So here's a story about how bad user interface, legacy Google results — and a degree of stupidity on my part — result in embarassment, confusion and more work than should be necessary with just a little more consideration.
We want to transfer a domain name for a live website from its existing registrar at a public sector body to a registrar for the organisation to own and have easier editing access to for DNS changes, etc.
It's a .org.uk domain, which means the transfer involves having a 'Registrar tag' (formerly known as IPS tag) amended to point to the gaining registrar, and then commencing transfer (verifying ownership along the way).
We send over the tag for Namecheap, who are pretty great as registrars go, to the public body who currently have the domain registered with Namesco.
They change the tag; we begin monitoring via Namecheap's Sharing & Transfer panel.
Namecheap's interface shows me this:
Let's break this down into its constituent parts:
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'IPS Tag' heading - Nominet now call these 'Registrar Tags', which is better, but I can forgive legacy naming (though it may have led to my Google mistake later on);
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IPS tag 'current' entry - consisting of a wee 'globe' icon, and what we assume is the current tag;
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Status of the transfer, with icon;
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Refresh Status button.
####Issue 1: The 'current' tag entry.
The IPS tag for the domain needs to be 'ENOM'.
The IPS tag is displayed as 'enom'.
In and of itself this isn't the worst thing in the world; but, as you'll find out, combined with issues 2 and 3, it was my downfall in this particular case.
####Issue 2: The warning triangle next to the Status message.
Damn, I think to myself; there's a problem. There's a warning triangle icon, so something is up. And the message next to it is going to tell me what that is.
If this is your first time seeing this, you don't realise that this is not actually the case, and a warning triangle accompanies whatever innocuous status the transfer is in. So I'm currently looking at Registrar update is in progress, which is not actually something worrying or requiring action, so as to warrant an icon almost universally regarded as a symbol for warning or hazard. Stupid icon decision: ✔
####Issue 3: The Status message itself.
Change IPS Tag to ENOM with your current registrar.
Damn, I think to myself. The IPS tag must be wrong. It's displayed as lowercase - something must have gone wrong at their end. Are they case sensitive?
As it turns out, this was something that had already been actioned. The tag was already ENOM at the losing registrar. But I didn't know that. I can forgive reporting latency, but this message should have been 'Awaiting change of IPS tag to ENOM at losing registrar', and accompanied by a more suitable icon, like a clock for 'waiting' or literally anything else but a warning triangle.
####Issue 4: Legacy Google results
A Google search for IPS tags case sensitive turns up results from respected domain hosts Gandi and other sites too that state IPS tags are case sensitive.
As it turns out, that's not true. Nominet's list of registrars has them in all caps, for every entry, and the support contact at Namecheap I ended up talking to also stated they're not case sensitive. Clearly they once were, but that's no longer a thing.
In combination, I see a warning symbol, an action message ('Change' IPS tag...), mismatching IPS tags (lowercase vs. uppercase) between current tag and desired tag, and when I Google to find out if they're case sensitive, I see information confirming this suspicion.
So I contact the public body, first by email and latterly leaving a voicemail, outlining that I need the tag changed ASAP to be uppercase, because apparently they're case sensitive.
This causes yet more work, not just for me but their IT manager, who logs on to Namesco and finds they can no longer make changes to the domain as transfer is in progress - so open a support ticket.
This causes yet more work, not for them but for someone at Namesco, who confirms the IPS tag is fine, and that the transfer is in progress.
That's three different people all doing more work for the following reasons. And, of course, after speaking to a Namecheap support person on chat (who was able to inform me 'it doesn't matter what it says in the dashboard', cheers pal) I had to email and apologise to the IT manager who got sucked into more work and chasing up because I made a mistake due to bad UI. Yes, I could know more about domains - but it's a complex field, and quite frankly I rely on my registrar to have UI that helps me learn more about that field, rather than tricking me with daft design decisions.
##Making Interfaces? Your job is to think
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A warning / hazard symbol should only be used where there's a warning or hazard. I don't give a damn how much you like yellow, choose the right icon. If it has to be fixed, pick something that works for all your messages. It's mocking me from the status right now; Registrar update in progress. Why is that a warning?
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The team who built out this UI should be familiar with what the tags are, to the extent that the value reported on the page for the 'current' tag is not visually randomly made lowercase like some kind of bad 90s telco branding, but is preserved in the form it takes in WHOIS and other UI; by changing the visual language in this case, you actually change the meaning;
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The same team should have, in testing this UI, noted that there's a discrepancy in displaying tags (in spite of the fact they are not case sensitive), displaying the IPS tag for losing registrars in all lowercase where mere pixels away the IPS tag for Namecheap in all uppercase. Copywriting is a design decision too.
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Don't use language, visual or otherwise, that prompts the user to take note or action if it's possible there's no action required. This would never have occurred if that message had been 'Waiting for IPS tag change', with a sensible icon - I would have followed up later, or noticed the mismatch in case between the display tags and thought to consider that if I had no progress an hour or two later - but a hazard icon and a 'Change this' message cause me to take immediate action.
In short, think. Every single piece of every single user interface requires thought. Not just 'what pretty icon / random status message do I want to slap here', but meaningful and thorough care, so I don't trip over your sparse, flat-designed minimalist interface and land on my face.
Oh look, the domain's transferred now.