SharePoint is an amazing tool that has almost endless possibilities, but it has some rough edges. Ask any SharePoint consultant, and they can easily go on at length about things in SharePoint that baffle them. This blog is about those baffling moments. The difference between good applications and great applications are details, and SharePoint is such a massive application (really it’s a platform which has a default interface and features) that many details get lost or are forgotten. This blog is about the interactions, information architectures, usability issues, and other experience decisions that I and the community find problematic with the application.

I will be accepting entries to the blog, and all that is outlined on the page linked above. Please let me know your thoughts, and if you are so inclined you can subscribe.

Unexpected Error (error.siolon.com)

Recent Articles

I recently did two articles for other SharePoint blogs. The first was for the Microsoft end-user blog Get the Point. I was contacted by them a couple of years ago, and I wrote some articles but lost touch with them. I decided to get back to contributing. I am really proud of the article, and I think it is an exhaustive look at the out-of-the-box functionality provided by the enterprise keywords column.

Demystifying the Enterprise Keywords Column

The second article was actually a sizable project I worked on with MVP Michal Pisarek, and it is posted on Nothing But SharePoint. The thrust of the article is to expose others to the analysis process necessary to craft successful SharePoint solutions. For the article we focused on search, but it is certainly a process that can apply to other areas of SharePoint implementations.

By far the best part of the entire process was getting to know Michal better and working with him. If you haven’t read his work, or interacted with him I suggest you do. It’s refreshing to work with someone with such a similar outlook on the technology and consulting.

Let’s Make Search Not Suck

I will be presenting with newly crowned MVP Dave Coleman. My part of the presentations will the overview and conceptual, and then Dave will show how that is implemented using MetaVis. Below are details on both webinars.

“Moving From the Faithful File Share to SharePoint”

April 20, 2011, 2–3 PM (EST)

In this session we will look at a fictional migration scenario from a file share into SharePoint 2010. The focus of this will be a sample information architecture design process guided by company requirements. Through the combination of informed design decisions and thoughtful business analysis you can ensure the success of your SharePoint investment.

View On Demand

“Don’t Upgrade Your Mess”

May 11, 2011, 2–3 PM (EST)

In this session we will look at sample migration from SharePoint Server 2007 to Server 2010. Included in the session will be items of consideration when upgrading your SharePoint environment including concerns such as the information architecture, information classification and security. Upgrades provide a great opportunity to optimize your SharePoint investment, and this session we will show you how.

View on Demand

SharePoint Saturday EMEA

The first presentation I will do will be for SharePoint Saturday EMEA which is an all online SharePoint Saturday that takes place on January 22nd. My talk is in the branding track. It will be titled: SharePoint and Usability Testing: Why Aren’t We Doing It? I will be covering the following items.

• What usability testing is and isn’t.
• Reasons why usability testing isn’t included on most SharePoint projects.
• Reasons why it should be included.
• I’ll be covering the methodology to creating and administering usability tests including a sample strategy.
• I’m then going to show video of an actual usability test that I’ll record.

Register for the Event

The AIIM International Conference & Expo

The second talk I’ll be doing is for the AIIM Conference which takes place in D.C. March 21–24. My talk will be the 22nd from 2:40–3:20 P.M. The talk is entitled: Improve Usability and Deliver Robust User Experiences with Solid Information Architectures. While my title is full of buzz words I’ll be talking about the following issues.

• Defining information architecture and methods to create information architectures properly.
• Explain the relationship between effective information management and information architecture.
• The thesis will be how proper information architectures can drastically improve the usability of applications.

Register for the Event

Name: Dr. Hillebrand

Message: Who are you people? What are you doing with a site on a domain that I own (wealthactualization.com). I demand that you remove it immediately or you will be hearing from my attorney, and I will contact that FBI. How dare you post your drivel on my domain. What is your explanation?

And now my reply:

Hey Dingbat,

Before you start making outlandish remarks perhaps you should pause and think. You’re using a WordPress theme I made and offered for free. I didn’t “post my drivel” on your site. In fact, I’m a little disheartened my theme is being used by a complete moron. Please be sure to elisten a little thing I call “reason” before hitting “send” next time.

Sincerely,
The Drivel Poster

I now have a new douchebag tag.

• Syncing Notes, Tasks, and mail.
• Folders included in Mail interface.
• Free/busy support in iCal.
• Room booking support in iCal.
• Searching the GAL from Address Book.
• Includes contact groups.

There has always been Microsoft Entourage, but only this year did they beta Entourage connecting with Exchange 2007 web services which is the recommended method over MAPI. Most likely Apple will beat Microsoft in building the first client that connects solely through Exchange web services (which is why 2003 won’t be supported in Snow Leopard). On top of that the new iPhone 3GS will also support data encryption which is apparently an enterprise request.

When you add on the fact that both Outlook Live (the successor to Outlook Web Access) and SharePoint 2010 will support browsers other than Internet Explorer you now have (almost)  complete platform independence with your line of business applications. For everything else you can use Boot Camp free in the Mac OS or use VMWare Fusion or Parallels. It is exciting to see great technologies such as Exchange, SharePoint, and Apple OS work seamlessly together.