Even after getting the same email since last many months, today I made mistake by clicking two wrong URLs to reach the desire one from the email. Finally instead of high-level scanning I read thought the whole content carefully and found the right URL.
But the whole experience was indeed frustrating and troublesome.

The below screens is to show the email format of Google alert.

This is just for you to scan through so that you can relate what I am trying to explain next.

Now the question is why I clicked twice on wrong link even though I am accessing the same email format since last couple of months. I guess the answer is in researched psychological data, and I am trying to put those in very easy words so that everyone can understand. There could be couple of reason as below.

• Other than this email, I have set many RSS and other feed which has similar format, so I am used to click first couple of link, assuming that what I am clicking will open the results directly as like other RSS results
• During email scan, I read “this Google Alert” (see red marked with arrow) as title of the URL, and I assumed that this URL contains the result, and I clicked. But it result into prompt question “Are you sure you want to remove this Google Alert” and after careful reading I realize that this link is to remove my set alert, wovvvv…
• Right after this, I scanned the rest of the below content and clicked another URL, and guess what, I didn’t realize that it was to create another alert, so failed again…

So I took short pause and think why I am shooting at wrong target, and I realized that like many other users I also followed my previous experience (in this case my other RSS feed URLs) and during email content reading I was unconscious and just trying to scan the important content for which my mind was searching for, and therefore I confused with wrong URLs due to inappropriate headings (red marked)

So Google can take care of this like

• Separating out primary URL from secondary actionable items such as remove or create URLs, separation could be visual, text or pictorial.
• Secondary actionable items can be small and in form of label instead of whole URL, and can be set at the bottom of the email
• Google can provide small image snap from the result webpage which can be identify by reader without any problem

Moral of the story - Be fair with users and don’t allow them to make any assumptions with your data and thus you don’t make any assumption during design that your users will understand what you are trying to accomplish with them!!!

Here what happens when business people decide to keep their feature or content fixed on their product, users will get frustrated and stop using it, and very importantly business will lose the business and their loyal customers.

The similar problem I faced many a time with Google Search, what happens when you search with some generic keyword like “Pharma MBA Degree” or “Italian Restaurant” you’ll get hell lot of result. Google has good filtering functionality where you can filter your search result based on various aspects like time, location or even format.

See below screen for reference.

But these features are not very useful when you are looking for unique result and not repetitive result from some yellow-page OR online directory, etc.

The biggest frustration point is that you have to painfully go through the same sets of search result over and over again which you know that they are not carrying good content for you, as many of us checked first couple of result and then we know that they are just references and links to the other sites which does not have any valuable results.

Now here is what I am suggesting for any specific wide-range search system or any other applications  where content / feature / functionalities  are not relevant to the users upfront, then allow users to say “not needed now” and this will restrict that specific content - in my case all the search results from that particular domain, so that I can never see those yellow-pages or directories again in my results

Well if I have this feature in my Google search I will feel freedom during my critical search and I will get always unique search result.

My fingers was on remote and eyes on the screen, I kept pressing the remote buttons and screen was changing the pictures, on some channels, it was running boring drama and most of the channels was running commercials, my mind was scanning the program on the TV constantly.

After a while I was suddenly felt like I am hypnotized and just my finger and eyes are working, so I changed my body state by changing my seating position and took some rest.

Since I have searched more than 80 channels I thought of just going to those channels which I watch the most.

So again I've started the same thing but this time I was pressing the channel numbers but felt the same thing, everywhere its commercials, in fact I waited some time at some of the channels to know which program its running but it was boring…

And suddenly I recalled one of the heuristics points from Jacob Nielson which is “Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.”

So the lesson learned from this experience is that if these channels keep some tags like “Now Running > Program Name” during commercial as well as during program would help viewers to stay or switch to the next channels.

I haven’t done any research thou but I am quite sure that so many of us changes the channels if we see commercial or don’t know which program its running. If I would have known during commercial that which program is running, I would have surely kept my remote a side and have waited, but due to not having clarity on “What’s going on” I have changed the channels many a times.

I know there are a few channels that have a status label in the corner of the screen and some of the technology have a way to know this with channels list screen, but wish that everyone will care about this rules and show the current activity status.

So the moral of the story is not only during web page loading or component loading we should show “Loading…” or similar message but wherever it’s possible.

Make your visitors, customers and viewers life easy.

Posted by: Sohel Kapasi | sohelkapasi@gmail.com | +91 9922 79 8899 | +01 860 440 6579

First Usability Issue – how to add Google Analytics account

Objective was to add my word press account into Google Analytics so that I can see the activity for my blog, this was my second account which I was trying to add into Google Analytics

My 1^st Step was to login into Google Analytics account and now I wanted to add my wordpress blog, I was looking for the option to add account, I've quickly scanned whole page but didn't found anything, I was confuse and was not able to understand that "how to add Google" analytics account.So I have searched on Google and found few people has asked the same questions, I went back into goggle analytics site again and checked now each and every text, buttons, images carefully and BINGO I found the link "+ Add new account"

My 2^nd Step so I have clicked there and afterward flow was fine so I added my account successfully

Usability Issue

The visual and information hierarchy and separation is quite confusing, as first time when I've scanned page to find "Add Account" option I didn't notice the link (marked with red box in above image).Plus the placement of the link is not appropriate as it is part of table header group with Accounts label which is actually a label for the table, and at the right hand side we have a "+ Add new account" link which can be barely identify, as mind reads it as part of table header and not as main action link for the whole page.

