I wanted to let you know about a new version of italki.com which was just relaunched. italki.com is a language learning social network, and openeducation website. The premise is very good as users from all of the world collaborate together to help each other learn languages. It also utilizes the mashup methodology very well by integrating Facebook profiles into its system, allowing you to share files & resources and meet up with other Facebook users to form groups.
With the new version, users can now collaborate on creating free language learning textbooks (in addition to finding language partners, having their foreign language questions answered, and joining groups for language learning). At this point, italki.com is one of the larger websites in the language learning / education 2.0 space. italki now has over 200,000 users around the world, and has been growing briskly since its launch in December 2006.
I think this is a very good example of how Web 2.0 Internet technologies can bring people together from around the world to help each other. It needn’t stop at language learning however, it could be rolled out into any form of e-learning. Using similar types of mashups people could explore the laws of trigonometry, discuss Shakespere literature or learn about other places in the world in the same way. I bet similar services are already available but they should be made more well known and accessible to all users. The vast amounts of casual Internet users who use sites like Facebook would be a good place to find users.
Following a recent optimization campaign, I was met by this terrible signing in interface courtesy of web advertising site Clickey.com. I felt I should point out the problems with it as it is a usability problem that should not be occurring in today’s web environment.
- Firstly the terminology is way off. A task which involves registering for an account or adding your domain should not be referred to as ‘Request a password‘. The password is merely a formality when registering at a website, it should not be promoted as the prominent reason and result of the task. Then, check out the submit button - ‘Send Password‘ - I though we were requesting a password, why am I suddenly sending one?
- From what I can tell, the box on the left is the traditional ‘login’ box, and the box on the right is the equivalent of a ’sign up’ box. They shouldn’t be of equal size as it’s not obvious which one to use, irrespective of the poor naming of the boxes. The login box should be the most obvious and take up most of the space. Preferences should be made to the existing users. A small, but clear option should be made for new users to sign up for an account underneath the main box so all users can think as they see the page: “I can’t login yet so I’ll carry on looking down the page to find where I can sign up.”
- There are too many instructions too. Why should a box with three lines of instructions be required just to create or login to an account? It’s so unnecessary it’s untrue. Also, underneath each text box where you’d type in your details there’s more text telling you what to input. A usable form would make this obvious without additional instructions. They also put the text in red - which often appears on submitted forms where invalid details have been entered.
- Lastly, I don’t think the positioning of the boxes works. If this is the way you have to do it then the login box should be on the right with the yellow box header which makes it stand out more. Traditionally users tend to see the furthest right of the two objects of as the most important.
The Yahoo! sign in box shown below is pretty much the perfect example of a sign-in box and it checks all the boxes of the requirements I just went through in terms of usability. The content is ordered and positioned correctly, there aren’t too many instructions, there an obvious but secluded area to sign up, there support for forgotten passwords or additional help, there’s an option to stay signed in, and it’s all contained in one simple, user-friendly box.
