A couple of days ago I tried to create an account on X (formerly Twitter), and I must have aged a decade.
Apparently, signing up for a basic account now requires passing what feels like the Cryptic Crossword World Championship. I had to solve ten “prove you’re human” puzzles just to get through the door.
Seriously, TEN puzzles?!
X’s ten puzzles to create an account.
I get it. Bots are bad. Spam is annoying. But if I’m burning more brain cells creating an account than I would reading the entire feed, something’s broken. Or they just don’t want more users?
The take away
There is a take away from this frustration.
Onboarding is your first impression. And X just told me:
“We care more about gatekeeping than welcoming real users.”
Security should be invisible when it works well. This was the UX equivalent of barbed wire fencing around a lemonade stand.
End result
For those in suspense, yes, I did actually follow through and create the account, it’s was for Quotify (@quotifyforms), our quote and estimate form builder software that we recently relaunched.
Am I the fool for persevering?
It seems I wasn’t the only one faced with this.
Josh Cox
I'm Josh — I build, host and look after WordPress sites (and increasingly fast Astro / Next.js builds) for Oxfordshire businesses, from Didcot, since 2016. I also tinker with a few products of my own on the side.
