The document summarizes IBM's process for redesigning Lotus Notes through open collaboration with its large user community. Key methods included usability testing, contextual interviews, prioritizing features with customers, monitoring discussion forums, and establishing a design blog. This led to incorporating feedback from over 2,000 users and helped produce a new version with extremely positive customer reactions and faster adoption rates.

1. Open by Design: How IBM Partnered with the User Community in the Redesign of Lotus Notes Betsy Comstock Mary Beth Raven Sheri Branco Michelle Cooper Deb Maurer Betsy Comstock  User Studies Lead, IBM Lotus Notes IBM Lotus Software Group:

2. For a huge, 20-year-old, collaboration platform E-mail Calendar Contacts Thousands of other custom applications Suppose you suddenly needed a new, world-class UI …

3. We’re talking about IBM Lotus Notes Suppose you suddenly needed a new, world-class UI … In mid 2005, IBM decided to completely revamp and modernize the User Experience Notes version 7, looked like this:

4. IBM Lotus Notes User Experience Team About 8 people full-time on the Notes 8 client team 3+ User Studies Professionals 4+ User Experience Designers 1+ Visual Designer Many colleagues in the larger Lotus UX community

5. One of the goals of the redesign was to maintain the loyalty of our large user base 46,000+ medium and large companies worldwide 10,000+ business partners ~150 million very opinionated users What to do?

6. We had great access to this community of users Design Partners & Beta Programs Customers / Partners / Users who follow Lotus blogs & forums Other Customers with whom we have good relationships Vocal internal & external users Volunteer usability participants Users recruited to meet specific use criteria Annual Lotus conferences, briefings

7. What should we do with all these people?

8. We decided to deliberately open our design, to partner with these users

9. By the time Notes 8 shipped, we had incorporated input from…

10. over 2,000 users

11. 13 User Research Methods in the Design of Notes 8 One-Way Customer Input Surveys Self-guided usability tests Customer feedback during product use Reaction time experiment on icon design Structured Dialog Usability testing Color and texture identification Personas Spec reviews with customers and business partners Open Dialog Contextual interviews / round table discussions Prioritize features with key customers Customer discussion forums IdeaJam Notes Design Blog

12. 13 User Research Methods in the Design of Notes 8 One-Way Customer Input Surveys Self-guided usability tests Customer feedback during product use Reaction time experiment on icon design Structured Dialog Usability testing Color and texture identification Personas Spec reviews with customers and business partners Open Dialog Contextual interviews / round table discussions Prioritize features with key customers Customer discussion forums IdeaJam Notes Design Blog

13. Usability Testing Fairly standard test methods Goal: Identify as many usability issues as possible Think aloud, observers both local and remote From simple prototypes  real-time collaboration in a realistic test environment with 80 fictitious employees of a company we called “Renovations, Inc.” 475+ sessions on Notes 8 Tests conducted in the usability lab, and at Lotus conferences, and best of all…

14. “ Renovations on the Road” At customer sites, participants were close matches to our personas Prompted rich dialog about use of Notes for their sites and job roles Added other activities that fostered open dialog, e.g. Demonstrations of new features Participation in local user groups Contextual interviews Usability Testing (at Customer Sites)

15. Contextual Interviews & Round Table Discussions Visited ~25 customer sites Interviewed people representing our personas and other roles Learned about their jobs and how they use Notes & other technology to support their work No substitute for these rich first-hand experiences with users Unexpected, memorable events Creates dialog that lasts far beyond the visit

16. Spec Reviews with Customers & Business Partners Tuned UX Specs with input from stakeholders Held 20+ web-conferenced and face-to-face design reviews Included UX team, developers, customers, and business partners (under nondisclosure agreements) Reviewed specs together before any code was available Merged internal and external feedback Built good will with customers Note: Still need to conduct internal reviews Need a strong moderator (in addition to the spec presenter) Need someone to monitor and respond to the group chat.

17. Prioritize Features with Key Customers Incorporated customer priorities into decisions about the features to include Conducted prioritization exercises at customer sites and conferences Printed “Samantha can” features on “stickies” Small groups sorted items into Priority levels Everyone added red dots to most important items

18. Prioritize Features with Key Customers Incorporated customer priorities into decisions about the features to include Conducted prioritization exercises at customer sites and conferences Printed “Samantha can” features on “stickies” Small groups sorted items into Priority levels Everyone added red dots to most important items

19. Customers reported on their small group consensus Important in later, on-going decisions Challenges Allow participants to add items Limit number of items rated high priority Include a “Trash Can” category Provide experts to disambiguate items Group dynamics need managing Results are a bit “sloppy” Be sure to understand the logic, not just priorities Prioritize Features with Key Customers

20. Customer Discussion Forums & IdeaJam Monitored customer forums and blogs to stay in touch with customer issues Lotus developers took this input very seriously We answered UX items and tried posting questions Limitations Too many forums for our group to monitor (different programs, customers) Tedious to sort through and find UX-related items Input was usually way behind what we were working on

21. Notes Design Blog Gave us quick answers & provided a public face to Lotus UX Mary Beth Raven (et al.) blogged about Notes 8 design ~20,000 hits a month, often dozens of replies within a day Quick feedback to UX questions from people outside IBM who care Visibility with customers and leverage with developers A consensus often emerged among respondents Established a community of customers/partners empowered to influence the design Some limitations Respondents are often not typical end users The blog is public, which limits certain posts Customers cannot initiate topics, only comment & discuss topics we post www.notesdesignblog.com

22. Open feedback comes from a biased sample Some customer feedback carries more weight Data are often qualitative, anecdotal, unstructured, uncategorized Amount of data was sometimes overwhelming Need to be prepared for difficult customer situations Depends on energetic and skilled user experience team, knowledgeable about the product area Opening Design to the User Community: Challenges

23. Opening Design to the User Community: Benefits Broader knowledge of users and their work contexts Richer design ideas Customer consensus on design direction Professional partnerships with key customers Increased customer loyalty Better professional interconnections inside IBM Fast, flexible methods

24. So, how did we do???????

25. Inbox with Preview & Sametime

26. Calendar, Quickr Sidebar

27. Great Customer Feedback Extremely positive reactions from customers, partners, and analysts Faster deployment rate than with previous versions of Notes Increased revenue And, perhaps most gratifying for those of us who feel so connected to our user community…

28. Great Customer Feedback Lotus Notes 8 received a standing ovation at Lotusphere 2007

29. “ Open by Design” continues to characterize our UX methods today For more information, contact me at: b et [email_address] Or see the full paper: Comstock, E. M., Raven, M. B., Branco, S. F., Cooper, M. L., & Maurer, D. E. Open by Design: How IBM Partnered with the User Community in the Redesign of Lotus Notes. CHI 2009 Extended Abstracts , Boston, MA, 2931-2944. Thank You!

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