Unusual Email

Several months ago, I signed up for an online account for my Discover card (you know, to check balances and all that stuff). As with 99.9% of all web forms, I had to enter (and confirm) my email address. And since I hate junk email as much as the next person, I always use an email address that I don't check too often and is routed to my gMail address. I was rather surprised and quite humored when I saw this: In case it's hard to read, the curious part is this:

The e-mail address entered is unusual. Please review it and make any necessary changes.

I managed to continue with my sign up process despite the "error". It didn't take me long to figure out that Discover simply is trying to deter users from using generic or throw-away email addresses, or at least something like that. That's my guess anyway. Nevertheless, that message struck me as useless. It didn't really tell me anything. My email address is "unusual"? Why? I pictured someone less web-savvy trying to fill out the form and getting frustrated. Part of good web design is usability - making the site not just easy to use, but easy to understand quickly and efficiently. This includes a site's copy, and especially when the copy is alerting the user of something important (like an error). And in this instance DiscoverCard.com gets a failing grade.