Usability Enhancement Recommendations:

1. Remove the first table header (which is in dark gray color with label Accounts) as you have already column headers where you can say "Account Names" so this way you can get rid of unnecessary table header and can reduce the visual conjunction
2. As "+ Add new account" is the primary action for this page / module, so it should be place as input button or image button to increase prominence
3. As well as the placement of the link should be at the top left of the data table and at bottom as well

Second Usability Issue – how to remove Google Analytics account

Well now I have added the my wordpress blog into Google Analytics, but then I suddenly realized that I made a mistake, Hmmm I have added duplicate blog URL as account, and now I have to delete it.

Objective was to delete the added Google Analytics account which I have just recently added

My 1^st Step was to look for a delete option now, so I click on a Google Analytics logo (top left) corner and get the accounts data table again

And as you can see I just have "Edit" option but not the delete so I clicked on a "usersmind.bloggers.com

"My 2^nd Step was to check what is available after clicking on the blog URL from this data table, and Bingo I found what I was looking for as you can see below I have "Delete" option

My 3^rd Step was to click on it and I got this alert massage

So I thought my account is getting deleted now, and I clicked "OK"But then saw this below screen which says "Edit account settings", but didn't find the URL in data table so thought that screen is not yet fully update so click again on the Google Analytics (top left corner) and went back to main page

But surprisingly the blog URL was still part of main data table which contains the list of all Google Analytics accounts, which means my account was not deleted

My 4^th Step was to search on the net for "how to delete Google analytics account" and look what I foundGoogle Search results (1): http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/google/why-wont-google-analytics-let-me-remove-accounts/

Google Search results (2): http://blog.techdreams.org/2008/01/removing-my-analytics-account-from.html

And may more post and article which talks the same issue

My 5^th Step after searching from some of the sites, blogs and articles I didn't found anything useful so I clicked on the "Edit" button now

after clicking on "Edit" I came on this below page where I again scanned whole page and boom suddenly I saw "Delete this account" option, wow under edit account I found delete option

I happily clicked on that and I removed unwanted account from my Google Analytics

Usability Issue

The overall information grouping is like "Accounts" are the parent hierarchies and the "Profiles" are the actual accounts (if I am not wrong), so you can create your main account and then under that you can add any number of profiles and they are the actual blog or website URLs from there you can see your site's analysis. So keeping this grouping and tasks in mind I found following issues.

1. Accounts and Profile Add / Edit and Delete interaction design is highly confusing
2. Information and Task grouping is not appropriate, as during adding an accounts it is asking for a profile information and adding Accounts as well as given URL as profile, which to differentiate by users are very tuff
3. Placement of main action buttons / link is inappropriate, as users never going to identify "Delete" under "Edit" link, as main action like Delete should not be expected inside another action itself

Usability Enhancement Recommendations:

1. Adding account and the profiles should be separated, use progressive UI method in case of new account + profile registration
2. Currently the information (data table) for main accounts and profiles under each accounts are the same which should be presented clearly as parent and child grouping
3. Remove Delete Account from Edit function, and edit account should only available for editing the account data and delete option should be separated out on the main data table with each account name

Posted by: Sohel Kapasi | sohelkapasi@gmail.com | +91 9922 79 8899 | +01 860 440 6579

Objective: was to search builders from Pune East and send them a note saying "I am looking for a 2 BHK flat under 25 Lakhs, contact me if you have any new project under this price band"

My 1^st Step: Selected "Builder" radio button, selected "Pune – East" from drop down and hit "Search Now" button

My 2^st Step: found 546 records where single page was containing 50 results, I saw "Send Email & SMS" button and saw list of check boxes on the page, so realized that to send a multiple messages I have to select all these check boxes and hit "Send Email & SMS" button, so I did it.

I actually clicked all 50 check boxes manually and hit the "Send Email & SMS" button

And look I got this message "Please select less than 5 listing." means all my hard work which I spend on selecting these 50 check boxes is waste and now either I have to de-select all 45 check boxes or have to perform search from scratch.

