I downloaded the Android app for Wikipedia and had a play around with it. One particular bit gave me a bad experience/first impression, so here's some feedback for you.
I was completely puzzled yesterday when I tried logging into the Wikipedia app for the first time. I added my login, password and then hit the checkbox to remember my login.. only then to realise my password was not visible in plaintext and that the label did not say remember my login [1]. Now this password I use on a couple of sites (I know that's bad but it's the case here). I never write it anywhere, it's engrained in my memory. So to see it there in plain text freaked me out and I was suddenly weary that I was in a public space where people could see over my shoulder and to be honest I felt really violated. I've now changed that password.
This was a really nasty experience for me. I'm trained to check those remember login checkboxes, just as on a signup form I'm trained to uncheck the add me to your mailing list box (which some forms abuse) and check the i agree to terms and conditions boxes. I never read the label.
I don't really get the need for such a feature though. No login forms on the web in website or app form that I know of have such an option as `show password` (please point me at some if they exist). It's not clear to me what this achieves. It doesn't help me remember it for example... all it seems to achieve is to give the impression that the password is not important and can be shared.
This is actually a pattern I've seen on many (native) mobile apps I think that evernote might do it (?) I've never seen it shown by default, but requires an explicit user action to show.
You see this on website too, especially ones with an accessibility focus, elderly people often have trouble typing passwords because they can't visually verify they've typed the right thing when the password is obscured.
I think this is a great pattern for a system where people are accessing it from their own devices (rather than public ones)
*Jared Zimmerman * \ Director of User Experience \ Wikimedia Foundation
M : +1 415 609 4043 | : @JaredZimmermanhttps://twitter.com/JaredZimmerman
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Jon Robson jrobson@wikimedia.org wrote:
I downloaded the Android app for Wikipedia and had a play around with it. One particular bit gave me a bad experience/first impression, so here's some feedback for you.
I was completely puzzled yesterday when I tried logging into the Wikipedia app for the first time. I added my login, password and then hit the checkbox to remember my login.. only then to realise my password was not visible in plaintext and that the label did not say remember my login [1]. Now this password I use on a couple of sites (I know that's bad but it's the case here). I never write it anywhere, it's engrained in my memory. So to see it there in plain text freaked me out and I was suddenly weary that I was in a public space where people could see over my shoulder and to be honest I felt really violated. I've now changed that password.
This was a really nasty experience for me. I'm trained to check those remember login checkboxes, just as on a signup form I'm trained to uncheck the add me to your mailing list box (which some forms abuse) and check the i agree to terms and conditions boxes. I never read the label.
I don't really get the need for such a feature though. No login forms on the web in website or app form that I know of have such an option as `show password` (please point me at some if they exist). It's not clear to me what this achieves. It doesn't help me remember it for example... all it seems to achieve is to give the impression that the password is not important and can be shared.
Design mailing list Design@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/design
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Jon Robson jrobson@wikimedia.org wrote:
No login forms on the web in website or app form that I know of have such an option as `show password` (please point me at some if they exist)
I've seen it both on facebook and amazon web and app among others.
--tomasz
I'm much more interested in the why and the research behind these trends then the fact they are trends. It seems these URLs make compelling arguments for it. * http://www.nngroup.com/articles/stop-password-masking * https://storify.com/lukew/yahoo-display-password-test * http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/10/26/password-masking-hurt-signup...
That said I think my problem here is that in my opinion the current design could be done better. The show/hide button in the right side of the input field that yahoo tried out looks like it might be a better pattern to follow and might be worth exploring as in my opinion it is much more explicit.
Anyway I'm not a designer but changing my passwords because of this was an annoying experience which made me feel dumb and didn't endear me to the app. I'd hate someone else to have this experience even if I'm a picky minority :)
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 11:20 AM, Tomasz Finc tfinc@wikimedia.org wrote:
On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Jon Robson jrobson@wikimedia.org
wrote:
No login forms on the web in website or app form that I know of have such an option as `show password` (please point me at some if they exist)
I've seen it both on facebook and amazon web and app among others.
--tomasz
On Mar 29, 2014 12:17 AM, "Jon Robson" jrobson@wikimedia.org wrote:
That said I think my problem here is that in my opinion the current
design could be done better. The show/hide button in the right side of the input field that yahoo tried out looks like it might be a better pattern to follow and might be worth exploring as in my opinion it is much more explicit.
That is May's actual design. I just haven't gotten around to implementing it yet. Preliminary implementation in the create account screen.
Anyway I'm not a designer but changing my passwords because of this was
an annoying experience which made me feel dumb and didn't endear me to the app. I'd hate someone else to have this experience even if I'm a picky minority :)
In this case it was just an incomplete implementation :) I'll ping this thread again when it is properly done.