Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti...
by haswell on Monday July 10, 2023 @12:44PM
(#36668975)
Starting from the premise that users are morons instead of “users are busy and distracted” is problematic.
There’s a degree of user hostility here that seems likely to distract users from the task at hand, and if busyness/distractedness is the actual issue, adding a new level of distraction on top (now start thinking about the color of the daytime sky, a task that is wholly unrelated to the outcome), seems likely to backfire at best, and will piss off the rest of the customers by degrading user experience at worst.
I think there’s a balance to be found by adding enough friction while using that friction to orient the user towards the realization you want them to achieve (“this is permanent”), and sky puzzles only add friction.
"To delete your account enter the exact name of your account in the first field and enter the normal color of the daytime sky in the second field."
If you don't read you won't be able to answer the second field and the button won't go hot. Use many different options for the second field so people can't become habituated to filling it in. Note that the answer to the verification does not appear in the text, you can't skim for the answer but have to actually read the whole thing.