HCI Fail #2 (part 2): Further Web Form Woes

So, following my post last night when I got frustrated with Barclays I am attempting to log in with my online banking from home - but this time, as I am at home, I have my trusty PINsentry card reader (which I didn't have on me yesterday) so I am hopeful that I might be able to get in using a different route.

I wasn't going to post about Barclays again, but this is just such a huge HCI fail that I couldn't resist. I entered my passcode without issue. Then, I was asked to select the 3rd character of my memorable word. Unfortunately, their fancy drop down box only has the letters a-f. This box is not scrollable. Neither can I type the letter I need.

Dropdown box failure.

Now, I suspect the reason this is failing is because I am using Safari on OSX Lion which has been known to cause scrolling issues. However, in my humble opinion a bank as big as Barclays should be able to develop sites that work on all modern browsers.

The good news, is that there is one final option for logging in that does not require my memorable word. So, I have now successfully logged into my account. Woohoo!

However, it has taken 3 attempts and much annoyance to get to this point. I am unimpressed.

I know this is a recent redesign for Barclays, but didn't they think about testing it with real users before it went live? Or perhaps employing a usability consultant to test it?

Barclays - you've had a few freebies from me, but if you would like me to test your site further, I am an HCI expert and my rates are pretty reasonable. Just saying.

HCI Fail #2: Unusual Characters

Those who know me, will know that my surname is double barrelled, and that I use a hyphen to join the two parts of my surname. This is my official, legal name. It's not particularly unusual to have a hyphenate surname, yet still many web forms consider it to be. So much so that their forms do no accept my name as a valid input.

Now, in the dawning age of the internet it was possibly forgivable if web forms could not handle "unusual" characters such as the hyphen (-) or the apostrophe ('), but now... it is not. And I get very frustrated when I receive input validation errors due to my hyphenated surname. So, I thought I would reinvigorate my blog by posting about input validation errors.

Let's name and shame those companies who should know better.

So, let's start with Barclays. I have banked with Barclays for a long time and have successfully used their internet banking in the past. Today however, I tried to log in but they have updated their pages and they need me to reenter some details that I had forgotten. So, I filled in their "forgotten details form".

It asked for my surname, I entered my surname and received this error message:

Error message. My surname isn't in the correct format.

So, that's pretty annoying. Thanks Barclays. Why is my legal surname not in the correct format?

It matches the name you have for me on my debit card. It also matches the name on my banks statements, and the name I used to enter to get me into your online banking.

So, although mildly frustrated, I tried again as I really needed to access my account. However, this time I entered my surname without the hypen, and I received the following:

Error message: The details I entered didn't match their records.

Well, yes. The details I've entered don't match your records, because when I entered details that do match their records they complained about the format of my name.

This is a fatal error of their system. It's very, very frustrating. I cannot complete my task. This means, I can no longer use their internet banking and will have to telephone them, at a cost to me. I'm not going to do this now. So I shall just have to go to the pub instead.

This actually happens to me on a semi-regular basis. So, now whenever it occurs I will name and shame the culprits. I encourage you to join me :-)