Another approach to OpenID authentication from Mediamatic

[Kevin Mehlbrech]

I'm fairly new to this list, so forgive me if my points seem repetitive.

I agree with most of what has been said already, specifically the
non-obviousness of the OpenID sign-on on the Mediamatic site (but applaud
them for trying something new). My personal opinion is that asking a user
"who are you" is simply too confusing at this point in time.  Currently I
think the best solutions out there are the nascar ones.  These are
especially seamless if you are already signed into a session with a given
provider in a different tab.

Long-run I would very much like to  see something like the Higgins Project (
http://www.eclipse.org/higgins/) take hold.  Then "who are you" questions
could be answered by simply selecting a profile card to authenticate as
rather than clicking a Google icon or pasting in a URL or username/password
combination.  "Who are you" makes a lot more sense in this context than it
does with a URL or a username/password.  The card system is both more
intuitive and allows for finer grained privacy control and data
portability.  However it'll be a while before ID cards become mainstream,
especially since both usability and support in that space ishorrid right now
from what I've seen.  It will also require even more user training than
openID alone does...

Anyway, just my 2 cents.  Nascar solutions are the best out there right now
IMO, and OpenID shouldn't need to be hidden away as a separate login "page."

-Kevin


On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Cameron King <cameron at uniquekings.com>wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 12:18, Chris Messina <chris.messina at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 1:16 AM, David Christiansen <
>> openid-userexperience at davidchristiansen.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I also fell into the 'typical user' trap and clicked through the 'Log In'
>>> dropdown, hit back to the reboot site THEN saw the alternatives. I think
>>> user's (and this includes me I guess ;)) subconsciously don't read a whole
>>> page before deciding what to do - they find the first thing that looks like
>>> it will meet their needs and click! Frankly on first pass I didn't even read
>>> the other red headings - this is not a dig at the site design, but more an
>>> observation on user behaviour.
>>>
>>
>> This is absolutely true. People don't read on the web, they scan, and even
>> at that, they look for handles to grab on to and just click. I blame Google.
>>
>
> This isn't specific to the web or Google.  Everything from advertisements
> to supermarket doors are designed that way.  The point is, that a user of
> any system on the web or off - shouldn't have to re-learn every environment.
>
> Advertisements rely on viewers scanning left to right, top to bottom.
> Doorways have handles where you need to pull, and bars where you need to
> push - green for enter, red for do not enter.  Because our day-to-day
> activities match a learned pattern, we don't have to think - we simply do.
> Personally, I would be very annoyed if I had to keep re-learning how to
> login to a webpage.
>
> What about in this hypothetical autocomplete box, if there were some
> nascar-ish buttons that autofilled the box and hilighted the username
> potion.  As a "hint" for the clueless.
>
> Scanners would still catch the button intended for them without obsuring
> what's really happening.  Maybe in the future they would explore other
> options or run their own - or maybe they just click their familiar button
> each time....
>
> Who are you?
> .____________________________. .____.
> |____________________________| |_Go_|
> [g][y][o][f][m][.][.][.]
>
> (type a service, username or email address that you want to identify
> yourself as, or click a familiar button)
>
> Not trying to re-design your idea, just my two cents.
> Cameron.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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