User experience, password issues, self service

Post date: Sep 13, 2011 4:39:44 PM

• Site after site, service after service. I keep finding all the time sites which doesn't allow proper passwords or something doesn't work right with proper password. I just today found out that Nokia phones do not work properly with Microsoft Exchange in case password contains '€' Euro currency symbol sign. When I changed my password to any other password with in (A-Z,a-z,0-9) limits everything just works. But if I replace any character in that string with Euro sign, then Nokia mobile phones Exchange client keeps telling that I got wrong password. Is it realyl so hard to just use Unicode strings with bcrypt or scrypt.
• User Experience (UX) is very important. When there are many sites and services where you can choose from, users switch service provider very easily. That should be kept in mind when ever designing user interfaces and application logic. If users find product complex to use, it causes them to make mistakes. Some user interfaces are even so bad, that it's almost impossible to know what the result of given settings will be without simply trying out. It's very frustrating way to do rather simple things.
• I have had very bad experiences with one ISPs sales services lately. I personally would really prefer clear concept and self service, over bad sales / customer service departments, giving out invalid information and messing things up.