I love Amazon. I think it’s one of the best websites you’ll find when it comes to usability.
But there’s one thing that’s been bugging me for years now.
It’s this screen right here.
I completely, absolutely, hate it.
Today I was checking out a book from Amazon when I encountered this screen. This is what comes up during the checkout process if you’re not already logged in. My beef with this screen is usability related.
You see, I always enter my email and password on this screen without clicking on the appropriate radio button. I’m not used to having a radio button on a login box; it’s just stupid.
So when I submit the form I receive this error message:
This happens so much, they needed a special error message telling users they’re not doing the right thing. That seems like a major screwup from a company that’s usually awesome at usability.
Of course, I wasn’t so mad that I didn’t make my purchase. I simply grumbled a bit and clicked on the right option before resubmiting the form 🙂