IPhone-like password fields
blog.decaf.de
blog.decaf.de
The only reason this approach makes sense on mobile phones is that you can easily prevent others from seeing your screen. But if I'm logging in to a site on a projector in front of a bunch of co-workers, I don't want my password displayed to them. Not even one character at a time.
This is a good balance between security and ease of use. I rarely mistype my passwords, but my less technical mother does frequently. Showing her the char she hit would be very helpful. It's a good compromise.
While clearly there needs to be something like that for the iPhone and odds of someone figuring out your password shoulder surfing very slim in most cases regardless, I can't see a downside to there being an 'unmask password' option on non-mobile devices for users who hate that all the passwords are masked (like mentioned above).
I don't recall see this functionality in my one previous 'smart phone' (a Treo 650), but perhaps my memory has failed me.
I would certainly be hesitant to type my password on a website which is handling the field like that. Let the browser vendors implement this option at the application level (as an option, probably, so users can enable/disable on all websites).
But there is an issue even if the implementation is totally seamless and bug-free. Maybe one site implements this slightly differently, and maybe some sites have a checkbox to clear the mask, or other sites show me each character for a fixed delay (e.g., character disappears after 250 ms or something), etc. In each case I must make some accomodations to how I expect a password field to behave. On the other hand if it is at the application level then there is opportunity to evolve the feature uniformly across all websites--and also give the user a single option which controls the behavior.
i believe this is a good idea on a phone, but not on a computer screen. the problem is really that if you do this, then when someone is logging in with someone else with them - then they are out of options. it's easier to watch characters appear one at a time than it is to watch someone's hands on a keyboard.
for example, i have a media center setup in my living room. sometimes people are over, or my housemate is down with me, and i need to sign into netflix so we can watch movies online -- or I'm shopping with someone and now I need to sign into newegg or amazon...
I like the idea of the compromise with Jakob Nielsen's idea -- which is to have a button on the page that says like "hold down to reveal password", or "press to reveal password". i'm going to experiment between 'hold down to reveal' and 'press to reveal' next time i make a login page -- i like hold down, but maybe there's a problem with that i'm not realizing yet.
The only reason it is useful on iPhone and other touch-screen devises is because touch-screens do not have same feedback as buttons. They need a way to show that you have entered the letter that you meant to enter. Sometimes, with long passwords it can become hard to even know that when you touched the letter it was entered into the field unless it gets shown.
The iPhone is a portable device. Just hold it close and shield it with your body when entering a password. That way your fat-fingering will be easier to recognize.
Here is what I use:
- Place an "Unmask" checkbox next to the password field
- onclick checkunmask()
$("#password").type = ($("#unmask").checked)?"textbox":"password";
http://www.coderjournal.com/2008/02/lotus-notes-aol-corporat...