In The Next Version

The images are fantastic, my only concern is with image "Decline" and "Meeting Cancelled". I think the red, instead of orange and blue, would be more accurate.

I'm still waiting for build M3...

JYR

Very nice .. can't wait for a public beta.

Or the artist formerly none as "Lots of 'oo' and 'aah'" - must have been half-a-sleep writing that post.. feel free to remove it. Or leave it there for others to laugh at :-)

My First Lotus.

On a more serious note: The concept does not work for me. I cannot remember that many icons. But I can read text.

They look nice but how about some context?

Exactly where will these icons appear and will they actually be this big?

Thank you Volker and Colin for the comments, your feedback is helpful. I've updated the post to show some examples of how the new graphics are used, and how text is displayed with them. This should now highlight these improvements better than when I had just showed the icons on their own. As I indicated in the post, these features can (and most likely will) change between now and shipping.

Ah, much better and I think I like it!

Alan based on the large icons you initially posted I was going to write a quick note..

"There is a mix of large and small meeting icons when one way or the other would be preferable. For example Tentatively Accept vs Decline should use a consistent model".

On the new postings it looks like this has been corrected with the smaller icons having settled on the "action" being in the bottom right corner with the object to be acted upon in the background. Yes? I hope that's the concept being carried across everything. Nice. Just need to have the larger New meeting icon in the document follow the same pattern :)

Btw meeting confirmed uses a "calendar" icon and meeting update doesn't have a meeting icon. Maybe those have been corrected as well?

Sorry, result of being a QA manager for many many years :)

Aesthetically much nicer. Will sub actions allow icons? Had to ask.

Thanks for sharing,

Actually I don't like it at all. Adding icons back to the action buttons (they were rightly removed in R6.x) will make the interface too busy.

Vowe is right, { Link } - less is more!

I like them. I think there's an interesting debate to be had between Volker's position (think browser, Gmail, function over form) as opposed to the Microsoft UI model (which is very much form over function, heavy on graphics). Since we, the avid Lotus Geeks, often critique IBM's failure to match or exceed Microsoft's mad UI skillz, why is it a problem when IBM produces a set of icons that could have come straight out of MS or Apple?

These icons are pretty. They're simplistic, sure, and they have a warm and fuzzy feel to them - they look consumer-oriented as opposed to businesslike. It seems similar to the changes in Sametime 7.5, adding some eye candy to make the product more like the consumer chat apps (smilies). I fail to see why this is a bad thing. People I've showed ST 7.5 to have all raved about the UI, and the silly little smilies are a huge win. I predict a similar reaction to Notes 8's UI.

Aside: That doesn't mean I don't still daydream idly about a Gmail UI replacing iNotes, or offered as an alternative. Pretty doesn't mean much if performance is sub-optimal, and iNotes 7 is better but there is room for a simplified version.

One complaint, Alan: One of the icons is backwards, to me. The Counter Proposal icon has the arrow running from left to right. That's the same direction as the Forward indicator. That's wrong. A counter proposal flows in the same direction as a reply - you're replying to the person who invited you and making a counteroffer, you aren't forwarding the invitation to somebody else.

Nice Icons, but "Meeting canceled" is not clear enough. The circle looks like a Aspirin-Drug and seems not be an icon for cancelling something.

Same comment as [10] about "Counter Proposal". Currently it looks like a forward.

I feel the same way about "From Invitee to Chair". That arrow should point the other way because it's a reply.

The arrow in "From Invitee to Delegate" also looks like a forward, which it is.

Minor problem: these two icons have the blue person on the right. That makes him the chair in the first icon and delegate in the second. Is that logical ? Or is only an issue when looking at all the icons at the same time, like we're doing here ?

I like the icons. I am with Jean-Yves about the missing red.

The Sun for an all day event has potential to become the next diamond. Maybe a calendar page that looks all booked fit better? Although it makes sense if you know that it is an All Day Event. I think there is no commonly used expression in German for that.

I would associate a cake with candles more with an anniversary than the balloons.

I like the reminder icon, would add a small question mark to "Tentatively Accept".

"From Invitee to Chair" and "From Invitee to Delegate" look not helpful for me but I think the topics are hard to explain in an icon.

I am not a big fan of icons but I know that others do and they look very slick.

On the aside. I do not like the GMail look but there is still the good old webmail (the before iNotes version) that could do well for a minimalistic approach.