Usability Issues:

1. Tool-tip on check-boxes selection (see image below) is highly misleading. While selecting the first check-box, user is getting this tooltip and this means user can select multiple listing from the list.
2. Even after selecting 5 listing and filling this form, there is no clear indication that this detail goes to those builders which users have selected below from the list, not it is mentioned on Success Screen

Usability Enhancement Recommendations:

1. Make tooltip message more intuitive e.g. "You can select builders up to 5"
2. Don't allow user to select more than 5 builders
3. Even better if you'll allow user to add multiple builders into basket and later they can add or remove from basket before they fills the Mail Form, with this you can provide greater space to your users to choose the best suitable from the basket
4. Provide "Select All" and "Remove All" feature on the table header to provide greater ease to select more builders to add them into basket
5. Finally, on the "Mail Form" show the numbers of builder or actual names of the builders into To field

Posted by: Sohel Kapasi | sohelkapasi@gmail.com | +91 9922 79 8899 | +01 860 440 6579

Few examples on password creation policies and issues

Now that each sites and applications have launched their own security system to access their content where users have to create their accounts and therefore each sites/applications allows you to create at least one set of username and password.

And here is the origin of difficulty that you start facing. Hackers have become so smart that your password which includes your name, age, anniversary date, kids birthdates etc, can easily be broken. Apart from this there are always smart enough techniques to break your password.

So everyone has started making tougher password creation policy where you have to use at least one capital character and/or one number and/or one special character.

Real-time password creation examples:

Don't worry I can break this L

Use character other than
'@&-"< ohhhhhh I have to apply job everyday in this jobless market and to remember this password is another reason of economic desperation.

Now let's understand the pattern of the password creation with day to day usage. I posted my survey to the community with one single question which has straight two answers where I asked

"How do you create you password everywhere?"

1. I give unique sets of word every time while creating password OR
2. I use my favorite word in every password, and apply all necessary combination to my password like using Capital character, Numbers, Special characters, etc?

And believe me that 67.97% of the users have chosen option (b) as common method to create their passwords everywhere, check the survey result below:

So the result is very clear that majority of the people are not trying to keep their password unique. Hence even if we restrict them from their regular way of creating their passwords; then we are increasing our user's pain and consequently, login/registration becomes the most critical and an absolute important functionality for any sites or application and due to this we'll end-up loosing our visitors / users from our sites, applications and software.

Since I got the stunning results from my survey that people are trying to keep their passwords simple and at the same time they have their own sets of words and special character's combination that they use everywhere.

So if we'll force our potential customers and visitors to create their password as per our policy, means we are creating problems for them. For example use at least one capital character and/or one Number and/or one Special character, etc….. and in addition to that some of us are even restricting the number of letters in password like allowing only 8 to 20 characters.

So let's see from a user experience and information architecture point of view that how can we come up with some of the solutions / recommendations which provides password creation policy secure and the same time very easy to remember.

My studies and observations with few sites have helped me to dig-out certain innovative solutions and standards for password creation.

password generation policy

1) I don't want to compromise in password creation policy, but I definitely wish that you just have to be easy going wherever you apply password policy rules in your websites or applications without any AND/OR conditions.

This example indicates that user can use any two or more combination to generate their password but only condition we check is that there should be two or more combination.
I am sure user has their choice of combination which is their regular tendency to generate the password and therefore it's very easy for them to remember"

2) The password length should not be restricted as I have noticed in many of the sites keeping user conditions as below:

• Your password length should be in between 8 to 20 character
• Password should not have more than 12 characters, etc

Well I didn't understand why this restriction, yes I do agree there should be lengthier password but that does not mean to restrict users.

3) Most of the times users take lots of effort to write their password and hits "Submit" button and BOOM !!! they'll see the message for having unsuitable password. To make an appropriate password according to given website's password policy, users have to make multiple combinations, but at the cost of their valuable time. We can definitely save that bravely.

Provide password generation policy message to user before they enter their password, this will help them to recollect exact combination of the words which user might have used will creating password. Normally these message will be displayed after first attempt, which is quite frustrating for user, let them know well in advance that how your system has asked them to generate the password.

4) Most of the times I have ended up entering my password almost 2 to 3 times before I enter proper password combination while creating my new account. This is quite frustrating seeing errors one by one to provide tough combination to make password strong and secure enough.

Innovative way to create password!!! More for UX

We all have faced forget password situation and while retrieving password we have surely provided the password hint, that's it, hint…

Well taking this hint notion little further I think we have to start putting hint or clue system in password generation policy.

Ask users while registration whether they want to generate password classis way (only one single work in password along with all character combination) OR want more secure password. Here we can ask password to be place as below mentioned wireframe.

How your program will generate the password from this.

Take this password extension and 5 sets of clue, generate password dynamically at your server every 10 to 30 minute (on timing we can take more expert views from technical architect).

At the time of login first validate the login id and show the relevant password clue as below provided in wireframe.

What is so great about it?

1. Your password is almost unbreakable for any hackers or hacking software which runs on algorithmic techniques, as password is keep changing every 2 to 5 minutes.
2. Its proven that human brain can remember accurate and very precise information if you provide relevant clue, so you never forget your password extension with relevant clue
3. You need not require to remember lots of password with various special character combination, as your password has your own words

I hope this initiative will bring the better awareness in password policy makers and users will have the password creation freedom in their hand so that they will never forget their password again.

Posted by:
Sohel Kapasi  | sohelkapasi@gmail.com  |  +91 9922 79 8899  |  +01 860 440 6579