The Google account login has been a thorn in my side for quite some time. It is a usability nightmare and here’s why:
- It breaks the browser password saver – Rather than a simple login form, Google uses Ajax to authenticate your login credentials before moving on to the next page, making it so most browsers are unable to store your password. Note: This is also a completely unnecessary use of Ajax.
- If you have multiple accounts, you have to re-login each time – Like many users, I have a few different Google account logins — a few business accounts and one personal. The thing is, I use one account for Google Voice and Google Wave, and the another one for Google Analytics. This means that each time I switch services, I have to log out of one account and log into another. And again. And again. And again. Oh and don’t forget your passwords are not saved in the browser for each switch. Major fail.
- It forces you to login to all services for an account, but doesn’t make it easy to get from one to the other – If you are going to treat it like an integrated system, treat it like an integrated system!
My suggestions are simple: kill the Ajax and allow for easy switching between accounts (like this GreaseMonkey hack already does).
These are the types of user experience issues you expect from a newbie playing around with Ajax, not Google. Observing just a few users while they try logging into their accounts would make it clear that the current login system is an issue.
