Although I wasn’t able to complete the task posed by the User Inyerface game, I wondered whether it was even possible to complete it, given all the obstacles and obfuscation in the game.

The following are the many interaction design issues in what at first glance appear to be a very simple task in this user interface:

Figure 1: Game main page

• Landing page: The first page (Figure 1) has conflicting instructions to start the game; for example, there is a NO button, an underlined link, the word HERE capitalized, and highlighted “Next page” — all of these create confusion about where a person should click to advance. As it turns out, there is only one text that is linked so you have to try each one by trial and error before you can find it.

Figure 2: Game next page

• Next page (Figure 2): There are far too many prompts, including:
  • A site cookies banner requesting permission to set cookies;
  • A timer that advances second by second, creating psychological pressure;
  • Cycling numbers, 1-4, that don’t serve as navigation or have any functionality at all;
  • An inexplicable request for email and password before the form can advance;
  • A Help box at the bottom right of the screen (with an odd “send to bottom” button that hides the box);
  • A “hurry up” pop-up prompt with lock/unlock toggles that don’t work — to close the popup, you actually have to click on text “@lose 2023” that looks like a copyright symbol, which is not intuitive or logical at all;
  • If I tried try to cancel, the dialog box says “Are you sure you want to cancel?” and provides two buttons “Yes: and “Cancel:”;
  • The terms and Conditions checkbox says “I do not accept terms and conditions”;
  • The email form fields remain grayed out even after you enter an email;
  • Instructions for password requirements vary between the words “requires, “Should have”, “must have”,  “needs” and “can have”;
  • The “Next text is grayed out and does not work, so you can’t advance after you enter your info;
  • The box times out eventually and clears what you entered;
  • If you type in the Help box, the words appearing are not what you type (see Figure 2) — to close the Help box I had to click on the “Send to bottom” button, which did not submit my text.

Follow