Nomad Designer
Project Scope:
Revitalize Designer to reflect modern usability patterns typical to IDE’s of this age. Make it easier for app devs to create accessible, good looking applications.
Context:
After the Nomad client was brought to web, it was time to follow the same process for Designer- the platform in which the applications run in the client are created.
Parts of this project were redesigned to match modern visuals/patterns, taking inspiration from common products. At other times, I aimed to understand the original problem certain solutions were implemented to solve, and designed a new solution for the underlying problem instead. This approach both improved usability and reduced complexity by removing ineffective features that were layered in over the years.
User Demographics
Nomad designer is intended for App Developers, either internal to a company or through an HCL business partner, contracted to build and maintain Domino Apps.
App devs are a dying breed, with most experienced professionals nearing retirement. These modernization efforts were in part to make the product more appealing to new comers.
Challenges based on user needs
Controls were inconsistent, often following different patterns as other boxes that manipulated the same property.
Infoboxes floated on top of Domino Designer in a separate window, and were easy to loose track of.
Infoboxes were very small and could not be resized, causing issues for the primarily older demographic of users.
Controls were extremely outdated and hard to understand. Many had no apparent effect on the canvas.
Features:
There have been multiple large initiatives for this product. Click below to see indepth.
