Usability of OpenID
Alex July 17th, 2008
Mike Ellis posted an interesting article up about OpenID, which is quite critical of OpenID and although I do like OpenID, I agree with much of what he’s saying. Maybe I like OpenID because it’s a way of reducing the number of usernames/passwords I need to remember, rather than being a good way of reducing password overload.
I’ve recently been in conversation with the OU Communications group about how they can OpenID-enable some of their sites and my feeling is that it’s going to be difficult explain what OpenID is how to use it. I feel that to be able to use an OpenID at all you need a basic grasp of how it functions, which may be why it appeals to techies? I’m sure using a url as your identity is going to be an alien concept to people used to using usernames & passwords.
Also there’s plenty of room for confusion when logging into an Open University website using an OpenID… is my OpenID something the Open University gives me?
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Alex Little. Licensed under
Hi Alex. Thanks for the link. I guess I can’t de-couple “a good way of doing something” from success: I just feel that OpenID could do with a serious dose of user-focussed reality. Which is not to say it won’t work one day, but I feel that it’s about time real users were taken into account…
ta
Mike