[cap-talk] Webkeys vs. the web, problem #2

[Karp, Alan H]

Chip Morningstar wrote:
> "Karp, Alan H" <alan.karp at hp.com> wrote:
> 
> >Chip Morningstar wrote:
> >>
> >> Unfortunately, I'm not in a position where I have the luxury of being able to
> >> deploy an apparently alien UI paradigm in an experiment to see if people find
> >> it tolerable.
> >
> >Maybe you are.  Provide a login page, and tell people they can skip
> >it next time by bookmarking the page it takes them to.  Then, you can
> >monitor how many people use the bookmark approach.
> 
> Sure, we can definitely do that, but the fundamental problem is not how to
> provide an experimental alternative for people to try out, the problem is how
> to provide the main event.
>
But you are, modulo the other problems you've mentioned.  Those users who bookmark the page get to bypass the login page, and you can see how commonly people do it.  If nobody uses the login page, you can drop it.  Just be sure to provide a "Forgot my bookmark" button next to the "Forgot my password" button.  As an aside, people tend to use a small number of passwords, so they're more likely to forget their userids than their passwords at sites they rarely go to.

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp