Reducing the Chore of Password Entry - 10
solutions
The most annoying thing for computer users
(even over General Protection Faults, core dumpings and
"Cannot Connect to
www.nakedscelebs.com/spicegirls/lezshot.html") is surely the
chore of having to enter a password. Every time the user wants to
use the system they have to type in the same old thing. And on
some systems, they even make you change it frequently, which can
be doubly painful as you only have so many ex-girl/boyfriends. I
consequently propose the following changes to password entry
interfaces to make them more user friendly.
- A check box, which when clicked means that
the password is assumed to be the same as the user's
login name.
- A pull-down for the password file which
contains: the names of all previous and current partners,
including nick-names; names of pets; registration numbers
of current and favourite past cars; telephone numbers and
dates of births of partners and close family members;
words related to the hobbies of the user; names of
favoured pop/film/TV stars, models, authors, fictional
characters, and pop groups; name, date of birth,
telephone and cash-card pin number of the user; the words
'abc123' and 'qwerty'.
- An optional second pull-down list of rude
words.
- A spell checker option. This can be
matched against words in the dictionary or the list of
likely passwords (See 2 and 3).
- A dictionary-match option: when the user
enters part of a word, if a word exists on the dictionary
that begins with what has been typed in so far, this is
substituted for the partial word.
- If the word entered is 'reasonably-close'
to the actual password this is acceptable. Up to two of
the following mistakes are allowed: letter in wrong case;
up to two missing or extra characters; incorrect
characters that appear on the keyboard up to two keys
away from correct character.
- A pull-down containing ALL the passwords
on the user/password file, so the user just has to select
his or her own from the list.
- Option to retrieve the user's password
from the password file and insert it into the password
entry field as the default.
- If the same wrong password is typed in
three times, the system lets the user in and changes his
password to the one the user was trying to use.
- The "Of course it's me?"
checkbox: No password entry required.