[OpenID] Feedback requested: New OpenID RP login UX prototype

[Rabbit]

Inline comments.

Peace.

=Rabbit

On Oct 22, 2009, at 10:27 PM, Andrew Arnott wrote:

> Thanks, Rabbit.
>
> Responses inline.
> --
> Andrew Arnott
> "I [may] not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the  
> death your right to say it." - S. G. Tallentyre
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 7:01 PM, Rabbit <rabbit at cyberpunkrock.com>  
> wrote:
> I won't sugar coat this. If I encountered this interface in the wild  
> I would be furious. I hope you are able to take this criticism  
> constructively and improve the user experience.
> Sure, I don't want you to sugar coat it.  Although your tone  
> throughout this email suggests that you thought I thought this was  
> all finished and polished.  It's a "prototype", dude.

I know it's a prototype. Apologies for my tone.

>
> FireFox on OSX receives multiple plugin download requests. Obviously  
> these are related to InfoCard but "explainable" from a technical  
> perspective doesn't translate to "acceptable" from a user  
> perspective. There was also no indication as to what the plugins  
> were for and when I attempted to install them it failed. That latter  
> criticism may be an issue with FireFox or OSX.
>
> I totally agree.  This doesn't happen on Windows, so I didn't see  
> these problems.  But another mac user reported seeing the same  
> thing.  I have an idea of how to fix this so please try again in a  
> couple days and tell me if the problem hasn't gone away.  Yes, it's  
> InfoCard related, but it was not my intention to throw up all kinds  
> of unpleasantness for those who don't have InfoCard support.  It's  
> supposed to be a very quiet "light-up" scenario if you have it, and  
> completely and quietly missing if you don't.

Realistically, it's not a big deal. In FireFox it appears as a slide  
down bar the same that happens when asked to remember a password. I  
don't know enough about integrating with InfoCard, the reason I  
pointed it out is that there may be some Mozilla-oriented headers that  
will point its plugin searcher in the right direction.

>
>
> Almost every popup window was irritating and appeared broken. A  
> standard user would most likely think they were tricked into  
> clicking an advertisement. This somewhat extends into my general  
> criticism towards the entire popup standard being promoted (which I  
> won't get into) but even with the popup approach there is room for  
> improvement here. If you know the OpenID provider you are sending me  
> to, and they do not offer a simple UI for popups, at least size the  
> window to avoid horizontal scrollbars.
>
> http://s978.photobucket.com/albums/ae262/rabbyte/?action=view&current=Picture3.png
> http://s978.photobucket.com/albums/ae262/rabbyte/?action=view&current=Picture4.png
> http://s978.photobucket.com/albums/ae262/rabbyte/?action=view&current=Picture5.png
>
> Working within the popup UI is still being developed for the OPs,  
> and each of them are responsible for making it look good.  Google  
> supports it fully, as I'm sure you noticed.  Yahoo claims to support  
> it but don't get the window size right according to the UI extension  
> draft spec and I hope they fix that or the spec (I don't care  
> which).  myopenid and verisign don't support it at all, and the  
> larger popup window size I give non-supporters isn't apparently big  
> enough for their large window demands.  I'll see if I can fix that  
> by just giving them a bigger window.  Ideally, I hope this  
> encourages these OPs to shrink their UI so it fits in smaller windows.

imho, I would prefer a new tab being opened if there is no known  
window dimensions. Unfortunately, that creates an even more  
inconsistent user experience.

>
> Besides that, myopenid and Verisign aren't likely to be displayed in  
> the final UI kit that I'm building until they meet the guidelines I  
> wrote up.  RPs can always add them though.
>
>
> You'll also notice that the MyOpenID popup is slightly hiding its  
> security feature on the top right. There's just no excuse for that.
>
> I agree.  But see above.
>
> The automatic redirecting is absolutely atrocious! Even just trying  
> to test this out for feedback was excruciating. It is impossible to  
> change my choice once I have made a choice. Page load tries to  
> redirect. Clicking login tries to redirect. My history gets mangled  
> and I can't hit the back button. Between the popups and the  
> redirects, a standard user might (and should) think they have a virus.
>
> Now here you've lost me.  Can you explain more precisely what's  
> going on?  Maybe it's a Mac thing (which I would of course still  
> want to fix), but why do you say it's impossible to change your  
> choice once you've made one?  If you click one Provider and log in,  
> you absolutely can pick another provider the next time you log in  
> (although we make them appear grayer than the rest to discourage  
> this).  But remember this is targeted at normal users -- it's not  
> targeted for testing multiple OPs.  So a normal user would want to  
> keep clicking the same button in order to avoid splintering their  
> identity.  That's a common complaint about OpenID: "Which button did  
> I click on last time?"  Or more practically: "I logged in [with the  
> wrong button] and now all my stuff is gone!"  Although the other  
> buttons are gray, you can still click them.

I thought that was an intentional feature. I made a provider choice,  
clicked through to the provider, did not login (maybe that makes the  
difference?), went back to the original page and each time it would  
load for a second then instantly redirect me back to the OP I chose.
I had to load your page, hit stop quickly, click Login, hit stop  
quickly, then choose another provider. (You can understand my  
frustration! hah)

I wouldn't mind the auto-redirects if there were a visual countdown  
such as:
"You previously chose X as your provider. Redirecting in  
3....2....1..." with a cancel button to make another choice.

I don't really see how this could be an OS-specific issue. If you have  
trouble duplicating this, contact me directly, I'll try to help  
pinpoint it.

>
> Now what about this "page load tries to redirect".  What does that  
> mean?  I've seen sites where the Back button takes you to a page  
> that redirects you "forward" again, which is very aggravating.  But  
> on my browsers, this doesn't happen.  The back button works as  
> expected.  Can you elaborate about what's broken?
>
> It also wouldn't hurt to provide a little information about OpenID  
> since it is an option. Even linking to a tutorial site to provide  
> more information would be helpful (hey! and you could use another  
> popup!). Ok, maybe that last remark was a little mean. I appreciate  
> the effort. I really need to put together a demo. I really hope you  
> found my feedback useful.
>
> Here I disagree with you, but your opinion is appreciated  
> nonetheless.  This is not a "promote OpenID" design.  Some of the  
> loudest feedback I hear from users who fail to log into RPs is that  
> they don't know what OpenID is and they leave.  This UI is designed  
> for maximum user conversions to the RP's services, not to OpenID.   
> RPs want users to log in -- they don't care whether users know what  
> OpenID is, and users don't visit random RPs to learn about what  
> OpenID is.
>

I only suggested it as OpenID is an option. It don't think it would  
hurt since you're already expanding the window with an input field to  
have a small link saying "What is this?" After all, that could easily  
be a path of discovery for many people who just haven't heard of  
OpenID yet but would love if they understood it.

> A design requirement is to keep the UI as simple as possible, while  
> providing flexibility where needed for power users.  So links to  
> learn about OpenID will be limited to what the RP's attorneys insist  
> on saying for liability reasons.
>
> Yes, your feedback was helpful -- and can be more so if you can  
> provide some more detail about the issues I asked for more detail  
> about.
>
> =Rabbit
>
>

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