>From a user's point of view, I know that I tend to type rather quickly. If anything, I probably mistype my password on registration forms more than anyone else because I'm doing it quickly and assuming I got it right. I think it would make me feel uneasy if there's no field to confirm.
Especially when the javascript can tell you instantly if there's a discrepancy, it takes so little time to retype that I've never thought of it as an "inconvenience." Also, I think I would get to the login site and sit there typing and retyping my password for a few minutes of cursing before realizing that I typed it in wrong at the registration page. However, I think Elena's would probably be an even better idea: "Can't you have a radial button to offer a choice of showing or not showing the password, the way (for example) my Mac does when I'm re-entering my network password?" With the "hint questions" I always feel like anyone with a facebook account or a blog can dig around and find the answer to most generic hint questions. So I tend to make mine so ridiculous that I can rarely remember the answer. (Of course, most people might not be as paranoid as I am.) In essence, you're asking your users to memorize two passwords: the password that they maybe typed in, and the hint answer. That seems like much more of an inconvenience to me, and it feels less secure. ------------- 1. It is convention to enter passwords twice. My response: I need a better reason than that. 2. Since we are only showing asterisks or dots for each character the user doesn't know if they have typed the correct password or not. My response: A user is likely to be paying more attention to the typing of a new password than for most form fields and thus is that much more likely to get it right. No data to support that, just a gut feeling. ------------- "It's just a gut feeling." isn't all that different than "It's convention." They both require more testing. I think you're going to have a lot of people passionate about either side. I'd say if you can, it's probably best to go ahead and usability test it both ways. I'd be really interested in hearing which comes out on top. My newbie two cents, Christine Neidley ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
