ("I've been doing this for 5 hours??? It seems like 5 minutes!"). There's a new article on [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, interface
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20
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Anyone using the Document Rating Idea?
Fri, Jan 11th 2008 1:16p Chris Blatnick
It might have gotten lost in the holiday shuffle, but I'm curious if anyone has had a chance to use the document rating functionality in a real database. If so, any feedback? [read] Keywords: document
, notes
, database
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20
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General Geekery
Fri, Jan 11th 2008 9:03a Chris Blatnick
*Warning...this Friday post isn't about user interface design, Lotus Notes, Lotusphere or any of that stuff. Nope. There's more of that to come, but for now this post is just about being a geek. If you don't care or don't want to know more, stop reading now. You've been warned! :-) It seems to me that now more than ever it is the golden age of geeks. Everywhere you look, so called "normals" are getting into technology, especially the latest gadgets and gizmos, home theater gear and video games. [read] Keywords: lotus
, lotusphere
, notes
, quickr
, interface
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22
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SnTT: Canceling an Embedded Editor Transaction
Thu, Jan 10th 2008 9:55p Chris Blatnick
If you use embedded editors in your design, you may have run across this issue. The user starts to edit a document, only to decide that they want to select another one from the view or cancel edit mode. Unfortunately, this isn't handled very elegantly by Notes. What you get is the error message shown below. Basically, once you start editing a document in an embedded editor control, Notes expects you to save the document. Since this is the case, we can use this fact to make a simple addition to [read] Keywords: document
, notes
, sntt
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11
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Happy Birthday, Haleigh!
Thu, Jan 10th 2008 5:33a Chris Blatnick
Happy Birthday to my little girl! I hope your birthday is awesome and that you have a lot of fun eating those cool Hanna Montana cupcakes I got for your class! :-) Hey Friends...It's my daughter Haleigh's birthday today. She's autistic but is a big computer whiz and often loves to look over my shoulder as I write my blog. I know she'd get a kick out of seeing some birthday wishes from all over the place, so if you have a minute to leave a birthday comment and say where you are from, that would [read] Keywords: |
11
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Hey...Get Some Free (inter)Face Time
Wed, Jan 9th 2008 9:35p Chris Blatnick
As mentioned by Chris and Mary Beth today, the UX lab is doing something very cool and very unique at Lotusphere this year. Read on for details... The Lotus UX Lab is going to offer a one-time opportunity for our customers at Lotusphere 2008 - "The 15-minute Usability and Design Evaluation" - in the User Experience Lab, Rm. Asia 4. We'll only be doing this from 1-5 pm on Monday afternoon. Here's the deal: you can bring in one application, working, and with data ideally, (Notes, Web, Sametime, [read] Keywords: connections
, designer
, expeditor
, lotus
, lotusphere
, notes
, quickr
, sametime
, application
, applications
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19
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Our Hairy Friend and Inattentional Blindness
Wed, Jan 9th 2008 9:19p Chris Blatnick
So...some interesting results from the last post. I think that more people counted 14 passes than anything, although I think it is really 15. There's one hand off that's a bit hard to see. In any case, the number of passes really doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that a lot of you didn't even see the gorilla walk through the video while you were intent on your task of counting passes of the basketball. (If at this point you are saying, "What Gorilla???!!!", go ahead and watch the vi [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, notes
, applications
, interface
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11
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A Cool Experiment
Mon, Jan 7th 2008 3:07p Chris Blatnick
Hi Folks...this is related to the user experience, so bear with me. Check out the following video and while watching make sure you count the number of times that the white team (wearing the white shirts) passes the basketball. This is important, so make sure you count every change of hands. When finished, come back here and record your answer in the comments. View the video here...Remember: Count the number of times the white team passes the ball Don't look at the comments until you've watche [read] Keywords: |
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Lotusphere 2008...I'm A Returning Alumn
Thu, Jan 3rd 2008 4:20p Chris Blatnick
For the second year in a row, I have the honor of speaking at Lotusphere and in this case, presenting with two excellent gentlemen. If you find some time in your schedule, please join me and Bruce in: or me and Nathan in: Sharp-eyed readers will note that the Interface Matters sessions are back to back. That's right...2 whole hours of UI goodness! :-) Nathan and I are getting the old team back together. We've reprised some info from last year and will be showing several new techniques and [read] Keywords: lotusphere
, notes
, development
, interface
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10
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A New Year and Some Thank You's
Thu, Jan 3rd 2008 7:47a Chris Blatnick
Hello and Happy New Year! It seems like all the cool kids are doing the obligatory end of year review, but I'll spare you from that. :-) Suffice it to say that 2007 was great, the highlights being the times I got to spend interacting with all of you...the people of the Lotus community. I was fortunate enough to speak at Lotusphere, ILUG 2007 and the VIEW conferences in both Boston and Barcelona, and I got to hang out with a lot of really great folks. The main purpose of this post is just to say [read] Keywords: administration
, ibm
, ilug
, lotus
, lotusphere
, notes
, blogger
, community
, database
, development
, interface
, lotususergroup.org
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14
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SnTT: Using @Abstract To Enhance A View
Thu, Dec 27th 2007 6:12a Chris Blatnick
Have you ever wanted to spice up a view a little by adding abstract information to it? That is, to include some of the text of the document in the view itself so the user doesn't have to open it to determine if it is worth reading? This is pretty simple to do using the @Abstract formula. @Abstract allows you to abbreviate the content of a field in a Notes document. What I find cool is that it can also work on Rich Text fields. Now, @Abstract is very powerful and can allow you to do some intere [read] Keywords: document
, formula
, notes
, rich text
, sntt
, application
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8
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Check Out Note-ables!
Sun, Dec 23rd 2007 12:57p Chris Blatnick
Hi all...Hope you're all enjoying the holidays! I frequently think of or run across Lotus related things that I'd like to post here, but I tend to hesitate, as I'd really like to keep Inte | |
