I have heard way too many stories about how some of the most iconic brands were built by obsessing over details, by ensuring that the customer was kept at the center of it all.
And I am sure that this has over the years been documented, researched and made its way into the board rooms . Hopefully many a strategies revolve around better experience than the competition or incumbent.
And with these assumptions in mind, I was kind of disturbed to see the world’s #1 consulting firm’s most distributed/visited inventory containing such non-friendly/un-intuitive form elements.
At McKinsey Quarterly, most articles can be read in their entirety after a user has logged in. Which means, that most people would use the login form (maybe excluding those where its remembered by the browser etc). Also since the repository of articles is so compelling am sure, many come to McKinsey Quarterly to search & re-search.
Why then do we see “undefined” in these two forms which are probably the most used interface on the site.
Also the text doesn’t disappear if one just clicks on the text box (the way it does for the “password” element) . You need to actually select all of “undefined” and then write your emild id or the search string.
Small issues you might say. But do remember Steve Jobs obsessed over the translucency of the glass and the packaging of each gadget Apple sold.
I have been seeing this for the last 5+ years. I thought maybe someone would notice, but I guess its upto me now to bring this to their attention.