Login (or Software Design) Failed
I only use my bank's online access to my account from QuickBooks. But every once a while, my bank decides to force me to update my password. And that I cannot do through QuickBooks.
Now, this gives me a problem: I have to remember each password for months without ever using it. But last time I had to update, I emailed myself a password clue, one only I should be able to decipher. And so I was all set.
And yet my login attempts failed again and again, until I had to call the bank! They reset my password, and it was only when I went back in and THAT failed that I looked back one step and realized what was happening: for some reason, Safari spell check had turned on about a week ago, perhaps when I did an update. My bank login ID is 'blahblahblahX' where it happens that 'X' turns it from an English word into nonsense. The bank's system puts the login on a single-field screen, so that 'Enter' bring you to the password screen.
But... Safari was also offering a spelling suggestion, which I had been ignoring, of 'blahblahblah.' And, it decided that the default action should be to override my spelling with theirs, so that pressing 'Enter' not only moved to the next screen, but also changed 'blahblahblahX' to 'blahblahblah': which is not my login! And since 'Enter' was also moving me to the next screen, I would never even see the change!
Is it possible to create a more user-hostile interface?!
Now, this gives me a problem: I have to remember each password for months without ever using it. But last time I had to update, I emailed myself a password clue, one only I should be able to decipher. And so I was all set.
And yet my login attempts failed again and again, until I had to call the bank! They reset my password, and it was only when I went back in and THAT failed that I looked back one step and realized what was happening: for some reason, Safari spell check had turned on about a week ago, perhaps when I did an update. My bank login ID is 'blahblahblahX' where it happens that 'X' turns it from an English word into nonsense. The bank's system puts the login on a single-field screen, so that 'Enter' bring you to the password screen.
But... Safari was also offering a spelling suggestion, which I had been ignoring, of 'blahblahblah.' And, it decided that the default action should be to override my spelling with theirs, so that pressing 'Enter' not only moved to the next screen, but also changed 'blahblahblahX' to 'blahblahblah': which is not my login! And since 'Enter' was also moving me to the next screen, I would never even see the change!
Is it possible to create a more user-hostile interface?!
Applying autocorrect to a password field? Ouch.
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