[IxDA Discuss] Most usable doesn't always mean best solution

[Caryn Josephson]

There's a second piece to this, though.  For the 'ice cream' type of
questions, 9 months later when they've forgotten their password, will they
be able to successfully re-set it, or will they have forgotten the
'answer'?




>Last week we were conducting some research for a client. The research  
>included testing of a registration form for their product/service.  
>During registration, participants filled out their contact info (e.g.  
>name/email) then were directed to a security screen, where they were  
>prompted to answer three security questions—pretty standard for  
>financial systems these days (this was not a financial system, but was  
>for backing up all your stuff on your computer through their service— 
>so equally important to individuals).
>
>What surprised us was that the corresponding drop down menu for each  
>security item had 20 questions in each—a very long list. We had some  
>initial concerns that participants would find this overwhelming, a bit  
>tedious, and my be put off by the whole thing. What we found was quite  
>the opposite, actually. Every participant 11/11 felt reassured with  
>the long list of questions. Responses included:
>"This makes me feel more safe."
>"These questions are harder to break. Everyone can guess my eye color,  
>but not my favorite flavor of ice cream."
>"This is good. Lots of questions are harder to break."
>
>And then there were the "Well, I wouldn't pick favorite color or ice  
>cream. Those things change too often depending on my mood."  
>Incidentally, this was heard from 4 women, but none of the men. Just  
>an observation folks, don't shoot the messenger.
>
>The point is that technically, this form wasn't more usable—it was in  
>fact less usable, took more effort, and time to complete than if there  
>were only say 5 questions in each menu. 11/11 participants rated this  
>as being a 1=very easy and high satisfaction, which goes to show you  
>that the most usable solution isn't always the best solution.
>
>Cheers!
>
>Todd Zaki Warfel
>President, Design Researcher
>Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
>----------------------------------
>Contact Info
>Voice:	(215) 825-7423
>Email:	todd at messagefirst.com
>AIM:	twarfel at mac.com
>Blog:	http://toddwarfel.com
>----------------------------------
>In theory, theory and practice are the same.
>In practice, they are not.
>
>________________________________________________________________
>Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
>To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
>Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe
>List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines
>List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
>