Hello fellow Moodle users,
I'm part of large project on Distance Education here in Brazil, in the state of Alagoas. We are offering undergraduate course for about 2000 people, and it's been an amazing experience. Particularly, we have a group here research on usability and online interaction, of which Moodle is being studied by some of our researchers.
A very subtle usability problem we have been experiencing is about the Forgot Password form. We have tested this in our production version (1.8.3) as well as on our testing version (1.9.4) and it seems to be unmodified up to now.
The forgot password form offers two inputs: user and password, of which one, and only one, must be filled. Now, if both of the fields are filled, the only error shown is "Enter either username or email address". This happens to be confusing a LOT of our users, since offering two inputs motivates them to type both fields.
One suggestion is to change the form to offer a single input, which could contain just the username or e-mail. The system would then parse the input for a "@" to infer if it is an e-mail or otherwise a username. I belive that would improve Moddle's usability.
What do you think?
best regards,
- Breno
In reply to Breno Jacinto
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by E. L. Cooper -
I agree that a single field for email would be clearer but parsing the @ would not be a universal solution.
In reply to E. L. Cooper
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by Breno Jacinto -
Hello,
Is it allowed to have usernames with an "@"? Well, if yes then a more elaborated heuristic could be applied to diff e-mails from usernames.
Is there any place where such changes could be suggested officially for the developers?
best regards,
- Breno
Is it allowed to have usernames with an "@"? Well, if yes then a more elaborated heuristic could be applied to diff e-mails from usernames.
Is there any place where such changes could be suggested officially for the developers?
best regards,
- Breno
In reply to Breno Jacinto
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by Helen Foster -
Is there any place where such changes could be suggested officially for the developers?
Yes - the Moodle Tracker.
Please see Development:New feature ideas for details of how to get a new feature or improvement included in Moodle core.
Yes - the Moodle Tracker.
Please see Development:New feature ideas for details of how to get a new feature or improvement included in Moodle core.
In reply to Breno Jacinto
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by Olli Savolainen -
+1 for changing this. The form clearly communicates a wholly different functionality than it actually has.
It may be even more confusing if a single field is actually acting in two roles. To be on the safe side, I would say it is clearest to just communicate verbally and visually that the fields are alternatives. And since these are actually two different ways to get the password, I think they should also have separate submit buttons. (Coincidentally, this is also easier to implement than combining the fields into one.)
I have seen this used on the web, and I can give you an example of how it should look by creating a mockup in the tracker. Please create a ticket in the tracker and I will add a mockup there with the built-in mockup tool Balsamiq.
It may be even more confusing if a single field is actually acting in two roles. To be on the safe side, I would say it is clearest to just communicate verbally and visually that the fields are alternatives. And since these are actually two different ways to get the password, I think they should also have separate submit buttons. (Coincidentally, this is also easier to implement than combining the fields into one.)
I have seen this used on the web, and I can give you an example of how it should look by creating a mockup in the tracker. Please create a ticket in the tracker and I will add a mockup there with the built-in mockup tool Balsamiq.
In reply to Olli Savolainen
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by Olli Savolainen -
I just created MDL-19563 for this.
In reply to Olli Savolainen
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by Breno Jacinto -
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to thank all the replies and be very glad that such an update will have a great improvement on the usability of Moodle. Hopefully everybody will benefit from it.
best regards,
- Breno Jacinto
I just wanted to thank all the replies and be very glad that such an update will have a great improvement on the usability of Moodle. Hopefully everybody will benefit from it.
best regards,
- Breno Jacinto
In reply to Breno Jacinto
Re: Usability: The usability of the Forgot Password form
by Olli Savolainen -
I usability tested the new design (see tracker issue above) and it seems it solves this issue. The patch was already implemented and I believe Tim Hunt will add it to Moodle 2.0 core shortly.
The usability test was really small but the new form did a lot better than the old one. This is as sure as we are about the usability of any UI in Moodle, so it is pretty good.
http://www.pilpi.net/software/moodle/2009/08/19/quickie-usability-testing-file-upload-and-forgotten-password/
This documentation will later likely be copied to Moodle Docs.
The usability test was really small but the new form did a lot better than the old one. This is as sure as we are about the usability of any UI in Moodle, so it is pretty good.
http://www.pilpi.net/software/moodle/2009/08/19/quickie-usability-testing-file-upload-and-forgotten-password/
This documentation will later likely be copied to Moodle Docs.