There are a lot of good looking Notes applications out there including a number of products that we have built. Rather than basing the design on Notes, our approach is to use Web designs as a guideline since much more investment of resources have been made in developing good UI designs.
Chris did a fine job at Lotusphere demonstrating techniques and the possibilities. Though it takes a lot of work, you can get Web 2.0 look and feel on the Notes client. The problem with the Notes client, from the end-user perspective is that there is two much access to unnecessary features which can lead to problems. In addition, most Notes client developers have not wanted to spend the time to make a useable and functional UI. This is similar to when web interfaces started many many years ago. The problem with Notes development is that most developers are still stuck on the Web 1.0 analogy.
Another problem is that related, the design approach developers have used to develop applications. The standard Notes development approach of client server does not lend itself well to the concept of building applications that has a flexible UI interface. Out of necessity we use what we call NSOA or Notes SOA approach in designing our applications. Ever trying running the Notes client applications through a Web connection. It sucks! By using this approach you get much better peformance and response when running the application through the Web. But it also allows to control the data and use different techniques that allows you to present data and information in a more attractive fashion than the standard Notes techniques.
@Jake,
There are a lot of good looking Notes applications out there including a number of products that we have built. Rather than basing the design on Notes, our approach is to use Web designs as a guideline since much more investment of resources have been made in developing good UI designs.
Chris did a fine job at Lotusphere demonstrating techniques and the possibilities. Though it takes a lot of work, you can get Web 2.0 look and feel on the Notes client. The problem with the Notes client, from the end-user perspective is that there is two much access to unnecessary features which can lead to problems. In addition, most Notes client developers have not wanted to spend the time to make a useable and functional UI. This is similar to when web interfaces started many many years ago. The problem with Notes development is that most developers are still stuck on the Web 1.0 analogy.
Another problem is that related, the design approach developers have used to develop applications. The standard Notes development approach of client server does not lend itself well to the concept of building applications that has a flexible UI interface. Out of necessity we use what we call NSOA or Notes SOA approach in designing our applications. Ever trying running the Notes client applications through a Web connection. It sucks! By using this approach you get much better peformance and response when running the application through the Web. But it also allows to control the data and use different techniques that allows you to present data and information in a more attractive fashion than the standard Notes techniques.