In a constant quest to make my life easier, I try note genera UX rules as I come across them to create checklists to guide my work. Basic things — like “NEVER use click here as anchor text”, “Don’t forget a favicon”, and “Offer a primary next step on each state of the UX” — find themselves on the sticky notes and in Google documents that clutter my world.
Last week, I was reminded of another oh-so-simple low-hanging UX guideline to add to the list. While creating a user account on a new site, have you ever been hit with an error message that introduced password requirements that weren’t shown initially?
Yeah… annoying. And it’s a design flaw — a major UX faux-pas.
In Robert Hoekman, Jr.‘s 2009 SXSW Interactive presentation, “The 7 Rules of Great Application Design”, the overarching theme was “Dont make your users feel dumb! Make them feel smart, respected, and productive – like the king of the jungle!” Such an obvious way to make them like you, right?
His 5th rule was “Prevent Errors”. He showed Backpack, the organization tool from the brilliant team at 37 Signals — a software that prevents almost all possible errors, making the product virtually foolproof for its users.
Every UX practitioner is guilty of the occasionally overlooking a basic best practice, and I’m no different. But hopefully, this reminder will help both us from forgetting this easy practice in the future.
I close today with 2 questions:
- Why do your password requirements so damn complex, anyway? I’ll dig into that question soon.
- Have you heard about the new book from 37 signals, Rework? Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
That’s all for now, folks!
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