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I worked email support for a website once upon a time. I'm pretty sure 40% of the emails were "I forgot my password", despite a large "Forgot Your Password?" li

by acheron 15y ago

I worked email support for a website once upon a time. I'm pretty sure 40% of the emails were "I forgot my password", despite a large "Forgot Your Password?" link on the top of every page next to the login box. And this was a rather technically-oriented website, too; most of these people had to be fairly tech-savvy to even be using the site in the first place. If those people can't read the site enough to find a link in the obvious place, my hopes of getting anybody to read a FAQ are not very high.

biot 15y ago
The problem is that people aren't perceiving the link to be applicable to their situation for whatever reason. A better solution rather than investing more time in handling emails would be to alter the message the user sees when they get the login wrong: "Invalid username and/or password. Would you like us to reset your password for you? [button: YES, reset my password]" If the user simply mistyped their password they can ignore the prompt and try again. If they click the YES button, direct them to a page that has the email address they entered pre-populated and a "Reset My Password" button with clear instructions elsewhere on what to do. For example, an arrow to the email field with instructions on ensuring the email address is correct; another arrow to the button with instructions to click there. Clicking on the button then shows "We have sent an email to <your email address>. Please follow the instructions contained in the email to reset your password." The email would contain a link with a time-expiring token that, when clicked, lets them specify their new password. With that approach you could have reduced those types of emails to mostly situations where the user did not get the email.
Anti-Ratfish 15y ago
Your giving me Kodak software flashbacks. The software was god awful. Right from login. New password required every few weeks. Can't be related to your previous one, and the 'change password' button that you had to click took you to a page were you had to type username, then new password 2x, then old password (in that strange order). However all the boxes were unlabeled so you had to guess were what went. I emailed Kodak every time just to make a point. It makes me so angry every time I see a Kodak logo now.

by acheron 15y ago

biot 15y ago

The problem is that people aren't perceiving the link to be applicable to their situation for whatever reason. A better solution rather than investing more time in handling emails would be to alter the message the user sees when they get the login wrong: "Invalid username and/or password. Would you like us to reset your password for you? [button: YES, reset my password]" If the user simply mistyped their password they can ignore the prompt and try again. If they click the YES button, direct them to a page that has the email address they entered pre-populated and a "Reset My Password" button with clear instructions elsewhere on what to do. For example, an arrow to the email field with instructions on ensuring the email address is correct; another arrow to the button with instructions to click there. Clicking on the button then shows "We have sent an email to <your email address>. Please follow the instructions contained in the email to reset your password." The email would contain a link with a time-expiring token that, when clicked, lets them specify their new password. With that approach you could have reduced those types of emails to mostly situations where the user did not get the email.

Anti-Ratfish 15y ago

Your giving me Kodak software flashbacks. The software was god awful. Right from login. New password required every few weeks. Can't be related to your previous one, and the 'change password' button that you had to click took you to a page were you had to type username, then new password 2x, then old password (in that strange order). However all the boxes were unlabeled so you had to guess were what went. I emailed Kodak every time just to make a point. It makes me so angry every time I see a Kodak logo now.