Like what I am seeing in Notes Social Edition builds

May 21 2012

Image:Like what I am seeing in Notes Social Edition builds

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes Social Edition  Add/View Comments [52]

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  1. 1  Pálmi  | 5/21/2012 6:41:17 PM

    This looks great . Can´t wait to try it out.

  1. 2  Sriram  | 5/21/2012 10:39:38 PM

    Awesome! Hope this is light and loads faster :-)

    And when is it coming out?? :D

  1. 3  Ralf M Petter http://petterralf.blogspot.com/ | 5/22/2012 1:30:41 AM

    Yes the UI looks very nice, but what about the quality of this release. Will it solve long standing ui quirks like SPR KSOR7USEJ3,RMAN87DLBK? This little annoying bugs are the real problem of Lotus Notes/Domino. I think this is a problem with the PMR system. Only a few people open a PMR for a usability problem because the can work around the problem. So the usability problems does not get weight and will never be solved.

  1. 4  Patrick Kwinten  | 5/22/2012 1:54:39 AM

    I fear a some people will find it 'too dark'. In corporate environments you have a lot of elder people who dislike too dark screens.

    The brighter colours in the 'glance of the day' are good for making it not a funeral program.

    Nevertheless we are almost there ;-)

  1. 5  Lars Olufsen  | 5/22/2012 2:20:20 AM

    UI-wise, this is HUGE!

    It will completely destroy the notion that Notes is "old".

    I agree that the dark navigator frame might be too much, but it's a Notes Database. It's not that hard to change! ;-)

  1. 6  Luke M  | 5/22/2012 2:52:53 AM

    UI looks great! I like that dark-grey style.

    I hope there will be some updates of some other Databases like the resource reservation DB, which is still looking like a DB in 1998!

  1. 7  Alan  | 5/22/2012 4:26:26 AM

    I'm guessing that the UI will be easily customisable, it looks like it should be from the above screenshot

  1. 8  Alan  | 5/22/2012 4:31:22 AM

    Is that an Out of Office agent service enhancement I spy on the top line? Socialised OoO would be great - get a daily update of who in your network is out is useful for planning. Easy to do by mashing together output from the Out of Office server agent and your network info from Connections.

  1. 9  Steve Medure  | 5/22/2012 7:11:47 AM

    I see a Workspace tab open, can you show a pic of the new workspace?

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/22/2012 7:23:10 AM

    @9 I'm not really supposed to be showing pictures of anything yet :-), but re @7 - this is a "windows and themes" choice, so you can certainly customize or design others.

    @6 probably not bandwidth to update all the databases. Priority is on the mass end-user experience.

  1. 11  Dusan Mataruga  | 5/22/2012 8:26:43 AM

    People might get confused with this naming structure. At least I am.

    Notes Social Edition is next version of Notes client?

    Is there going to be any other client other than this one?

    BTW, this looks great, I hope it will be lighter than the 8.5.3 that we currently use.

  1. 12  JFranchetti  | 5/22/2012 8:55:43 AM

    UI looks great. I offer two bits of feedback:

    * In the upper-left corner there are 5 stacked "menu" bars (I am counting the tabs and New Message action bar). They look good, and all have a purpose. However, this is an area that could use some siplification.

    * In the upper-right corner, the universal search. No one here uses it. Many just use the magnifying glass and the classic search bar within various databases. The concept is great, though the execution has not been perfect and you have multiple ways to search as a result. This is the kind of thing that gives Notes a bad name. Put your best technical and UI people on search, it is critical to getting work done.

  1. 13  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/22/2012 9:03:48 AM

    @11 you can "just" deploy Notes 8.5.4, which won't include any new features or UI work. Or you can deploy the Social Edition feature pack atop 8.5.4, which becomes Notes Social Edition (help about will say Notes Social Edition 8.5.4).

  1. 14  Chris Paul  | 5/22/2012 9:25:20 AM

    Great to see this feedback. Thank you. The team has tweaked a version of this design with a bit lighter left nav. We can't wait to get this into your hands.

  1. 15  Ralf M Petter http://petterralf.blogspot.com/ | 5/22/2012 9:30:11 AM

    I am a bit worried that this will be a support nightmare. You have to support Notes 8.5.4 Basic, Standard and Social Edition. The same problem is that a business partner has to test his applications on all three editions. Are there any plans that we will get one Notes client and not three editions in the future?