I use roundcube.net and although it is still beta it is usable.

A nice pointer there from Henning: roundcube.net demonstrates the kind of interface / icon set I like. Clear, professional-looking, but without being dull.

Then again, I WOULD say that, because it looks very like Jaguar-era OS X ;o)

The icons in this post are OK -- I divined their meaning without too much trouble -- but I must confess to a slight lack of enthusiasm when it comes to overtly "Fisher Price"-style graphics.

Anyway, so long as the Hannover UI isn't overwhelmed with such icons, I'll be happy -- less is more!

> less is more!

Well said. You just summed up Web 2.0 :-)

@12: What you point out about "From Invitee to Chair" vs. "From Invitee to Delegate" was the first thing I reacted on as well. That is not logical at all. Chair person and delegate need to have a (consistent) different color.

Alan, the icons are nice, but I agree with Volker that it could be too much. Hopefully there will be an option where you can select "icons only", "text only" or "selective text"...

Will there be different "skins", perhaps a set of icons for users like Volker that just want the simple + and minus, without the added icon behind? Perhaps the icons could be stored in a Notes database, and thus can be modified/replaced and deployed to the users in an easy way?

I've updated the post to be clearer that the large pretty images I showed are currenly (again, anything can change) on the forms, not scattered all over the UI.

I like the graphics (they are not icons, too big and used for a different purpose) and the notion, that they will be displayed (one at a time) left of the message headers. So there won't be too much clutter from a busy action bar or so. Some users will memorize the graphics and some the text pattern.

I would make the cancel sign red as well as adding a checkmark on the calendar for the confirmation (potential confusing with the acceptance, so care is needed). furthermore a visual indicator for repeat meetings would be nice (a stacked calendar with an arrow and the page highlighted of the current meeting (first, middle, last)?

I like Volkers thoughts to determine the type of calendar entry based on content. There is some potential to make it easier to use.

@13: re: the old webmail template, I appreciate the suggestion, but I don't think that design works well at all. It relies on the bloated Java applets we Domino developers avoid like the plague in modern web applications.

In my copious spare time (note the sarcasm), I'm tempted to build a jQuery version of Webmail Lite. Emphasis on small size and the 80/20 rule. Well, I can daydream...

The lack of red might be that they are following some of the research out there that people react most strongly (and negative) to the color red vs any other color.

Most users I know want some form of spice besides plain text. I dislike too many graphics and also do not like too few.

Good news is that a couple of blog comments will not determine what goes in Hannover (hopefully). Since there is lots of usability testing going on, my gut is those decisions will come from there. I think it is safe to say that the UI needs to reach out to people outside of our little blog community and to the greater mass of users. Both who use notes today and those that use other products. We would all just equal the discussion out anyways ... especially when you put people into the mix that will not use the client going forward.

Oh, and I agree about "From Invitee to Delegate" .. the arrow seems the wrong direction.

Works for me. I'm not a huge fan of having massive graphics that dominate a form, but if it helps the non-technical crowd feel less intimidated I'll settle for it. I would like to see a little more color variation, many of those are just a wash of sameness to me. Maybe seeing them fully in context would help differentiate it more.

John, well said. Thank you. As Merry Morse pointed out we are doing extensive end user testing. "The goal of Users First is to partner with end users to improve the usability and usefulness of our products. We ask them to provide feedback so we can design the right set of features and make them easy to learn and use. "

Alan, John is doing a heck of a job.

Pieter, John is not one of the graphic designers, he just explained the situation about user testing, something I should have done earlier in the comments.

These icons look great. However, look at them without the definition to the right and guess what they mean. I bet you get most wrong.

Hi Mac. Thanks, I agree they do look great. As I pointed out in the comments and updated screen shots, they are accompanied with text, so no guessing needed.

Alan, my point was that icons should visually express an action without the need for text and I don’t think that these do that.

I disagree on the direction of the arrows - these are the icons that the user sees when they receive something like a delegation or counter proposal. So, the old thing is in back pointing to the new thing.

Chris

@28: you're the experts, this is just my opinion ;-)

I compare it to the reply/forward arrows in the mailbox. You, as the user, are the "middle" person because you got the mail from someone else and are acting upon it.

"Reply" goes "back" and "forward" goes "further".

I think this is just like acting upon invitations you get from a chairperson: "From Invitee to Chair" is a reply and "From Invitee to Delegate" is a forward.