[Lotus Notes Sucks: Example 65]
About Lotus Notes
Problem
You can usually obtain information about an application, such as its name, version, etc. from that application's About [Product Name] command on the Help menu.
Lotus Notes' About window totally sucks.
Analysis
The About window looks as if though it started as a nice looking image, then over time as new versions of Lotus Notes was released, the image has been modified so much that it now looks amateurish.
- The image appears full of artifacts, giving it an overcompressed-jpeg look. (Look at the yellow and blue.)
- The copyright text appears blurry.
- The bottom-most line is the only text that is not blurry; it appears as though the "artist" opened the image in Microsoft Paint, entered the text, then just saved the image.
As a result, the image does not contribute to the polished look and feel that expensive software should have.
Why must everything about Lotus Notes suck?
Update 6.5.2
Lotus Notes vesion 6.5 features a different About window. It looks like this:
In my opinion, the following is a more accurate About window.
User Interface Guideline Violations
- Creating a distracting visual presence.
- Forcing the user to deal with stupidity.
Conclusion
Lotus Notes sucks.