Usability Blunder: Really, Really Remember Me?
Watching non-experts perform tasks often exposes hidden weaknesses in software. Experts are often blind to obvious usability blunders. Yet watching someone else fumble through our beloved software makes the flaws immediately evident.
Case in point. A few weeks ago I was sitting with a non-geek as she navigated a web site. When prompted for a username/password, she dutifully clicked the “Remember Me” checkbox:
Her reward for clicking the checkbox? A completely redundant prompt from the browser:
To which she blurted out…something like…
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS !!#*($! THING??? I JUST TOLD IT TO REMEMBER ME!
And I thought…that’s such a piece of crap, yet I never even noticed it until now. In my mind, I recognize the checkbox as a feature of the web site, while the dialog box is a completely separate application - the browser.
Yet to a normal person, it’s all one thing. In this case, a redundant, stupid, annoying user interface. It’s no wonder people struggle with computers.
Final Thought
Do usability testing. Nothing fancy, just sit back and watch people use your software. Don’t tell them what to click on or how to do things. Instead, ask them to do certain tasks.
You will be surprised, I guarantee it.
We did this on Clearspace, fairly extensively, when it was first released. I think it provided a lot of great insight but probably also led to some poor decisions it would be great to do a postmortem on all the decisions made because of the UAT.
Erik, did this lead to a change? Did you, or are you going to remove your checkbox?
First, who is Erik?
It wasn’t my app. We were just browsing some random site on the Internet and saw this prompt. I figured this was a good example because it happens on virtually every single web site, and I don’t know that technologists typically give much thought to it.
re: watch users. Amen!
It is cool to go across the spectrum: the vaunted Hallway Test (just grab someone random) is great for determining if something is intuitive. On the other hand, watching expert users is fascinating as well.
I worked for a company that did library software (i.e. books). It was wild to go to a library and watch people use the software. Real world, real users. (And real security escorting me out of the building. JK)
On the far end, in my experience, is the usability lab with one-way glass at a large corporation. That was amazing, not least for the one-way glass and the ’spy factor’.
one remembers your username, the other remembers your username and password. The first is good for shared machines (friend/work computers), and the later is good for your personal machine.
I find both prompts useful.
Being prompted twice in a row is stupid.