From time to time, as I try to log in to a website, I get a message like this:

It looks like you're trying to login with your email address. You must use the username you selected when signing up. This can be found in our welcome email.

How annoying is that the system will recognize that you are using your email to log in, and instead of actually accepting it for identification purposes, tells you to go find the username you selected when signing up?

Here are an example of a much better design solution:


Clearly, Twitter was created by people who care about user experience, and has a design that plans for errors, and tries to support, not fight, the user's responses. Other websites, like AAPH.org, have also come to the conclusion that typing into text fields isn’t most people’s idea of a fun time, and that the burden should be in the system, not the user, to fetch information that is readily available:

To make things easier, you can now log in using your email address or your username, whichever you like. In the case of AAPH, many people had created complex user names, e.g., "John Smith, Ph.D, CChT, MFC". That caused problems because the username had to be entered exactly the same each time to log in. Try using your email address - it'll be easier.

Unfortunately not all designers seem to realize that the user just wants to get something done, not think about "correct" formats. Refusing to allow spaces or dashes in entry fields such as credit card number and zip code is another common example of disregard for the design practice of "forgiving format" (see "No Dashes Or Spaces" Hall of Shame for samples).

Computers are good at figuring out how to handle input of different types, so when you design an application that requires user input, please let the user type whatever he needs, and make the software do the right thing with it!

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Related posts:

How to annoy users during sign-up in two easy steps

Convince me first

The TED community has chosen Partners in Health, an organization that has operated medical facilities in Haiti for more than 2 decades and have numerous people on the ground. Among other activities, PIH has helped coordinate efforts to bring the largest hospital in Haiti back into a functional facility.

You can make a donation here, and rest assured that your money is going where it can do the most.

To donate by mail, send a check made out to Partners In Health to:

Partners In Health | P.O. Box 845578 | Boston, MA 02284-5578

Photo: Dr. Evan Lyon has been a volunteer physician with Partners in Health for over a decade,
and participated in PIH's initial response to the earthquake on January 12, 2010.

Microsoft products are known to defy user interface standards of comfort and friendliness, so there isn't any novelty in complaining about its products, but here is an annoying feature that I use every day when switching from Windows to Ubuntu in my dual boot netbook that makes me question the sanity of the person in charge of defining the user interface for this feature.

On Ubuntu, when you want to go to the Hibernate state, you click on the "Shut down the computer" button, and this is what you see:



Pretty easy to choose "Hibernate", right?

On Windows XP, when you select "Turn Off Computer", you see 3 buttons: Stand By, Turn Off and Restart. To see the option "Hibernate", you need to press the Shift Key so the Stand By button changes into Hibernate.


You need to press Shift Key to see the Hibernate button

Will someone from Microsoft please explain why would you make something as basic as choosing to "hibernate" more complicated than necessary?

I am sure no UX designer was involved in the creation of this "Turn Off Computer" feature. Requiring the user to press Shift Key to have access to a fourth option that could very easily fit within the options menu only makes sense if The Inmates Are Running the Asylum.


Related article:
In the age of rapid cycles and connected data, how long are we going to have to settle for dumb software?

Clearly, there is no shortage of stupid iPhone apps out there, like the ones featured in this video:



Fortunately, there's also excellent tools, like iPrompts, from HandHold Adaptive, an app "designed especially for parents, special educators and therapists to use with developmentally challenged and language-impaired individuals, like people with Autism, Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and apraxia of speech. iPromptsTM also benefits kids who just need more structure, including kids with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and even typical, pre-verbal toddlers".



Hopefully iPrompts will inspire other iPhone app developers to devote their time to creating meaningful, transformative tools.

Seth Godin asks this question, providing an example of how dumb calendar applications can be:

If I try to schedule an appointment for 2 pm, it requires me to not only hit the 2, but also select pm. I have never once had a meeting at 2 am. Shouldn't it know that?

Many of the readers of IT'S BROKEN are engineers, computer science students and business analysts--people who are or will be soon introducing new software to the world. If you are one of them, and haven't read The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity yet, please put it in your to-read list immediately. This book will help you make smart software that focus on the users' needs, rather than powerful, feature-rich, complex software that is so frustrating to use that will make your users happy to defect as soon as a better product comes along.