At work I use a lot of Google services, including Reader, Picasa and Analytics. As I also use gmail and Google docs for personal stuff, I’m often logging in and out of accounts.
We develop a kind of automated flow when we repeat tasks: Open app, check stuff, close, login again etc. etc., and I generally find Google pretty good at enabling this. But I repeatedly come up against one problem:
The Google Account login screen: The create new account button is too prominent and misplaced
This is the Google login screen. When I’m working in that quick open, close, re–login loop, colour, size and emphasis become important becuase I don’t read text. I tend to reduce the interface to a basic set of signs: login box and submit button.
There are a couple of problems here. Firstly, the ‘Create an account’ button is placed in a position that suggests it’s related to the login form because it sits beneath it, just like a submit button. Secondly, it’s bigger, bluer, shinier and rounder than the actual submit button. Which means I end up pressing it and get sent to the wrong place.
This could be simply resolved, I think. Users looking to sign up for a new account will be reading the text on the right hand side of the screen, so why not place the ‘Create an account’ button over there, away from the login box?