Rachel M. Murray
Basic Yahoo fail. Basic lost password reset fail.
Maybe I'm getting old and crotchy - maybe I've been on the Web too long (same year as Zeldman, although you don't see ME bragging about it per se). But basic user interface design mistakes really, really get my goat when the company should know better.
Ok, so when Yahoo buys all these great startups (upcoming and Flickr, both of which I adore) they tend to slap the Yahoo Framework on top, and that inevitably means something will be a little 'off' - kind of like an outfit you find at Ross Dress for Less. I digress. Anyway, 2 security questions - fine, whatever, that's more than my bank uses for online transactions, but whatever, I'll do it. Ok, no categorization of the questions provided - fine, I'll look past that. I tried to pick something easy for a password retrieval - hmm, the two towns where my parents were born, and I literally had to spend an extra couple of minutes getting the damn thing to work. Why am I creating my own question here? Why did Yahoo decide to spend extra time styling the CSS of the boxes, but don't perform simple interaction design on basic Web forms to say, 'oh, is this too many steps for our users to go through'? Why, Yahoo, why?
This is the Web - the more time you're making people have to stop and read detailed instructions or second guess themselves or wonder how to do something, the more likely they'll abandon you for your competition (like Google, which does seem to get Basic UI Design 101 for Forms.
Perhaps I'm tough on SaaS based companies in general, but I don't hear a reasonable reason why Yahoo (and other services) don't correct this basic stuff, and I run into it every single time I use a Yahoo Framework based service - and I'm tired of it. This is why I use Central Desktop and would rather pay for it rather than a free Yahoo Groups - because I'd rather avoid the Yahoo Headache.
Then again, why would they change - they have a captive audience who are dependent on their free services and don't think they deserve basic UI stuff, and users blame themselves when something goes wrong when it's actually the company's lack of caring. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'm sure there are parts of Yahoo I do like (upcoming, Flickr, etc.). The basic UI irritation is beyond annoying, though.
Basic Yahoo fail. Basic lost password reset fail.
Maybe I'm getting old and crotchy - maybe I've been on the Web too long (same year as Zeldman, although you don't see ME bragging about it per se). But basic user interface design mistakes really, really get my goat when the company should know better.
Ok, so when Yahoo buys all these great startups (upcoming and Flickr, both of which I adore) they tend to slap the Yahoo Framework on top, and that inevitably means something will be a little 'off' - kind of like an outfit you find at Ross Dress for Less. I digress. Anyway, 2 security questions - fine, whatever, that's more than my bank uses for online transactions, but whatever, I'll do it. Ok, no categorization of the questions provided - fine, I'll look past that. I tried to pick something easy for a password retrieval - hmm, the two towns where my parents were born, and I literally had to spend an extra couple of minutes getting the damn thing to work. Why am I creating my own question here? Why did Yahoo decide to spend extra time styling the CSS of the boxes, but don't perform simple interaction design on basic Web forms to say, 'oh, is this too many steps for our users to go through'? Why, Yahoo, why?
This is the Web - the more time you're making people have to stop and read detailed instructions or second guess themselves or wonder how to do something, the more likely they'll abandon you for your competition (like Google, which does seem to get Basic UI Design 101 for Forms.
Perhaps I'm tough on SaaS based companies in general, but I don't hear a reasonable reason why Yahoo (and other services) don't correct this basic stuff, and I run into it every single time I use a Yahoo Framework based service - and I'm tired of it. This is why I use Central Desktop and would rather pay for it rather than a free Yahoo Groups - because I'd rather avoid the Yahoo Headache.
Then again, why would they change - they have a captive audience who are dependent on their free services and don't think they deserve basic UI stuff, and users blame themselves when something goes wrong when it's actually the company's lack of caring. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'm sure there are parts of Yahoo I do like (upcoming, Flickr, etc.). The basic UI irritation is beyond annoying, though.