  1. 16  Steve Medure  | 5/22/2012 9:44:39 AM

    @13, Do you know if the Social Edition Feature pack is going to be a server side install? Or will you have to install this feature pack on the server and the client to get that functionality?

  1. 17  Brian O’Neill http://www.gore.com | 5/22/2012 9:45:36 AM

    And the evolution continues. Very nice.

  1. 18  Fredrik Stöckel http//www.twitter.com/fstockel | 5/22/2012 9:50:01 AM

    Looks great! a huge step forward - a question: I was hoping to be able to tag mail/content with labels/tags (folders are so 90:ish imho) no sign of that in the picture?

  1. 19  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/22/2012 9:59:38 AM

    @16 there are server and client updates...we are debating whether to package the server ones separately or not. And we know we need to make the client-side one as easy as possible to apply, perhaps in the same pass as the upgrade itself.

  1. 20  Brian Connelly http://www.workgroupassociates.com | 5/22/2012 10:05:25 AM

    I love the clean look, Keeep-on-trucking!

  1. 21  Steve Medure  | 5/22/2012 10:21:54 AM

    @19 Would it be possible to make the feature pack part of the client install by default, a preference to turn it on or off(off being default), and that preference controlled by policy? Perhaps the server side feature pack would add the correct policy documents to control it. This could be rolled out much more effectively without having to touch each machine or chain several installs together or manually running multiple exe files. If this is going to be a success it's needs simplicity for roll out. That's my two cents anyway.

  1. 22  Irv Schor  | 5/22/2012 10:32:56 AM

    @19 Concern here is that the UI feature/menu/overlay set will not be mapped 1 to 1 with the full client UI? This is where the support concern can grow - at first glance it appears that it will be an easy way to make iNotes mail and Notes client mail consistent with one another, however (this is a good thing). With respect to the 'Feature Pack', is this similar to the X-Pages Option Pack? - it seems that if so, and both the Client AND Server element is required to keep things consistent how will the days past of being able to upgrade the servers first, then clients be handled?

  1. 23  Christian Tillmanns  | 5/22/2012 10:49:29 AM

    How can I bribe you to get my hands on this NOW?

  1. 24  Victor Taranov  | 5/22/2012 11:03:36 AM

    Please forgive my stupidity, but what is actually new? I see good old Lotus Notes without any social functions.

  1. 25  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/22/2012 12:05:43 PM

    @24 this screen shot is intended to just be the UI refresh (the "Project Vulcan" vision of the UI). The main new social feature is embedded experiences through Open Social 2.0, which obviously you can't see at the view level.

  1. 26  Andrew Pollack http://www.thenorth.com/apblog | 5/22/2012 2:21:20 PM

    That looks very nice. I'm wondering how you were able to solve the consistency issues when working with one of the 99% of applications out there built using classic forms and views. Surely you won't ship with a half finished UI, right? I'm also thrilled there was time to work on this after fixing all the known SPR's related to the existing UI, crashes, and inconsistent behavior.

    I very much look forward to this faster, cleaner, bug free version with it's pretty UI.

  1. 27  Alex  | 5/22/2012 3:14:28 PM

    If you have to install the social edition on top of the 8.5.4, will there be the capability to combine the social edition and 8.5.4 into one single install?

    In order to make update as seamless as possible.

  1. 28  Joacim Boive http://joacim-boive.com | 5/22/2012 3:50:50 PM

    Will we finally be able to resize the properties box? (Like for Document properties)

    I try and stay away from the fat client as much as possible, preferring webdev. But maybe there's some new features that will maker reconsider.

    It's a huge improvement GUI wise non the less. Hope it includes performance and network utilization improvements as well...(?)

  1. 29  Paul  | 5/22/2012 4:03:47 PM

    Will we finally be able to uncheck "DECS" during the install? ;) ha! I kid. (or maybe not?)

    Seriously though Ed, it looks really nice. Can't wait to try it out and then get it rolled out to the users.

