Re: [Usability] GDM

[Steven Garrity <stevelist silverorange com>]

Steven Garrity wrote:
> I've often thought that that while displaying only one of the fields 
> (username/password) at a time gives the *appearance* of simplicity, but 
> actually requires more thought to work through.
>
> Showing both fields clearly indicates when you type in your username 
> that a password is required as well.
>
> Note: this little usability tidbit was based on research that happened 
> entirely in my head - real-world results may vary.

Replying to myself... I have no shame.

Here at the Gnome Summit in Boston, Ana Dirks from Novell is presenting 
some usability testing results and some of them cover this login issue 
we've been discussing. As far as I'm concerned, they answer the question 
for us:

http://betterdesktop.org/welcome/reports/report-login.html

Summary of the results:

> Issues encountered:
>  1. Users expected the Username and Password fields to both be
>     visible simultaneously, when logging in.
>  2. Users expressed confusion over the lack of an affirmitive
>    "Login" button.
> Recommendations:
>  1. Change the Login Manager to show the Username and
>     Password fields at the same time.
>  2. Add an affirmitive "Login" button to the Login Manager.

Good stuff,
Steven Garrity