Mat Newman from the West Island of New Zealand (otherwise known as Australia), is talking about Lotus Notes and users.

Key points:
– If users hate Notes, it’s the organization’s fault. Not IBMs.
– It’s important that users know the name of the different parts of the Notes client – eg., the toolbar, the status bar, the sidebar.
– Every Notes database has a standard layout. Previews are good – and you can show them on the right or the bottom.
– “Advanced menus” are turned off by default. Show users how to turn these on, when that makes sense.
– Teach your users about the Notes client shortcuts. They may usage much easier.
– Bookmarks allow you to access Notes and other applications very easily. Eg., you can drag an Excel spreadsheet to the Notes bookmarks bar, or a Web page.
– … Bookmarks can be added to a Startup folder, so when you start Notes, the tabs are ghosted by default. They aren’t opened until the user clicks on it.
– Allow users to create a full-text index for local replicas.
– Very easy to change the search scope in Notes. Choose the drop-down by search. And you can add more databases into the search list.
– … in Notes 8.5.3, you can also search by Recipient or By Subject. There are some specific version requirements on the server and client.
– Widgets provide easy access to information and applications. Can add Google Gadgets, or a Notes view, (among other things) to the sidebar.
– Using actions, you can wire data from a message or document to the sidebar. Eg., an address in an email message to a map on Google Maps. Have some flexibility about how this is set up.
– Plug-ins provide full applications in the sidebar – eg., for Twitter (TwitNotes), for Connections, and more. If there is no widget or plug-in available, see if the Web site of interest has a mobile version. Eg., m.linkedin.com.