Chris-Linfoot.net

Volker started it. Rich picked it up. The debates raging in both of those places are all very interesting, but I want numbers.

Please visit this site and vote in the poll. *


* FWIW - every user and developer and administrator here lives their Notes life entirely in the workspace.

Category: Notes
Technorati: Notes

1. Richard Schwartz08/02/2006 12:08:37
Homepage: http://www.rhs.com/poweroftheschwartz

Given that your readership is likely biased toward admins, developers and power-users who love the workspace, this is closer than I expected.

2. Chris Linfoot08/02/2006 12:11:05

And the 24 votes so far are statistically significant?

This is just a wee game you know Rich. Don't take it personally (even though I agree with Volker 100% on this one).

Oh, and users here outnumber admins and developers perhaps 100-1 and they all use the workspace.

3. Nathan T. Freeman08/02/2006 12:14:22

What about the WorkPLace? Or any other portal-style interface that doesn't care whether you use bookmarks or the workspace icons?

I drive from the Catalog, mostly.

4. Chris Linfoot08/02/2006 12:16:32

Well, personally I use Control-O to get to a specific database quickly but I still like my workspace.

5. Wolfgang08/02/2006 12:51:36

Hey Chris,
so I use the old fashioned workspace ...
Back at Lotusphere Europe 1998 (yeeh R5 beta) I started working with the bookmarks but (I wounldn't expect it at that time) unfortunatelly they didn't work quite well as expected (esp. the time for searching tiny icons in the multiple folders & subfolders).
With the R5 introduction in our company (end of 1999) we offered one day classroom trainings for every user (100000) for the new features welcome page & bookmarks and the same appeared:

The after training feedback showed great interest for bookmarks & welcome but: How many used the workspace in 2001?

We had to transfer a few apps (used by everyone) and made the migration with aedificom's tool workplace control (mailbased migration) and btw got the feedback what the normal users used.

Result: 91% were working with the workspace and the rest were new employees which started with a complete 1 or 2 day notes enduser training where the workspace wasn't anymore mentionend. But these guys looked in their office at the desktops of their colleagues and wanted this "new UI". So , many went to the "new UI".

The big question: How many experienced users from the R4 days migrated?
Our migration tools (we know, how long the user is a notes user) showed that only 0.5% made the transition.
From the 18% new users ca. 8.5% went back (without training) to the unknown new UI (of R4).

OVERALL: Workspace had a terrible Bad Acceptance rate (we never had expected)!

So you can add 91000 votes for workspace & 9000 for the bookmarks because all these users don't know anything about the notes & domino blog world.

The big point are that
* we only could track these figures by using workplace control and a (notes) survey for the new users
* the real world of a class room trained notes user shows that he first liked it, started to play with it and turned back within a year.


Wolfgang

6. Jens Bruntt08/02/2006 14:13:32
Homepage: http://www.convergens.dk/jbr

I don't think that it has to be one or the other that's best. What you pick depends on what you need; if you know that there is something to choose from.
As my job changes, use of workspace and bookmarks changes. When I was doing a lot of not very technical stuff (project management - yuk!), I used Bookmarks all the time. Now I am doing a lot of development and some admin too, and I am using the Workspace more.
If you need to access lots and lots of databases and replicas across multiple servers, you just need the Workspace.

7. Oliver Regelmann08/02/2006 14:30:37
Homepage: http://www.n-komm.de/blog

Jens, I disagree. Especially if you need to access lots and lots of databases bookmarks are more flexible when displayed as workspace. This enables you to build multiple workspaces with folder structures. The classic workspace with it's one dimensional list of tabs isn't as flexible.

8. Ingo Erdmann08/02/2006 14:55:12

What about Workspace Style Bookmarks? I really like them...
What am I supposed to vote? I guess Bookmarks, right?

9. Chris Linfoot08/02/2006 14:58:26

@8: Yes

10. Volker Weber08/02/2006 15:00:37
Homepage: http://vowe.net

I am herding people to vote. Unfortunately I have no way to herd "regular" users. I tend to believe that most of them would still be on workspace.

11. Chris Linfoot08/02/2006 15:05:07

@10: Thanks Volker.

I did notice the herd (even though I had to get Babelfish to translate what you wrote). The referrer log is alight with visitors herded here by you.

12. Volker Weber08/02/2006 15:07:38
Homepage: http://vowe.net

I also have 131 people on my Skype buddy list.

13. Volker Weber08/02/2006 15:28:49
Homepage: http://vowe.net

Did the server just fall over?

14. Chris Linfoot08/02/2006 15:29:47

Not the server. Possibly a router. Talking to ISP. That shouldn't happen.

15. Sean Burgess08/02/2006 15:49:00
Homepage: http://www.phigsaidwhat.com/

The most difficult problem in using the bookmarks is when you have multiple replicas for a given database. This is where Notes' bookmarks differ from the ones used in browsers. I often have to switch between servers and doing that via the bookmark menus is impossible. If Lotus would change the functionality to allow me to choose the server that I wanted to go to, that would make me take a closer look at using the menus.

Sean---

16. Martin08/02/2006 16:21:24

I cannot live without bookmarks. As developer, administrator, user and manager I cannot imagine looking for specific database on my full workspace. I must have them in bookmarks, where I can categorized them. And the most important - just databases which I want are added here. And working with replicate is quite fine - just click with right button and select which server I want to work with. It is probably quicker then the "" (I forgot the funny name ) to switch it on workspace.

17. Alan Lepofsky08/02/2006 20:03:26
Homepage: http://www.alanlepofsky.net

Oddly enough, I access most of my databases from my replicator page, an option I've not seen mentioned yet. I have local replicas of all the DBs I use daily, so it is the best way for me to see when then DBs have updates. I'm sure I am in the minority here.

18. Chris Hudson08/02/2006 20:43:50

@16 It's called a hinky.

And as for me, having used Notes since V3, I have always used the Workspace. I have my databases grouped by tab and then in related "bunches" on each tab. I know where any database is spatially(?) on each tab and can get to a particular database much quicker than I can by scrolling through the bookmarks.

I'm just annoyed it has a limit of 32 tabs.

19. Lars Berntrop-Bos08/02/2006 20:50:21

Notes client: Workspace
Designer: Bookmarks

20. Paul Mooney08/02/2006 23:47:16
Homepage: http://www.pmooney.net

i trained myself (reluctantly) to use the bookmarks database, and after time, got to like it. These days, I just dont use the workspace any more. I find that managed bookmarks with folders are easier to navigate..
Yes... I'm odd.

21. Brian Vincent09/02/2006 08:24:12

Oh! That hannover screen shot looks promising! Looks like a better implimentation of both bookmarks and the workspace. It looks like they might even have a little cross over functionality between the two. Most facinating. I'm excited.

22. Wolfgang10/02/2006 22:33:40

Hey Chris,
OK, we have a poll result quite impressive with 80% for the workspace , real world usage would be 90%+ if average users would be asked.

So IBM should hear their customers no matter what company size.

But we should look beyond the "workspace versus bookmark battleground" at the big points, where the discussion started:
* api or whatever for a remote workspace control
* evolution of the workspace
=> size of the apps
=> hierarchical workspace
=> coloured workspace (not only label)
and more

If we have a list with a deeper description of the functionalities maybe you can make another poll which functions would be preferred.

Thx

Wolfgang

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