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Let's talk about User Experience

(part 1... surely more parts to follow...!)

Okay let's talk about... User Experience.

ENTER A SIX DIGIT CODE

I'm often asked to enter a six digit code from my Google Authenticator app. Great! Keeping it secure! But I've noticed something:

  • Sometimes the web page asking for the code doesn't automatically put the cursor inside the box. I look at the authenticator app, start typing, and realize what I'm typing isn't going anywhere! What do I do? I CLICK on the text box asking for the six digits. Then I RETYPE them.

  • Other times, I type it and it does go into the box, and I stop and wait, and realize: I'm supposed to hit Enter. D'oh! Silly me!

  • Yet... ONE SITE gets it right: GitHub. When I have to type in my two-factor authentication, GitHub already "sets the focus" (that's the term) into the box, and as soon as I type six numbers, it automatically starts processing it, without me having to hit Enter.

But WTF! What's going on??!!

Seriously. For real. Why do THEY get it right and OTHERS DO NOT???

Here's the deal:

STANDARDS BARELY EXIST.

Back in the early days of Visual Basic (Seriously, bear with me!) "things" happened automatically. For example, when you built a form with a text box in which you could enter a six-digit numeric code:

  • The input box would immediately receive the "focus" which means: As soon as you started typing, what you typed WOULD GO INTO THAT BOX.

So why TODAY, does it go EITHER WAY? How come sometimes what you type ends up going directly into the box and other times not?

It's because of a lack of standards. Web pages do NOT automatically set the "focus" to a particular text box. They just don't. Instead:

It's on the people who CREATE the web pages to do things like set the focus!

People who create "web apps" are free to do... WHATEVERY THEY WANT. The software they use to create such apps doesn't enforce any rules. It's a total FREE FOR ALL.

  • Want to give this text box "focus" when it loads? Great!

  • Don't want to? No problem!

And want to set it up such that after you type six characters it will automatically check if you typed the right code? Great!

Don't want to do that? No problem!

And that's where we're at.

Web developers are totally free to do WHATEVER THEY WANT and there's no standards, nothing stopping them. Talk about frustrating as hell!

So what is the SOLUTION??!!

There really isn't a solution. We just keep letting web "developers" do what they want, regardless of their own choices.

And so we can hope that eventually everything will balance out. Hopefully...