GravityFreedom – Discussions on Internet Marketing, Web Design and Web Development by GravityFree in Sarasota, Florida

Recently, I’ve been in the market for a new car. My lease was coming to an end so it was time to start considering a new vehicle. Like many people, I decided that before I moved to make such a large purchase I would run a personal credit check so I could better see where I stood when it came to financing options.

I recalled using a specific credit service previously so I decided to go back to them. Several years ago they had a one-time package to get all three FICO scores, and I remembered being very happy with my purchase.

After making my way to their website, I clicked on their signup call to action button and began filling out their signup form, all 23 questions of it, including a desired username and password, previous addresses, my social security number, and all the other various financial information one must provide when running a credit check. On the same screen I was asked to review a terms and conditions document and click on “I Agree” to move forward.

After clicking the button, the page took a moment to refresh and greeted me with an error message that my password choice was invalid. It seems I missed the small print that instructed me that my chosen password most be at a minimum of 8 letters long. I scroll down the screen to return to the form, and lo and behold every one of my previous answers had been completely deleted, I was now forced to re-enter them all if I was going to continue.

So of course, I did, because I trusted this company having used them before. I suppressed my frustration and moved on. I filled out everything again, and made sure my password met the criteria. I click “I Agree” and as the page loads this time I am greeted with another error (my summary from memory):

“The information you’ve entered matches an account that we already have on file. Users may only have one account, would you like to login?”

My frustration returns as I click on “Login” feeling like this is going to be my only choice. I’m greeted with a scary blank login screen requesting that I recall an account that I created over three years ago. I try a few guesses, all of which fail me before moving to the “Forgot your username or password?” option.

Many of us have used this type of system before. You type in your email address, and you are sent on your way. You receive your password via email or are provided a link to reset your password. This system was a little different and starts by asking me for my social security number, my last name, and my date of birth. After summiting to these questions I receive one final question to answer, “What is your favorite movie?” What the heck? What is my favorite movie? Of all the information that I’ve provided this system in the last 30 minutes, the thing that is now blocking my access to an account I once created three years ago was what I thought my favorite movie was at the time.

From mere frustration, I immediately closed the site and looked up another service I previously heard good reviews about. It took me about 5 minutes to sign up and pay and it left me with a great experience.

Honestly, this is a true story that happened over the weekend. The mistakes that this site made aren’t all too uncommon and can be avoided. So let’s take a look at what they could have done to improve the user experience of both the signup process and the process I had to go through as a returning customer.

A Parsimonious View of Signup Forms
A concept popular in interaction design, in ways both good and bad, is parsimony; essentially ‘less is better’. When designing signup forms think about the most minimum information needed and then stop. For example, to signup for this account I needed a username (which was my email address) and a password. Now of course once I actually have an account I can proceed to signup for the service and enter further information at that point, but to ask me up front all the information I need is just poor interaction design.

Their 23-question form could have just looked something like this:

Once my account was safely created I could have been requested to enter my social security number, previous addresses, and other required information within my account profile. Having an account in place gives me a starting off point to begin creating a profile for this account, rather then trying to do everything at once, and becoming overwhelmed.

Validating Forms in Real Time
The form itself knows more about how it wants me to enter data then I do as the user, so the intelligence of what the form knows should be used to assist the user, not insult them. If I enter less then the minimum requirement of characters into the password field, show me the second I go to start confirming my password before I even need to press “Create My Account”. Real time validation isn’t always appropriate for all forms, but this form is small and password length is the perfect use for quick validation like this.

As an aside, it is important to think about visual aids in notification (such as my use of an error icon here). Reds, yellows, greens, and blues can be difficult for people to see with various forms of color blindness (whom total a about ten percent of the U.S. male population).

Ease the Pain of the Frustrated
Imagine what it’s like when you can’t remember information about something that is “yours”. What if the police recovered something that you had lost and you weren’t able to describe it enough for the officer to believe it was yours?

So often when companies develop forms and user systems it is to replace or reduce the need for in-house staff to manually support customers. One thing these companies fail to remember is that humans hold a serious advantage over most commonly used software; the ability to make a judgment call. This is where this company’s “password recovery system” failed me as the user. If I had told a customer service agent my name, the email address on file, social security number, birthday date, and perhaps a previous address they would likely have been able to determine that I was who I said I was, regardless of my favorite film.

To summarize, it’s important to simplify your processes as much as possible. Sign up forms should be simple and easy – get the most required information first, and let them work on the other items later. If the user is trying to recover their account, they are likely frustrated that they have to be there, so be nice. Don’t ask questions that are based on an opinion to prove identity. People change, and opinions change too. My favorite movie now is different then my favorite movie a year ago.

To Finish Up
If you can take only one thing away from this post let it be to think about people over policy. Our internal policies and politics are rarely the way that our users want to interact with our products and services. With that as well, it’s important to talk with your users, find key members of your user-base and use them to test out features that you are considering. Test them early in the product lifecycle, or you might just be wasting your time, and the time of your users.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on User Experience. Is there a topic you’d like to hear more about in a future post? Let me know by leaving your comments.