Have you ever had to start over? Whether professionally, personally, or both, it can be a trying experience. There are so many things that require your attention at a time when you’d probably like to take a break. It can be overwhelming to say the least.
I’m going to kick off a series today addressing the user experience (UX) of this difficult task, because I believe a lot of companies involved in the process might not realize the difficulty they have the power to either add or take away.
Today, I’m going to address one thing that might seem small, but that has a lot of impact for those starting over. Today we’re talking about usernames.
Your username for an online service can have different impacts on your life, depending on what it’s for. Sometimes, like on social media, our usernames become tied to our identities in such a way that we can become known more as a username than our actual name. Sometimes, it’s just a way to log into an account, and doesn’t show up in any meaningful way online. That doesn’t mean we want to necessarily keep the same username forever though, and when you’re starting over in life, it can create a unique and difficult problem.
When our identities change, we often want to change our usernames to match that new identity. But, have you ever tried to change a username, only to find out that it’s not possible?
Why is that such a big deal, you ask? Well, in my personal experience, I used my former initials as part of my username for just about every site I signed in on. Now that my initials have changed, I’m stuck with an outdated username that also serves as a painful reminder of the life I used to live that was lost. If that sounds dramatic I apologize, but every time I type that former initial into the sign-in screen I feel a twist of the knife in my gut. It hurts.
There are many other reasons why someone’s identity might change, so why can’t we reflect our identities with our usernames? In some cases we can.
My bank got it right. I was able to easily select a new username that I felt comfortable typing in. Twitter got it right.
But, there are other sites that do not allow me to change my username. In one case I was told it was decided on a “case-by-case” basis, which was extra upsetting because it showed me that: a. It’s possible to do, and b. They decide who is worthy of a change. I made my case that because of my divorce I’d like to select a username that fit my identity better. The verdict: They deemed it a no.
As someone who briefly dabbled in software engineering, I understand that there are implications for changing usernames. I also know that it’s possible to do. So, why would a company forfeit the opportunity to create a good user experience for their customers?
Sure, I could just cancel my account and start a new one, but I have over ten years of account history there, so I decided to just keep it. Does it matter in the long run? No. Does it affect my ability to recover from the pain of my new identity? Only in the sense that I have to type that initial when I log in and feel the sting each time.
Is having to type that one letter that no longer represents my life a deal-breaker for me? Is it going to affect me in ways that I can’t get over? Absolutely not. In fact, I’m sure that as time goes on, that punch-in-the-gut, take-my-breath-away pain that I feel each time I type it will eventually diminish. But for now, it’s there. It’s part of my user experience, and it’s a part that I don’t like.
What do you think? Am I making too big of a deal out of the UX of usernames? If you think so, have you ever had a radical change of identity to contend with? Let’s get a conversation going about this topic!