[Lotus Notes Sucks: Example 22]
Checking Your Inbox for New Mail
Problem
There is no concept of being able to "check your inbox" in Lotus Notes. The closest action is to choose Refresh from the View menu. Unfortunately, if you have any "trash," you are asked every time if you want to empty it.
Analysis
The problem, of course, is that underneath the graphical user interface is a Lotus Notes database masquerading as an email application. If you click No, the Refresh command is cancelled. In other words, if you want to check your inbox, you must first empty the trash! The fact that the first task has nothing conceptually to do with the second did not seem to occur to the morons who wrote Lotus Notes.
You can get around this design flaw by quitting Lotus Notes, then restarting it, though. But that just seems idiotic, doesn't it?
Update
One of my loyal readers corrected me about the checking the inbox process:
... much as hate to admit it, Lotus Notes DOES provide a way to check your inbox...if you already have it open, that is. You click the little blue "refresh" arrow which inexplicably appears in the leftmost corner of the "Who Date Size Subject" column header.
Not that this is an intelligent execution, of course, and it certainly doesn't allow you to return to your Inbox from another folder view in any meaningfully easy way.
But it doesn't matter. It's still goofy.
User Interface Guideline Violations
- Interface does not follow established conventions, such as allowing the user "check his inbox."
- Interrupting the user's work flow with a dialog box that should never have a reason to appear.
- Forcing the user to deal with stupidity.
Conclusion
Lotus Notes sucks.