A month ago I traveled to Wisconsin for small reunion of high school friends. I volunteered to book a set of tickets for a baseball game–because, how hard could that be?
Apparently, I was being naive.
I did some quick preliminary research on ticket prices and seats and found us some seats, so I decided to purchase them on official Brewers website. After going through the selection process (which I had to close out of several times just to see where the seats were located), I made it to the payment page.
I'm not quite sure their reasoning, but they don't allow users to book tickets as guests. Why? I wish someone would explain, because even Amazon let's me do this. (I gave in to the fact that I would probably end up getting a lot of spam and have to opt out of those emails, only because I wanted to pre-book these tickets, FAST!). So I...
Tip: Always tell your users the exact requirements. In some cases it's also helpful displaying when users have included one of your requirements.
Enter data: Email, Password, Confirm Password. #fail
"Hmmm. Did I enter my password correctly?"
Re-enter data: Email, Password, Confirm Password. #fail
"Grrr...I totally entered them correctly."
Read: "Passwords must be 8 to 15 characters and contain at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter and one number."
"Ok, great, but WTF!!!!! Mine has ALL OF THOSE!!!!" I continue to count the characters, and retype it several more times before trying a completely different password. #fail
I feverishly google secure passwords that have all these requirements. 2:10 minutes left to continue before I have to start over. GRRRRRR!!!!!
Finally. Something took. It worked. Do I remember what utterly random combination of characters, numbers, and letters I used to actually make it work? Heck no. Do I care? No. Never going back. Ever. Next time I will book through a third party, purely for the better purchasing experience.
And, if anyone managing the Brewers site reads this, remember us lazy users who don't want to think when we're paying YOU. Here's some free UX...this could really help users not hate you:
Password Requirements: In cases were complex passwords are required, help users understand when they've met certain requirements.