Recursive

Category: Musings

  • Form Validation Errors – don’t embarrass your users

    Form Validation Errors – don’t embarrass your users

    Does it seem fair to scold the user for the errors they make while filling in a form? Are they even “errors”?

    The term “Error” and the usual associated red colouring is remarkably negative. Almost like accusing the user of spilling blood by making a typo or misunderstanding a field’s intended purpose. Okay, perhaps that’s a little extreme, but it’s certainly not a fluffy “oopsie, shall we try again toghether?“

    To work towards better UX we need to be compassionate, to be empathetic. If the user, who you want (nay, need) to be on-side, makes a mistake when filling in your form, there’s nothing to be gained by making them feel daft or at fault.

    This is a wonderful opportunity to improve the UX; simply by changing the tone of form validation messages from blame to guidance, your users are more likely to stick around.

    Some systems, especially internal systems for staff, may have the slightly troubling luxury of being mandatory for the users, but that shouldn’t excuse a poor experience.

    It’s important not to go so far into the fluffy language to appear patronising, and that can be a balancing act, so it’s worth working with copy editors, or even a small cross-section of the users, to land on appropriate messages.

    Contrast “That’s not an email address!” with “Please confirm your email address.“. Indeed, compare the message “Your Order Reference must not contain spaces” with code that just ignores the space – avoiding the messages in the first place can hugely improve users’ experience, which can increase engagement and goodwill and sales.

    We’re fortunate that we’re no longer writing things in stone. However uncomfortable it may feel to change something which exists already, we should use the freedom we have in software and web development, and make improvements wherever and whenever they’re identified.

  • Catharsis – the release of frustration or a dangerous trap?

    Catharsis – the release of frustration or a dangerous trap?

    Catharsis is that feeling of relief, the process of releasing strong emotions, like frustration or anger, and letting go. Have a rant about something that’s been bothering you, shout at the trees, or whinge to your friends about work, it helps you emotionally, it’s cathartic.

    But… how many times have you complained about something you’ve complained about before? At least once a month, right?

    This is the trap. Catharsis is a trick, a pitfall – you definitely feel better, but only until the problem happens again, nothing has actually changed for the better.

    Catharsis is treacherous,
    it makes promises it can’t keep.

    me, just now

    So what should we do?
    Complain to people who can, and will, make a difference.

    We’re often taught that complaining is rude or childish or pointless, but wouldn’t it better to actively address the causes of complaints?
    A complaint is an opportunity for improvement. A complaint may in fact just be down to a misunderstanding, or it may have an easy solution, but we won’t know unless we complain. The squeaky wheel gets the oil – a fact of life amongst humans.

    Catharsis permits, even promotes, stagnation.

    Jez McKean, 2021

    If you want progress, don’t accept catharsis, do complain (to the right people), and make the change you want to see actually happen.

  • The NatWest Card Reader, part deux (I didn’t change banks)

    My last post on the subject (a fraction over 10 years ago!) garnered a lot of comments for what was essentially just a rant, and it turned out to be somewhat unfounded and sensationalistic.

    I’m still with NatWest, their online banking is still very good and their app is the best, and I’ve rarely had to use the card reader and not been able to find one.

    What has surprised me is that NatWest still haven’t improved the crazy wastefulness of the packaging.
    There are still many layers of unnecessary cardboard and plastic, though the bubble wrap is gone.
    Interestingly, the new card reader isn’t branded.

     

    I lost my old card reader a while ago, and have been using a Barclays one instead, since they’re functionally the same. I prefer the weight and layout of the Barclays one, but it recently decided that its battery was low and stopped me from using it, making itself useless, instead of warning me.

    So, I’m still with NatWest as my primary bank, and will probably stay with them for at least another 10 years.

    Unless my tiny BitCoin investment rockets beyond its current £60 value that is…

  • 10/GUI


    10gui.com

    This is as much an HCI concept as it is about the GUI.

    I think a multitouch pad would be great.
    5 fingers, i.e. one hand, would be plenty though, and having one hand remaining on the keyboard allows for faster resumption of typing long text.

    My HTPC keyboard already has a simple multi-touch action, two finger to scroll, and I’m sure moving up to five fingers would be perfectly achievable by most users. In fact, in the video above there were only s few times when you’d have to use more than two or three fingers.

