Collaboration

Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratchYou either loved it, or were using it wrong.

Matthew Guay traces how Lotus Notes — which launched in 1989 with encryption, rich text, file attachments, and a synced database before any of those features existed in standard email — was eventually defeated not by being worse than competitors but by being too unfamiliar. The essay is a history of a product so far ahead of its time that its interface became its downfall.

Essay · Tech History · Email · Software Design · Collaboration