  1. 30  Andrew Pollack http://www.thenorth.com/apblog | 5/22/2012 4:22:02 PM

    PLEASE no "feature pack" this and "option set" that -- it's a nightmare to get keep track of what gets installed where when you play that game.

  1. 31  Scott Skaife  | 5/22/2012 10:38:10 PM

    I agree with Paul. Put it all in the same install. Every minor update requires that we jump through flamming hoops to get our admins to install it.

  1. 32  Andreas Walter  | 5/23/2012 2:37:12 AM

    @30 agreed. A better way would be likethe Sametime installation. Everything is there, but must be "enabled" by policies. However the question is

    1) will the FP Social Edition be ready when 8.5.4 is?

    2) will FP Social Edition intallation "replace" some Notes parts, even on basis of files? That would make a "single installation" feature difficult

    3) will the be more upgrades of the FP than of the Notes client (like Traveler vs. Domino Server)? Which might be good in the beginning in terms of fixing but bad in terms of "single install"

    4) "Single install" is better because IT-people like to sneak at things (if possible) before they are official used within a company and promote them.

  1. 33  Sean J  | 5/23/2012 3:29:53 AM

    Like the look of the UI, it seems to be following the Apple trend of making the design less a garish technicolor rainbow to aid the user to focus on the content instead. (Microsoft appear to be now going the same way with their Win8 UI.)

    Am concerned about the Social Edition thing, re @15. In some companies it would not get installed simply because its seen as something new and additional. Make it part of Standard 8.5.4 and it get installed by default. Remember that most of the people in Tech Support operations are trained-up in Microsoft technology and so are loathe to install additional products from other companies.

    There is also the potential for confusion, with Basic, Standard and Social Edition. I think Microsoft's banana skins with Vista-Capable, Vista-Ready, plus dozens of different versions of Vista, and Windows 7, show how too much choice can be confusing.

  1. 34  Murray  | 5/23/2012 6:13:10 AM

    I agree with others, it seems better to make this a part of 8.5.4 - why do we need to push the words Social Edition? Why add another "difference" within Notes?

  1. 35  Mike McP  | 5/23/2012 10:29:10 AM

    GUI looks great, but yes, the color scheme might be a bit dark.

    I'm in agreement with others about rolling all of the social parts into 8.5.4 with checkbox that's disabled by default. Many are already in a bit of a pickle with the extension library, which caused similar problems as an add-in install. Add-in's are perceived as risky, and often occur well after the core install is settled in and debugged. If you package social pack as an add-in, you might as well hold it to bundle into the next release cycle.

    I'm also with Andrew on the need to concentrate on core issues. Hoping you have teams doing that, in parallel with these re-skins. In your recent survey, 20% of respondents asked for performance improvements. 2% asked for more social features.

    Still not sure how there's no bandwidth for updating the templates, as it has been a top request for almost a decade.

  1. 36  Pierre  | 5/23/2012 8:21:32 PM

    Am I the only one who thinks this UI is a step backward ? It would be nice for a web experience but not for a fat client. Also it is almost color-less (OK, I am sure they will be other themes)

  1. 37  Teo  | 5/24/2012 1:53:52 AM

    Looks nice but will it be XenApp 6.5 compatible ?

    Why don't you focus on stability and performance improvements instead of UI ?

    We've switched back to basic client just for perf issues. When working with basic client, the users don't see any improvement since V6.5

  1. 38  Jan Van Puyvelde  | 5/24/2012 4:32:23 AM

    @35: "no bandwidth for updating the templates" either means that IBM thinks it's not as important as we've been saying it is or that IBM has much less people working on Notes than we think they have.

  1. 39  Hans M  | 5/24/2012 11:41:14 AM

    @37, if you haven't tried 853HF1 standard client on xenapp 6.5, I'd recommend trying again. I'm running it in my environment and it's working great. I have to say hats off to IBM for getting the standard client install on xenapp ironed out. Regarding NSE, I don't have high expectations that it will be supported out of the box on xenapp.... Ed?

  1. 40  AnnMcG  | 5/24/2012 2:00:43 PM

    Ed, I saw at AdminDev last week that 8.5.4 will have a browser plug-in that allows Notes apps to run in a browser, with absolutely no code modifications (yes, including Lotusscript). Have you seen that yet? I'd love to get more details on it!

