(Lost) Time and hassle is all I’ve experienced since I starting using the RingGo app for my Android mobile phone.

Finding a parking space

Trying to find somewhere to park in Slough, and the RingGo app says that I can park at Taplow Station.

“Click Go for more details” leads to the error message “Unfortunately RingGo has been withdrawn by the car parking owners”.

Why show it on the map in the first place?

Recent search locations
I’ve used the RingGo android app 10 times in the last month, yet it still doesn’t remember my ten most recent locations when I need it to. A reboot of my phone, and suddenly, they appear.

Parking duration & tariffs
Showing 1 of 0 prices options.
Great. No tariffs. Looks like I won’t be parking at the Rose Car Park in Kingston then. I’ll go to the NCP.

Annoyingly, RingGo seem to think I deal in minutes. Why can’t you show tariffs in hours rather than make me calculate 8*60 in my head?

Vehicles
I’m a registered user, and myRingGo.com account knows my vehicles, so why doesn’t the app?

Previously, when attempting to add a registration number, the app presents me with cryptic error messages. Recently though, the app crashes.

Nectar.com used to have an option to log in using your email address, but now it seems they wanted to make it that much harder to log in by asking for the last 11 digits of my Nectar card.

Before I grab my wallet, I can see that they’ve removed the clunky “remember me” and “don’t remember me” options that existed the last time I visited the site.

JavaScript is still used for some error messages, but at least other error messages are a bit more clearer, even if red text is used for them, which would be an issue if I had a colour vision deficiency.

Forgotten password

Since I’d forgotten my password, it was necessary to go through the password reset process.  It was interesting to note that the “forgotten password” link starts with a Javascript warning message, followed by a password reset which asks for my email address, despite not letting me use this to log in.

There’s the obligatory use of the CAPTCHA, and the temporary password email, but there seems to be some progress when asked to create a new password, Nectar.com have gone for a ‘password strength meter’ that works quite well; and it was pleasant to see they’ve not set an aggressive password policy that is more complex than the one my bank offers.

My experience wasn’t as poor as my first run-in over a year ago;  Nectar.com could improve their login process and provide the dual login process.  They’d also do well to make sure that my points balance showed the same total across different parts of the site – but I can just about live with that.

The only immediate criticism is that econsultancy haven’t addressed “the diagonal problem” which Jakob Nielsen raises as a usability problem for mega-drop downs, but there is relevance for regular pop-out menus:

“…The very best implementations can sense when a user is moving the pointer from the navbar item to a destination within the drop-down. When the pointer is on such a path, the drop-down should remain visible. This supplementary guideline addresses the diagonal problem, which happens when the path temporarily takes the pointer outside the active area. The drop-down shouldn’t disappear when the user is on the way to point to something within it…”

Almost immediately, I’m put off from using the econsultancy site because it took me two attempts to select the last link from a pop-out menu.

Rail Europe is not a site I’m familiar with, since I tend to use the English version of Die Bahn for European train times, so I thought I’d take a quick look.

Visually, it is engaging, but there was an immediate usability problem I picked out involving the departure and return date fields in the timetable search:

Rail Europe Timetable Search

Rail Europe has used labels within fields, which is an accepted design pattern, though Luke Wroblewski, in his book ‘Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks‘ says that a “a reliable interaction for labels within forms requires the label to disappear quickly when users place their cursor into the input field so they can easily provide their answer”, and the site does abide by this rule;  however, a standard web design pattern allows for both the blinking text entry cursor to appear in place of the label, which clears automatically, and for a calendar widget to appear.

In the case of Rail Europe, neither happens, and I’m required to click the calendar icon to initiate the widget.

This isn’t a killer usability problem, but it is frustrating, especially when Design UK have promoted the site has having such an engaging user experience, and makes me wonder if I’d find similar issues deeper into the site.

UPDATE:  Rail Europe have now updated their website

The site allows you to login using either your nectar card or an email address.  Since I don’t know the card number off by heart, and I can’t be bothered to dig it out of the wallet which is in my coat pocket, I opt to login using my email.  Therein, the problems begin.

Sticking Point 1:  ‘Remember me?’

I’m a heavy keyboard user, so avoid using the mouse if my fingers are already on the keys.  I never use any of the ‘remember me’ options, so I’m normally able to type in the email address and password, and with quick tap of the ‘enter’ key, I’m logged in.  Not with the nectar.com website though, which throws up the following JavaScript error message:

“One of the boxes”?  Another quick ‘enter’ key, and I find the cause of the problem.  Near the ‘remember me’ is the check box ‘don’t remember me’.

Nectar.com have chosen to use two checkboxes to ask if I do, or don’t want the site to remember my login details.

I’m pretty sure I’ve not seen anything similar on any other website for as long as I’ve been conducting usability and user experience reviews.  It would be so much easier, and less confusing to use the following, which is a common design pattern for a web form.

Sticking Point 2:  Login problems

Once I’d fixed the ‘remember me’ problem, I entered my email and password again.

At first I couldn’t figure out the problem.  No Javascript error alert this time, but an error message sandwiched in between the form and the ‘Please login using one of the following options”.

Aside from the fact that the error message is indistinguishable from the text above it, why did Nectar.com not use a consistent error message with the previous one?  If the site already knows it can’t log me in using my email address and password, why just not show me that part of the form?

So, now I have to dig out my nectar card and type that instead.  Oh, and to add insult to injury – the ‘don’t remember me’ checkbox cleared itself, so I ended up having to type in my card number, again.

Fitbit automatically tracks your fitness and sleep, and then displays all this lovely information onto your personal page.  It isn’t out until November/December and costs $99.

Please let them have an API.  More information at: http://www.fitbit.com/