All I was planning to do was log in to the Wiki and post some Abacus product manuals for our team. I opened Explorer, typed what I thought was my username and password in and got "Error username/ password invalid".
Then, thinking I might have made a typo, I tried again. Same result. Because I have only been at the company for three weeks, I thought I would check the piece of paper I was given with all my log-in details. Aha - it was a username password combination I hadn't tried, so I entered it - "Error: username/ password invalid." I tried a couple of variants - still no joy. It was then I finally got round to resetting my password and here I am.
But it got me thinking. The same thing happens every time I buy something online with Verified by Visa. I think I know what my password is, but always end up going through the rigmarole of resetting the password.
So what do our website users think when they visit Pulse (or any other site with registration for that matter) and forget their password - or think they know it, but have about eight to remember at any one time that this one is just beyond them. And if their IT department (like UBM's I think) has IE set up so it doesn't always remember usernames and passwords, how much does this put them off.
Now don't get me wrong, registration is useful - it tells us who our audience is. But does it also skew the results? Is registration the Schrödinger's Cat of the web world? Does it act to put off the less tech savvy users, thus skewing our data? Enough questions, I want answers.
Here is a debate about them http://econsultancy.com/forums/best-practice/impact-of-a-registration-barrier but where does the ease of getting past them kick in? Am I just having an early morning rant?
More questions. One more though - has anyone any thoughts on the matter?
Then, thinking I might have made a typo, I tried again. Same result. Because I have only been at the company for three weeks, I thought I would check the piece of paper I was given with all my log-in details. Aha - it was a username password combination I hadn't tried, so I entered it - "Error: username/ password invalid." I tried a couple of variants - still no joy. It was then I finally got round to resetting my password and here I am.
But it got me thinking. The same thing happens every time I buy something online with Verified by Visa. I think I know what my password is, but always end up going through the rigmarole of resetting the password.
So what do our website users think when they visit Pulse (or any other site with registration for that matter) and forget their password - or think they know it, but have about eight to remember at any one time that this one is just beyond them. And if their IT department (like UBM's I think) has IE set up so it doesn't always remember usernames and passwords, how much does this put them off.
Now don't get me wrong, registration is useful - it tells us who our audience is. But does it also skew the results? Is registration the Schrödinger's Cat of the web world? Does it act to put off the less tech savvy users, thus skewing our data? Enough questions, I want answers.
Here is a debate about them http://econsultancy.com/forums/best-practice/impact-of-a-registration-barrier but where does the ease of getting past them kick in? Am I just having an early morning rant?
More questions. One more though - has anyone any thoughts on the matter?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment