[Lotus Notes Sucks: Example 51]
Sametime Connect
Problem
Sametime is an instant messenging program that can be or is incorporated with Lotus Notes. I don't know much about it because I avoid anything remotely associated with Lotus Notes as much as possible. But I did click About Sametime Connect on the Help menu:
Analysis
That's a really professional looking About window, isn't it?
- Indentation that draws attention to itself.
- The misspelled Licensed "Meterials" on the second line of text.
Looking at the copyright date, the owners of Sametime Connect have had several years to fix the misspelling—but they haven't bothered. It makes me wonder what else they haven't bothered to fix.
Update for Version 6.5.2
Rebekah sent me a whole bunch of screen shots, including this one, showing that at least the misspelling is fixed:
Here's the deal. I can't verify any of what she wrote. I publish it because it looks legitimate and it might give some insight to the Lotus Notes people to fix Sametime.
Thank you so much for making this site. It brings much needed comic relief- as I am also forced to use Lotus Notes for an e-mail client. I also have the delight of using Sametime Connect. It is tolerable, but like Notes has some very obvious flaws.
No option to "automatically join" a Chat. In other IM clients (MSN Messenger, Exodus, etc) you can start a Chat and even if the participant is not at their desk- all of the information from the chat is displayed for them when they return. I work at a Help Desk and we use instant messaging to notify one another of problems and possible outages. In Sametime, if one of the participants is not right there to click on "Join Chat"- they lose any information in the chat prior to "joining".
If you right click a group in Sametime- it displays the 'Group Contents' as an option. If you click Group Option it opens a window that is titled "Group Contents", with fields "Group Name" and "Members". Yet if I am creating a chat Sametime reverts to my Group Members as "Invitees" (Invitees and available tools, Add invitees).
When creating a chat, you must remember to change the Topic field, since the Message field disappears after the participant joins. There is no way to resize the 'Start Instant Meeting' box- so if the Invitee list is longer than five people you will need to scroll through it to view the other participants.
If I click Edit Active Message, a window appears where I can change the text. But it never actually displays the change I have made.
Maybe my favorite: If I click Help on the main Sametime window and from the drop-down list I select 'Help Topics', there is flicker, but alas- no window appears.
I have also included the "About Sametime Connect" window. It appears they corrected the spelling of 'Material', but the lack of useable information remains the same.
I do not wish Lotus Notes on anyone. I am in utter disbelief that IBM has not made substantial changes to improve this "Jr." mail program.
I tried to use Sametime to at least give a cursory look to her complaint. So I logged on and then tried to start a meeting. I didn't know what to do, so I clicked What's this help. After waiting about 10 seconds, this message appeared.
Nice.
Ignoring for the moment that there appears to be no help available (after all, the "Domino administrators" might be at fault), what's a Domino? Is the secretary and shipping clerk supposed to understand what's under the Lotus Notes hood?
User Interface Guideline Violations
- Misspelled words.
- Creating a distracting visual presence.
- Forcing the user to deal with stupidity.
Conclusion
Lotus Notes sucks.