Skype, promotion gone bad, usability affected
If you didn’t login to your Skype account, then next time you visit Skype.com, expect to solve the puzzle of finding your login box. There is no login box on the main page, and there is no direct link to login page either. So what’s up with that? I guess they want people to concentrate on the new products they are offering, by hiding the login box and making people’s life miserable.
After scanning through the main page, you will click on the “Already have Skype?” link. You expect this link to give you a login page. But unfortunately, after clicking you feel like you have returned to homepage back.
But it’s not a homepage. After spending some time looking around on this page (I think they want you to think! But Steve Krug begs to differ in his book “Don’t Make Me Think!“), you will notice that, there is an additional link called “Account” on the menu.
Only after clicking this link, will it take you to login page. Phew! What a long journey to find this page. I am not sure if they are converting any customers to their new products, but what I am sure is that they are frustrating a lot of customers.
Login box should be on the homepage!
Next time you visit, it does have cookies and will take you to the second page which has “Account” link on the menu. But from the first glance, you won’t notice that link either. Because most of the people are looking for the word “Login” and not “Account”.
But I personally think, sites like Skype.com need to put the login box on the homepage. Because most of the people who have skype account want to login to their account. Imagine gmail hiding its login box and pushing you adsense and adwords products!?
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By kuanhoong on Oct 15, 2007
I faced the same problem a few months back as I was trying to login from the homepage to check my skype balance. I even wrote an email to Skype for support. Unfortunately, not a single reply from them. Eventually, I managed to solve the problem by login through skype client application.
By Nick Ramsay on Oct 15, 2007
Ah! This might be the problem my mum has been having. I encouraged her to get Skype, but because her computer is so old it usually crashes after five minutes of Skype talk. Anyway, every time she tries to get back into Skype, she is “forced” to make a new account. So far I think she’s created 12 accounts! I’ll send the link to this post. Thanks Ades.
By Chris [TK] on Oct 15, 2007
indeed a stupid thing to do :))
they don’t think at all about their users or… they really forgot about it :)
By Ades on Oct 16, 2007
Comments speak for itself… skype has a usability problem on the homepage. Thanks guys for sharing your experiences.