Back in the old times, on the sites I log in regularly, my browser filled in both username and password. I clicked “Log in” once, and I was set to go.
But no more. Now it’s all first a username, then a password. From what I saw, Apple started this many years ago, but now this bother really spread. And it’s not like I can just double-click on the same screen area, oh no. Animations make sure that I have to wait several hundred milliseconds before the password field is there, and depending on the site, I even have to select from my browser, which login I want to use, twice!
Why, oh why?
All my screens are really big enough to display 2 text fields. What are arguments for this behavior? I don’t see any.
A lot of services these days support multiple forms of authentication. Did you sign up with a separate password? Did you use Google or Facebook auth? Is this a corporate account where auth is via their SSO? They don’t even know whether they should ask for your password until they know who you are.
As someone who just built one of these, that is the exact reason we did it.
It would be cool if users just remembered which service they used to sign in, but they often don’t, so this is the next best thing. Tell us your email, we look up which service you used, then send you to that service to complete the login.
Pro tip: leave the password field on the site but make it invisible. So when I am using my password manager to fill in the username, the password field will be filled out too. And I don’t have to use my password manager twice for one login.
So exposing information about users (how they log in) without authenticating that you’re someone authorized to have that information?
The better way to do this is to just have “log in with Google” or whatever buttons.
As I mentioned elsewhere in the thread, most users don’t remember what they used when they created the account, particularly if it’s something they don’t use often. It’s also cumbersome to have to input that, especially if you bundle that with an optional password field.
That’s not to say you don’t have a point about leaking that information. Personally I’d be more concerned about leaking the fact that I have an account at all. If this is a concern for you, you are likely not inclined to use the likes of Google Auth or Facebook Auth. You’d be better off using a unique password for each service, store them in some sort of password manager, and rely on the default behavior treating “local account” and “no account” the same in terms of showing you the password field.
Maybe that’s not your preferred behavior, but it does allow you to keep that data private while simultaneously being easier to use for the SSO users.
And it’s impossible to provide for all these options on one screen, with either a password field that some users ignore or some kind of option selection that either hides or shows it?
If you put that much trust in users you are in for a rough time. You’d get tons of “forgot password” requests because people expect to fill in every password field they’re presented with. If you ask them what mode of auth they used, they don’t know. Heck, I consider myself fairly on top of things, and I don’t always remember how I authenticated to some site I rarely visit.
Most users would rather wait for an extra page load than deal with any of the above.
