Better Usability through Reality
April 16, 2010 at 7:42 am 2 comments
Has anyone ever filled out an age verification form accurately? I’m well over the minimum age for anything these days, but I pick whatever year my wild mouse-clicking finger hits on when asked for my birthdate. If they pre-filled the month and year, all the better. This is a very common design pattern:
How course we all know that no child, no matter the age, would accurately fill out this form just to be denied access. So I would like to propose a new paradigm for this type of situation:
I dare you to find a more effective mechanism (legalities notwithstanding) that doesn’t negatively impact the 73% of the population that is old enough.
Entry filed under: Internet-At-Large. Tags: design, reality, ui, usability.
1. Brad Garland | April 16, 2010 at 7:55 am
Makes sense to me. I do the exact same thing you do. What I don’t know if regulation requests to offer all those fields and not just the year.
2. Fred Schmechel | April 16, 2010 at 8:52 am
I always like to pick the oldest year possible just so they think there is some 103 year old watching.