    I think this is all fantastically interesting, and discussing the subject with people who won’t just shoot down the unknown/unfamiliar will lead to some great things.

    I wish I could be more involved with this area of research and development.

  • Leaving Bitopia

    Prior to the big move, I’m leaving my current job at Bitopia at the end of the week.

    Last Friday, all the staff went to watch Saints beat  Castleford Tigers.
    At the end of the evening I was surprised and honoured to be presented with a personalised and autographed Saints shirt by Paul Sculthorpe.

    Paul Sculthorpe presents me with a personalised autographed Saint shirt
    Paul Sculthorpe presents me with a personalised autographed Saint shirt

    I’d like to thank Christian for arranging it all for me, and Steve, MD of Bitopia, for paying for the evening!

  • Recommended: iammoving.com

    iammoving.com was recommended to me by the estate agent who advertised the house we’re moving to in August.

    After registering, for free (though I would pay for the service), you select the organisations you need to notify from a large, categorised list, and provide your account number (or whatever detail is appropriate).

    You can then send each message individually, or send them all at once.

    Unfortunately, some companies still require that age-old ink on paper malarkey. In these cases, a preformatted letter is made available to print.

    iammoving.com is ‘in association with Royal Mail’, which makes sense because it could save them from thousands of undeliverable/redirected letters.

  • RAC

    The RAC have impressed me.

    Whilst driving to my fiancée’s parents’ at the end of last week, the car conked out (while on the M6 Toll).
    Fortunately, the power simply seemed to dissipate rather than instantly disappear, so I was easily able to slow to stop by an SOS box.
    I have a mobile phone of course, but the SOS box allowed me to give a very precise location.

    Calling the RAC was straightforward, just a matter of answering questions and confirming my own and the vehicle’s details.

    The RAC man (an ex F1 engineer, apparently) arrived within 20 minutes (better than the estimate given on the phone), having called my mobile to let me know that he was a couple of minutes away.

    He identified the problem simply by listening to the engine for a couple of seconds, and confirmed it by replacing the dead coil (a transformer that supplies the power to the spark-plugs).

    I’d be very happy to recommend the RAC to anyone considering them (or their competitors).

  • BT (Bastards Telepunish) Woes

    My ISP, BT, have got my goat again.

    They’re punishing me by crippling my (already joke-worthy) download speeds, because I used a lot last week.
    So they’ll probably charge me for that (fair enough, I suppose).

    I understand that they need to provide a fair service to all their customers, but why does that have to mean reducing my speed when I’m not even trying to download excessive amounts? Surely they should simply cap my speed?

    A double punishment.
    I can’t even call to complain or plead my case because the relevant department is only open 9-5 Mon-Fri. Isn’t that absurd? They have the power to make their service even worse, on purpose, and don’t even have the guts to be around to answer for it.

  • Firefox 3 to break Zoom (Edit: I’m mistaken)

    Mozilla is about the make a big mistake, the same as that made by IE7.

    Zooming the whole page is not a good idea.

    Browser Zoom Method Comparison

    Current Firefox text-only zoom on the left, IE7 on the right.

    Using the current Fx way you can easily read the text without having to scroll sideways, but the new way (which is how IE7 works) means you have to scroll right for each line of text, then back to the left, and so on.

    I simply cannot fathom how they thought this was the right move.

  • Automatically Added Start Menu / Desktop Icons

    I have just allowed Adobe (Acrobat) Reader to update itself, fair enough, though it is still remarkably slow to load on first use.

    I keep a clean desktop, with shortcuts only for the things I use on a regular basis (at least daily).
    I keep my Start Menu under control (am still using XP).

    I think I might have computer-specific OCD, but that’s not my point.

    My point is that Adobe have decided to re-add a shortcut to a programme which is never run directly.
    If I ever have to use Adobe Reader, it’s to read a file, so it’s a (link to a) file that I open.

    The updater also added a shortcut to my Start Menu, despite the fact that there’s one there already, in a folder I created.
    This in turn caused Windows to inform me that a new programme had been installed.

    Are they trying to get me to use the programme more often? If so, why? It’s a free programme anyway!