Usability
The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
The New York Times: When features break normal behaviors
Feature Creep is a nightmare for many. Some features are useful and when it doesn’t push a project back and improves the experience then it’s okay to have them.
One day I was on The New York Times’ website and I highlighted some text to act as a marker while I replied to someone on messenger I noticed something. A small tool tip popped up with a question mark and as I hovered over it - it stated ‘Lookup Word’. Clicked the tool tip to have a small pop up window open with the definition. At first I thought it was something the web browser had done but then I noticed it happened in other browsers and realized that the developers for The New York Times’ had added this feature that when you highlighted some text you could get the definition of the word. - Pretty Useful.
But then I noticed something - When I right clicked the highlighted text, I couldn’t copy it because it undid the highlight and thus prevented me from copying the text.
This feature which seemed useful to me broke normal browsing behaviors - Now we have a problem. Without the feature I could of copied the text and searched for the definition myself - but now I can’t copy this text.
But Wait… You can copy with keyboard shortcuts..
Yes I can use keyboard shortcuts, but the problem with that is not everyone knows keyboard shortcuts - for example - do you know from right off your head what Command+Option+Control+8 on Mac OSX does?
What if I wanted to copy a whole paragraph? - Well that works. As soon as I highlight four words I’m able to copy the text. So it doesn’t break my normal behaviors all the time… only when I highlight three or less words, then I have to use the keyboard shortcuts..
Not a bash on The New York Times’ site - I thought it was useful and granted most of the time I will use the keyboard shortcuts but it is a risk to make such a move. From what I’ve noticed when it first was released a lot of people complained and even went as far as blocking the script using ad-block and I’m assuming that since it’s release it’s been adjusted. It would be nice if at some point they made it so I could still have my normal right click behavior but no one’s perfect and hopefully they will find a way to keep the feature because I do think that they were focusing on their readers when they added this feature.
Breaking News: According to a recent study, People respond better to being treated like a human.
Not really that surprised but who would of thought?
Recently I’ve been working on developing YouAreU’s password reset form, so to get some ideas of how other people do it I visited two different “social networks” which I’ve censored their identity for their protection. We will call them Subject A & Subject B.
Now we will observe their copy, method of security, and how simple it is for those who are attempting to reset their password.
Copy
Subject A - will send the password reset instructions to the email address associated with your account. Copy is basic, most commonly seen as most reset instructions.
Subject B - Before we can reset your password, you need to enter the information below to help identify your account. Copy seems a bit misleading - The site seems to be saying that they will be the one resetting your password. I don’t want someone else issuing me a new password.
Method of Security
Subject A - Will send the reset to the email of whoever registered with the account.
Subject B - After identifying your account, it will send an email to the registered account, however the forms of identification seems odd - Since when does knowing my name and the name of a friend seem as a valid form of identification?
“Ease Of Use”
Subject A - The only real annoyance is the having to fill out the captcha to prove that you are human.
Subject B - While given multiple forms of identifying who you are, it also adds to the confusion. Also, afterwards you also still need to fill out a captcha.
After all of that, I noticed that these “social networks” seem to distance them self from the most important person using their networks. So I wrote the following draft and asked people how they felt.
Forgot Your Password?
It happens, we’re only human so we’ll try to make this as painless as possible. Just type in the Username or E-mail address you used to register on the site and we will send a reset link so you can enter a new one. We can’t tell you what your old password was because we care about your privacy.
And this is what I got back -
“…that message seems so personal, it seems like somebody was sitting there typing it. But I suppose that’s just the conditioning of robot statements that almost everybody uses…I would certainly like a service more if it seemed to take the time out of the day to help me, and not just iterate the same “We sent a confirmation email to reset your password.” - Christopher Byrd
and this
“It would make me feel warm & fuzzy inside, like the mystery box was my friend that day instead of a necessary evil of existence out to frustrate & taunt me” - Rozine Mosler
As you can see, people tend to feel better about what they are using if you take the time to care and not treat them like they are the next number in line.
Reset buttons cause more harm than good 99% of the time. I would love to meet the “genius” who thought it was a good idea to add a reset button to the bottom of a really long form.
Now I would say Never use a reset button, but I can see the 1% of the time where a reset form is useful such as for profile thumbnails (having a reset button could save some people headaches when they accidentally set a profile image to something they shouldn’t) or for a small section of a form that a person might want to clear out - but not the complete form. If someone wants to clear our a whole form, they might just hit that fancy f5 key aka refresh.
But let’s say you have to have a reset button, like it’s something your client wants so bad that they don’t care about anything else… Highly unlikely but whatever then make sure that 1- You apply a style to it that makes it clear that this button is different than the other & 2 - Think very carefully about placement. (See Below)
Which leads us to the attached image - Notice Continue comes before Cancel. Okay. Now notice they broke rule 1, well what about rule 2 you ask? Think of it this way, when you have to buttons next to each other most of the time when you do multiple step forms you have a Back Button then a Continue Button, so if someone has been filling out forms for a while they may get accustomed to clicking the button to the right because that normally is what they would click to continue along the form.
Now Rule 2 varies, I mean you could put the Continue button on top and the Cancel button on the bottom but regardless, Visually make it clear that these buttons are different, if you’re not going to do that, then be careful how you place them.
End of the Story - I clicked Cancel when I was filling out the bill payment option on my insurance form. I was pissed. I took a screenshot to make a point and I decided I’m never going to be using the online bill payment from my insurance provider. (Plus they wouldn’t let me pay with my credit card.)
