UPDATE: After making this post, and refreshing the parallels forums page, I was presented with “Welcome, Joseph Sak” instead of a login prompt. So maybe I got it wrong, or they did, but this post still stands!
The Parallels Forums recently got some redesign and information restructure, which all looks good and is organized quite well. But they’ve missed a couple really easy issues with their login functionality.
When you log into the Parallels Forums, it takes you to a “logging in” screen and redirects you back to where you were, which is fine, but what is this?!
Am I logged in or out?
This is what you see in the top right of the forums after logging in. Apparantly, I’m logged in because I can start threads, but unless I click on the “+” symbol in the top left and opening a post-thread page, I have no visual cue that I am logged in.
Originally, with the old design, you saw your name and a “logout” link next to it. Or you could click your name to edit your profile. This was highly usable and gave immediate feedback to the user that yes, John Smith, you are logged in.
Now, Parallels, if you’re not willing to clean up that little mess, why are you making me erase “Login” from your textbox before typing my user name?
You can solve this with a simple function.
onclick="eraseInput();"
...
function eraseInput(){
if(this.value == "Login"){
this.value = "";
} else { return false; }
}
Pretty simple usability points, and I can’t believe Parallels just got rid of them with their new design.