  1. 41  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/24/2012 5:59:17 PM

    @39 it's the standard Notes 8.5.x client so sure, it should be. Some features (like embedded experiences) may require more work to configure in that environment.

    @40 Yes, the browser plug-in. Search this blog for other comments on it; we don't have much on the public web yet because it is still in beta and the beta is covered by non-disclosure.

  1. 42  Colin Sandercock  | 5/25/2012 5:50:38 AM

    Ed, all looks good. However, more emphasis on fixing and rolling out fixes would be fantastic. I've a very irate customer at the moment - had to halt 8.5.3 rollout as Out Of Office doesn't work - SPR# DBRO8RWGKK - as it's affected every one of the users in the testing. Addressing and rolling out these fixes on a more frequest basis would make a lot of users a lot happier

  1. 43  Hans M  | 5/25/2012 9:17:17 AM

    @37 hold the phone...just found a known bug this will delay our deployment of 853 standard in citrix. Calendar display across timezone issue. Rumor is should be fixed with 853 fp2.

  1. 44  Stijn Soens http://www.lotusnotes.be | 5/25/2012 2:24:11 PM

    I agree with some of the posts that the quality and speed of the client should improve but that's not the point of this post right?It's a teaser of what to come and I like the new UI a lot. Clean, not too much distraction from colorful icons. Hope to see this ripples through some other aspects of the client and not only mail and calendar (hint hint cough cough templates).

    If I can make 1 remark about the social functionalities of Notes... widgets can take you far but I feel they are still buried somewhat in the side bar (e.g. only one can be open). It's not that much of an issue but they don't surface notifications - like my phone does - and therefore I need to go in there and check what has changed. I want the info to come to me.

  1. 45  Colin Sandercock  | 5/26/2012 2:47:27 AM

    @44 Agree about a nice teaser for the new UI - which will attract people. But if the functionality isn't there, or it's so slow as not to be useful, then all you have are irate users, and with other products hovering around, will only increase the speed at which companies migrate away

  1. 46  Carl Tyler http://www.epilio.com | 5/28/2012 9:23:31 AM

    @44 "buried somewhat in the side bar (e.g. only one can be open)"

    Not correct, you can have multiple widgets open at the same time, just resize the side bar panels. You can even have them open in their own windows if you wish.

  1. 47  Andy Steven http://www.ajspook.com | 6/4/2012 1:35:07 AM

    I like what I am seeing :)

  1. 48  Naren https://www.facebook.com/groups/LotusDominoAdmins/ | 7/2/2012 4:25:26 AM

    Guys Join Lotus Domino Group @ Face book , Sharing link below.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/LotusDominoAdmins/

  1. 49  Christian Herø http://snillhund.blogspot.com | 7/4/2012 1:17:52 AM

    Looks really nice.

    I can't wait to see the Social Edition features. It is mentioned that it's based on OpenSocial 2.0. So just what are we getting? What kind of integration to other social platforms is provided? On what level does Lotus Social Edition comply to the OpenSocial specifications (Server, Container etc)?

    Looking forward to see what it can do....

  1. 50  Harvey Pope  | 7/5/2012 4:52:01 AM

    My compliments to Dev and the contributions made from the Design Partners for the work they done in 8.5 codestream!!

    Having said that, the largest number of complaints we get from our customers are when new or older features don't work as they should after updating beit MR's or FP's. The distressing part is, quite often the issue is fixed by IBM long before the next MR/FP release.

    If IBM want to increase customer satisfaction and prevent them from throwing in the towel through pure frustration/lost productivity, then IBM have to improve this antiquated system of periodic patching, or dramatically improve Qualtity Assurrance. Preferrably the latter.

    Exciting new features and Marketing hyp are detroyed when features don't work as they should!

  1. 51  Steven Joseph  | 7/11/2012 9:28:40 AM

    The new UI may arguably be nicer. But since we're iNotes only, is there any progress on the missing features in iNotes? Any progress on Section 508 compliance? "Just use Ultra-lite" does not even come close to meeting our customers' needs.

  1. 52  Syed Tassawur Hussain  | 11/28/2012 2:10:52 AM

    Cool... can´t wait to get my hands on it.