___But this did not happen today on Monster. The reason is that their new login widget was so cool and looked so great that it locked me out of my account. Along the same lines of excellent customer service, when I logged a service ticket with Monster, I received simple instructions on how to log in. Hmm. I’ve been with Monster.ca now for more than a couple of years. You started up a new login widget just a short while ago, and now I cannot login. Do you think there is some correlation? I know my login ID and password, so I know I am not the problem.

___Here’s what happens. You bring up the Monster.ca site. There’s a prominent green “Sign in” button on the mid top right. Hit this and the screen greys, a popup window appears with boxes for your ID and password. I put in both and am told my password is incorrect. A couple more attempts and they lock me out of my account. I click the “forgot your password” link, and a temporary password is immediately sent to my mailbox.

___Ok, maybe I wasn’t awake enough this morning. The email arrives promptly with my temporary password. I cut and I go back to the Monster login screen, type my ID in, paste the temporary password in and, the drum roll please…my password was incorrect.

___Life is too short to waste time on apps that don’t work, and I bail. A couple of hours later I return and try again, with the same result. I try my original password. I try the new temporary password, and they both don’t open the castle door.

___Fast forward another 6 hours and tonight I try to login, just for fun. This time after one attempt I quickly get a “Too many attempts” message. A message will be sent to my email. I open my email and I’m asked to click a link to create a new password. This link launches me straight into Monster and I am asked to type in a new password. I type in my original password and hit the tab key to get to the next box to retype and confirm my new password. Something’s tugging my ear telling me the user interface is not right. After I typed in my ID, I hit the tab key and the cursor, which I expected to jump down 1 cm to the confirm password box, within the popup window, has disappeared. Where did it go? I had to use my mouse to reposition the cursor at the second password box and confirm my password. I’m then logged in.

___Or so I thought. I’m unsure if I actually AM logged in. I try to ensure that my stored resume is still intact. I click the profile button, and am prompted for login. This will be the third login I’ve done in under 2 minutes. You would think that if I can change my password successfully that the very act would be enough to grant me access to the site. At least they didn’t let the new widget programmers mess up my stored resume.

___A couple of issues ruined my Monster experience today.

1. The site login did not work: If you’re going to make a change to the production site, please thoroughly test it. Please test it in a development environment with test ID. Do not test your code on me.
2. Unexpected feedback to the user: When you grey my screen and present a popup window with 2 input boxes, once one input box is filled in and the user hits the tab key, the expected outcome is to position the cursor at the beginning of the next input box. Unexpected outcomes such as having the cursor disappear into Never Never Land really throw people off. You also get incorrect input into your second input box.
3. After your user has changed his password and properly confirmed it, do not force him to login again. Why do this? You have already confirmed the user’s identity, and they have already offered sufficient proof. It is 1) pointless and will anger or perplex your user, and 2) You will not obtain any more or better security information about your user. In other words, there is no benefit to this action.

___Throwing users off with an illogical, unexpected or untested user interface puts significant doubt into the user’s mind about the the site’s credibility. Though I’ve been in IT for quite a while, am no different. I wonder if the same widget programmer that did the login code is also responsible for keeping my resume and personal information secure and confidential? Cool widgets can really make a site look nice, but one wardrobe malfunction and your site will look like a boob.

___I think I’ll not visit Monster.ca for a while until they work out the bugs. There’s no point in playing guinea pig two days in a row.

Green has to be the dominant colour for Greenpeace, for what other colour could they choose?. Grenpeace stands for the environment, after all, and without green you have environmental destruction. Their logo is written in thick green, hand printed, informal and playful. The top right header has a background colour of green, and most of their links are green. Green is the dominant colour on their vessel. How can you not be drawn to their vessel, replete with their trademark rainbow and dove. This ship glides peacefully through a narrow channel with a frame of lush green trees. It is positively idylic, and if we all joined the movement, the world would be a so much better place for our kids and ourselves.Their site and their cause really brings you in. Green IS Greenpeace.

In terms of content, displayed prominently not once but twice, is “Take action”. Sign up. Donate. The message is to be proactive and do something positive now. The very important current issue is front and centre, so you cannot miss it. The bright orange, which contasts with the green, works to attract the eye and lure you in. There is the lovely photo in the centre of the page that shows you the destruction that Greenpeace fights against. Your eye is drawn to the photo, which carries you down the road lined with trees that will take centuries to grow back. The accompanying text provides explanation. As a marketing tool the website works, and works well.

In terms of web usability, there is current news displayed in one box, very prominent and easy to find. There are places to search, and to login. Overall the site is simple, clear, very understandable, but effective. Colour contrast and brightness contrast are high, allowing for easy reading. Almost all text is mixed case, which allows you to quickly scan words. The site has pleasing colours and two photos, which provides a target for your eyes.

Greenpeace UK conveys the essence of their organization, is an excellent piece of marketing, and has great usability. In my view it functions as a top notch website.

Let’s join up!

Note: This site is run by a Drupal CMS. Just check their source code.

Solution: This is not a problem of the theme or the module, but an unfortunate consequence of their interaction.

Here the fix.
Summary: Go into FCK Editor, change the default style sheet, which is “use theme CSS”, to the “FCKeditor default” style sheet, and the background will turn white, allowing you to see what you’re typing.

How to do it: Admin > Modules > Admin by Modules > FCKeditor > global settings > profiles > edit > CSS. You still with me? Change the dropdown from “use theme CSS” to “FCKeditor default”.

What Happened: FCKeditor defaults to the background colour of the theme, which happens to be black. Your font colour is also black. As you’ve found out, it’s not always cool to be in all black. The change of style sheet to the FCKeditor default put the background to white, so much easier to read if you don’t have ninja skills. You could also try adding your own CSS but that’s too much work and too messy for me. If you could change the font colour to white, the editor would work, but I could not see any such option in FCKeditor. Anyway the web usability of black background with white text would be suboptimal, and would hurt your eyes and tire you out. If you’re over 50 you’d really hate it. It sure does look cool though.

Link to the official Drupal 6 AboutPeople Fix log.