Hotel Wireless Security and Bad Experience Design
I just returned to my hotel after being away for a while and opened my laptop to be greeted by this particularly cheeky dialogue box.
Plaxo was trying to do a background sync, hence the logo on the lock icon. But the cert in question was actually from the wireless company that the hotel uses, which is by Matrix Networks. To reconnect to the wireless system, a certificate exchange needed to happen. Fine. But can we agree that this dialogue text is messed up? It reminded me of the Orkin "Pizza Delivery" advertisement (see below).
In the end, I inspected the cert details enough to tell it was real, but the dialog text sure didn't help. It undermined my confidence in the wireless provider, and that called into question the judgement of the management of the hotel. This is my first stay at this hotel, and I don't think I'll be back. This and other little annoyances add up to a poor overall experience and an erosion of confidence.
What do you think? Am I just lacking a sense of humor on this one?
Heh... reminds me of the time I saw an open wifi network whose name clearly cussed out one of the neighbors who'd been freeloading off of it.
BTW, LiveJournal users can now subscribe to your blog here. (I added the feed since I read 'em all through LJ.)
--Tom
No, you aren't being overly concerned or lacking humor as this is totally unacceptable and "childish" to say the least. Security is a serious issue these days and companies should know this who are providing wireless Internet services. The fact that someone went the extra effort to even change the standard code and to not consider the social implications is frightening.
Thanks for helping us all who are in the business know what it looks like to provide poor customer confidence.
Billy Freeman
Post new comment