Sam Oliver

When you pay for something online, you probably see this little window asking for characters from your password. The shops don’t have any control over the design of this part of the page.

I get annoyed with these every time I use them, so for fun I had a go at re-designing it.

• I’ve made the input boxes bigger
• I’ve made it clearer which number to enter in each box by using labels directly above the boxes
• I’ve removed the information that is seemingly useless to me
  • Date - I know what the date is!
  • Personal Message ‘Welcome to RBS secure’ - pointless waste of space Update: Apparently this is a personal security message you can set yourself so you know the page isn’t spoofed - I’ve never been asked to set this personal message and it isn’t obvious where to do it, so in the end it’s still pointless.
  • Card Number - I know that I’ve just entered it
  • Username - I still don’t know what this is for, I can’t enter it anywhere or change it. It’s irrelevant right now anyway
  • I’ve made the payment amount and payment recipient more obvious
  • I’ve made the text on the ’submit’ button relate to what you are doing (Pay £10.54)
  • The ’submit’ button is much larger and more clearly separated from the cancel button

  Making your checkout as easy to use as possible is really important. It’s amazing how many customers just give up if they don’t understand something or get even the slightest bit stuck.