There's a second piece to this, though. For the 'ice cream' type of questions, 9 months later when they've forgotten their password, will they be able to successfully re-set it, or will they have forgotten the 'answer'?
>Last week we were conducting some research for a client. The research >included testing of a registration form for their product/service. >During registration, participants filled out their contact info (e.g. >name/email) then were directed to a security screen, where they were >prompted to answer three security questionspretty standard for >financial systems these days (this was not a financial system, but was >for backing up all your stuff on your computer through their service >so equally important to individuals). > >What surprised us was that the corresponding drop down menu for each >security item had 20 questions in eacha very long list. We had some >initial concerns that participants would find this overwhelming, a bit >tedious, and my be put off by the whole thing. What we found was quite >the opposite, actually. Every participant 11/11 felt reassured with >the long list of questions. Responses included: >"This makes me feel more safe." >"These questions are harder to break. Everyone can guess my eye color, >but not my favorite flavor of ice cream." >"This is good. Lots of questions are harder to break." > >And then there were the "Well, I wouldn't pick favorite color or ice >cream. Those things change too often depending on my mood." >Incidentally, this was heard from 4 women, but none of the men. Just >an observation folks, don't shoot the messenger. > >The point is that technically, this form wasn't more usableit was in >fact less usable, took more effort, and time to complete than if there >were only say 5 questions in each menu. 11/11 participants rated this >as being a 1=very easy and high satisfaction, which goes to show you >that the most usable solution isn't always the best solution. > >Cheers! > >Todd Zaki Warfel >President, Design Researcher >Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. >---------------------------------- >Contact Info >Voice: (215) 825-7423 >Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >AIM: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Blog: http://toddwarfel.com >---------------------------------- >In theory, theory and practice are the same. >In practice, they are not. > >________________________________________________________________ >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 > ________________________________________________________________ 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
