Re: [Usability] GDM

[Sven Jaborek <sven lug-dorsten gmx de>]

Hi!

At the moment the login in gdm works exactly like the one on tty, i like
this consistency! name, enter; password, enter - thats not to difficult
for people.

And, if you really want to know anything about the usability of the gdm
login screen, request that 11 people one week later again to do the same
task, and then 1 week later again to do the same task.
I would except that people that have used gdm's login twice will never
complain again about enter vs. tab or a login button.

Imho there are way more important things to do for usability than
discussing login wizard vs. login template. Especially because the test
showed 100% success in login. A good example isnt far away, just look at
that sessions dialog in gdm. gnome,kde, icewm... - what is that? Give
people a dialog with information that can be used to decide what they
want. E.g. show a screenshot of a common gnome, kde ... - perhaps a user
can remember that screen better than the name. Users dont know what they
can change there because they never had the choice in windows or mac or
what ever to change something like a desktop enviroment.

cheers! Sven

Am Montag, den 10.10.2005, 11:18 -0400 schrieb Steven Garrity:
> 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
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