Let the (Usability) Madness Begin!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…if you’ve ever painted your face your school colors, or stuck a pom-pom in your hair, you know what I’m talking about. It’s March Madness, baby! (Otherwise known NCAA Division I Basketball Chapmionship). And that means it’s bracket time.

This year my team (GW) did not make it into the tournament. Still, I’ve got my bracket ready, and the pools are awaiting my dominance. I have created and/or have been invited to participate in pools by enough people that I’m actually using four different systems. And putting together my bracket of winners turned out to be more frustrating than I thought. Some of the companies that put together these brackets are multi-million dollar conglomerate corporations. You’d think they should be able to get usability, right?

And thus was born…THE MARCH MADNESS OF USABILITY. I’ll compare some of the top tournament sites to see what usability lessons we can glean. The sites I’m using this year include Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Facebook, and ESPN.

Today’s topic: Registering

CBS Sports

CBS Sports is bracket of choice for the Beaconfire pool. We’ve used it at least three years in a row. So when our fearless leader, Jeff, sent out the invite, I was eager to get going.

To get to the pool, I need a login and password. I had a login previous years, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it is. It isn’t my email address. I try about five of my other standards – no luck. So I go and click on the handy “Forgot your ID”. But Wait…PAGE NOT FOUND. “Forgot your Password”? PAGE NOT FOUND. Utterly frustrated, I give up and make a new login. The first login I want isn’t available. The second login I want isn’t available. Finally, I’m good to go with the third, and I’m registered with my team.

AIRBALL.

Yahoo Fantasy Sports

Registering for a group in Yahoo is a breeze. I accept the invitation, log in with my Yahoo account (and who doesn’t already have a Yahoo account), and enter the pool’s password. The only frustration point is being forced to name my bracket right away (oh, the pressure of coming up with a witty name). Otherwise, I was registered for my pool and ready to get a pickin’ in about two minutes.

Slam Dunk!

Facebook

This year, a new Bracket app has hit Facebook. Already logged into Facebook, I install the app, and like any other good Facebook app, I have a whole list of my friends to invite in on the action. Eager to get all my friends in a pool, I look for a “select all friends” option, but there isn’t one. So I go through my list of friends and chose about 80% of them to invite to my pool. Or did I…

Because after I send the invite, I am taken to the main page, where I am told to create a pool. Didn’t I just create a pool? And after I create my pool, I am asked to invite my friends. Wait a minute, didn’t I already go through my whole list of friends and invite them?

Apparently I had not invited my friends to join my pool, just to download the app. Too lazy to go through my list of friends again, I kept my pool public, and my hopefully my friends will find me.

Foul on Facebook!

ESPN

To use ESPN’s bracket, you need an ESPN login. Registration is relatively simple, but boy do they ask for a lot of information. Really, ESPN, gender is a required field? And I have to opt out of five newsletter/update/offers lists?

A simple layup – neither exciting, nor impressive, perhaps even disappointing, but I guess it gets the job done.

The Fundamentals:

• QA the little things before you launch. That “Forget your password” may be a small link, but in getting users back, it may be the most important link on your site. Make sure it works!
• If members aren’t going to be using your site on a regular basis, but your site depends on having a login and password, don’t make them create yet another login name. If at all possible, let them use their own email address.
• It’s okay to be viral, but don’t be annoying. I would have been a fan of the Facebook app, had I been asked to create my pool before I invited my friends. Instead, I was asked to invite my friends twice.

Next in this series, we’ll take a look at picking your brackets, and we’ll see just how long it will take before I run out of basketball metaphors.