Software

The User Experience team that worked on the redesign of Lotus Notes 8 was the largest such team ever to work on Lotus Notes. Lead designer Mary Beth Raven, who has a Ph.D. in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has had a strong commitment to user-centered design techniques throughout her career and is an expert in ethnographic research and interaction design. Her blog, Designing the User Experience for Lotus Notes, is the most popular blog on IBM developerWorks. Mary Beth was the driving force behind the team; she led many of the user research efforts and created detailed design specifications. She had this to say about the project: "Once customers knew we had a sense of humor and were willing to work with them, the rest was actually a lot of fun!"

Betsy Comstock led the User Studies teams. One of the many successful techniques Betsy initiated was called "Renovations on the Road," a set of laptops that could be taken to customers for on-site usability testing. (Renovations is the name of our fictional company, where Samantha, Ted, and Betty work.)

Denise Shaw was our primary visual designer on Notes. Denise (and others) developed the overall visual system - the color palette, fonts, and detailed visual specs for Notes - as well as hundreds of icons and other graphic elements. Carrie Tracy made significant contributions to the calendar graphic design, as well as the integrated Sametime client.

Margo Ezekiel, John Lance, and Noy Wanderski handled the interaction design for mail, calendar, and contacts. Jodi Rexford and Marcie Dean took on Symphony, lauded for its ease of use. Sheri Branco, Michelle Cooper, Eileen Driscoll, and Deb Maurer contributed their deep understanding of Notes usability and conducted hundreds of design evaluations, usability tests, and user studies.