I’ve been buying my Calgary public transit passes via the online store and recently they launched a new version called CITYonline. It looks ok, and it’s definitely a step up from the previous version. But in the 10 minutes that took me to register and buy next month’s pass I found some glaring usability and security problems .

First: you broke my browser

Disabling copy and paste is the new “right click is disabled” (so, 1997).

Dear Calgary: people use copy and paste, they like it and rely on it. When the iPhone didn’t have copy and paste people complained.

So, why do you disable it?

If you are worried that your database will get filled with incorrect emails because of typos then check the SMTP response headers. Or just accept errors as a part of life, but don’t make your lives easier by dumping shit on your users.

Second: so many options

On any listing of products, Calgary chose to use a select input element (marked with the red arrows).

Select elements (combo boxes in corporate parlance) are meant to give the usersmore than one option to choose from.

Each of those select elements have only one option. There’s nothing to choose!

This is a small problem and can be solved easily, but still shows that the people who made the site didn’t know what they were doing.

Third: I say “Yes”, but I may mean “No”

When you create your account and confirm your email (more on that on the next problem) you are required to select a password, and a helpful message tells you that you have to use_at least_ 7 characters.

Then, I tried to use 44 using 1Password and noticed that it looked shorter than 44 characters.

We’ll it turns out they tell you to use at least 7 characters, but don’t tell you that you have a maximum of 20 available.

That’s a very bad usability problem, it’s like saying to your kid “yeah, go out and party all night and come whenever” and “forgetting” to tell them that you won’t open the door when they arrive at 3 in the morning =).

BTW: they do the same thing with emails, limiting them to 50 characters. The maximum length of an email address is actually 254 characters .

Fourth: here are the keys to my kingdom

Registering is a two step process in CITYonline:

1. You write your name and email (no copy/pasting!)
2. You receive a temporary password to your email.

When you go and login with said temporary password, it forces you to set a new password. Very safe.

And then they send you FRIGGIN’ PASSWORD TO YOUR EMAIL!!!

Never, ever send a password to the user’s email EVER!

1. Email is not a secure enclosure.
2. It potentially means that the City of calgary is storing the passwords in a readable way.

Good thing CITYonline doesn’t store your credit card information (or does it?).

Fouth plus one: the emails suck

This one is just a pet peeve.

The email I received from CITYonline has header image of 1029 pixels wide, this wreaks havoc with many email clients as you are forced to scroll back and forth to read the whole thing.

Just use an email template from the pro’s .

When I was a kid I had a favorite grandpa.

He often came to visit and brought small toys and trinkets for us to play.

Once, he arrived while I was still asleep and brought a pizza shaped pencil sharpener. My brother made me think it was real pizza and I tried to bite it.

Another time he started calling me names, a mix of my name and the name of a very quirky Mexican singer . I got so mad that I did the same, called him a similar name. He laughed so hard and for so long that I got even more pissed off.

Every time we met after that, the story would come up.

He once put a plastic Tupperware on a real oven.

He liked to go fishing and taught me to love fishing. He once sent me to a steep river bank to recover an abandoned can of live bait.

He waited until I was down there to tell me not to fall in the piranha infested waters.

He taught me how to play dominoes like a master: keep your mouth shut, keep count of who has what and don’t grab more than the 7 pieces you need after each shuffle.

He told me about this girl that kept taking all of the pieces and making the other players wait. To teach her a lesson he threw her a piece to her forehead, got up and left the table.

Tough love I guess.

So many stories…

And then he got prostate cancer

I asked my dad recently and he told me he tried to have him get checked but he wouldn’t budge.

I sure hope my dad had thrown a domino piece to his forehead to make him understand, but it probably wouldn’t have worked because he was too stubborn.

He was always strong and seeing him on his deathbed, no larger than a 5 year old is one of the worse images I’ve ever experienced. It left me scared of cancer for the longest.

So before November ends, go ahead and donate a little bit to Movember:

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in Canada and around the world. With their “Mo’s”, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer.

You can support this campaign by donating through me .

Although it says " You are making a donation to Joaquin Windmuller" no money will be ending in my pocket, it’s just a way to track participation.

If you don’t want to donate to me

Go ahead and do a general donation .

Even if you don’t donate

Go get checked, prostate cancer has a 90% or more chance of cure if caught early, but it has very little symptoms until it has grown too much and is probably too late. According to the Prostate Cancer Canada Network :

Without regular testing (PSA & DRE), it is very difficult to find early stage prostate cancer.

And if you don’t have a prostate (a.k.a. you’re a girl) make your boys get tested.