The Design of Everyday Login Boxes
September 2nd, 2006 | Published in Google Blogger Buzz
In his landmark book The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman writes:
The new login choice on the homepage should relieve any Google Accounts–related login trouble you may have. And if you’re like me and still haven’t been able to switch to the beta, you’ll be happy to find that your password manager will stop trying to fill in your Google Account login information on Blogger.
Sincere apologies to everyone who was a victim of our bad design and had trouble or even couldn’t log in. We goofed on this one, and we’re sorry.
The human mind is exquisitely tailored to make sense of the world. Give it the slightest clue and off it goes, providing explanation, rationalization, understanding. … Well-designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation. Poorly designed objects can be difficult or frustrating to use. They provide no clues–or sometimes false clues. They trap the user and thwart the normal process of interpretation and understanding.With that, we say good-bye to the combined Blogger / Google Accounts sign-in box on our homepage. Functional? Quite (though not everyone believes me). Well-designed? Not a chance. We’ve listened to the problems with our combined login box, and we have a solution.
The new login choice on the homepage should relieve any Google Accounts–related login trouble you may have. And if you’re like me and still haven’t been able to switch to the beta, you’ll be happy to find that your password manager will stop trying to fill in your Google Account login information on Blogger.
Sincere apologies to everyone who was a victim of our bad design and had trouble or even couldn’t log in. We goofed on this one, and we’re sorry.