How do you tell which account is which?

riikka_gg

Hi all, this is Riikka, one of the product designers at giffgaff. I'm currently working on something for our new mobile app that is currently in beta stage.

I have a question for those of you who manage more than one SIM. Would you be more likely to be able to tell your accounts apart by membername or phone number?

Any further thoughts on the topic are also welcome.

Thanks a lot for contributing!

bluemoonbaz

Cheers riikka_gg good to see this is being worked on

harrrrrry

riikka_gg

For "something else" I'm thinking the possibility of having a distinctive colour for each account.

For example, if the member was managing accounts for Jo, Sue and Bill, it might be set up so that Jo had pale green background, the goodybag icons and embellishments showing in bottle green.

Sue could then have a lemon background with dark brown goodybags and icons.

Bill could have a pale cyan background with royal blue goodybags and embellishments.

There also needs to be a strong textual clue, because not everybody is able to resolve colour differences. but for the majority who can, a prominent colour code is by far the clearest way of distinguishing accounts.

I'd say too that the colours to be used need to be chosen from carefully predefined colour pairs that ensure proper legibility. Even the professionals don't always seem to be able to get colour combinations right, which is why there are so many products in the supermarket with illegible sell by dates or instructions.

jaymailsays

riikka_gg Would you be more likely to be able to tell your accounts apart by membername or phone number?

Members feedback seems to indicate that members forget their user names or are confused by similar usernames. So much so that in some cases they want to delete the account.
https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33058681-how-to-delete-an-online-account/4

The phone number is the most reliable method. Most tend to know the mobile numbers under their control or can readily access the number.

For obvious reasons, attaching a colour, would prevent those who are colour blind or are visually impaired from fully participating in the use of the App.

shabazmoqsud

riikka_gg membername for me

endorphin

riikka_gg I don't manage multiple SIMs but if I did I would distinguish them by membername, it would be quite simple to apply a suffix to a generic username to do this, eg "familyaccountd", "familyaccountm", "familyaccounts" where the suffixes "d"=dad, "m"=mom and "s"=daughter.

jfc1951

riikka_gg

Hi, I selected "Something else" since that would allow members to give, to them, meaningful names to accounts. That may help if existing membernames are not memorable to the member.

pds01144

riikka_gg Would you be more likely to be able to tell your accounts apart by membername or phone number?

Membername for me, thanks.

newcrazymember2018

riikka_gg Good thinking.

gloriousiam

riikka_gg, my opinion is you can identify by username and phone number as well.

frenchielove

riikka_gg I never remember numbers so member name for me

bluenose55

riikka_gg Though you could only have 1 account with giffgaff,?

persco

Really glad multi accounts is still bubbling nicely behind the scenes. Can’t wait to see it implemented eventually.

essie112mm

I manage multiple accounts and identity them by membernames. I imagine that is the preferred method for most as in the modern world we all tap on contact details or speed dial to call or text each other, rather than enter a number digit by digit, and so in the main don't memorize numbers.
For me the one difficulty is that sometimes I receive an email from giffgaff about an account and the username is missing.

revjonty

jaymailsays Members feedback seems to indicate that members forget their user names or are confused by similar usernames. So much so that in some cases they want to delete the account.
https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33058681-how-to-delete-an-online-account/4

The phone number is the most reliable method. Most tend to know the mobile numbers under their control or can readily access the number.

What member feedback is this?
The poll on this thread would suggest otherwise, and that member name is people's preferred option.

As to most knowing the phone number, well unless I'm a massive exception (quite possible) I don't think this is the case. I've had the same mobile number for over 20 years, yet I couldn't tell you what it is without looking it up. Never ring it you see. & whilst family and friends numbers may be sumwhat familiar, I'd be hard pushed to tell you which belonged to who, yet I do find it very easy to remember which name belongs to who.

suppers_ready

I wouldn't have any clue of the phone numbers of the accounts I manage, but I know which username equates to which person.

The facility to do the essential maintenance stuff is already there in the beta app and works well.

I would suggest importing the community avatar as an identifier/ distinguisher of accounts in the app rather than colours. That way the user could assign something appropriate, if required, via the individual account settings. I seem to remember that worked, albeit temporarily, when alexapp was here and the new app was first trialled.

z201205

How about both number and member name?

hunterchunk

I would say member name and community name avatar

jaymailsays

Newer members get allocated random usernames on activation, mostly they are not memorable and forgetting to change it on first return, means you are stuck with it for life. Since you can log in with either the name or mobile number, a compromise will surely be found.

riikka_gg

Thanks so much everyone for you replies so far! At the moment it looks like 84% of people who've replied prefer the membername, so I'm pretty sure that's what we should treat as the primary identifier.

Don't you worry @z201205 and @jaymailsays, we're not planning on hiding the phone number entirely, but in some specific situations there might not be room for both.

Great suggestions around colours and avatars @harrrrrry and @suppers_ready! Probably not something we'll be working on in the immediate future, but I've also been playing around with that and really like the idea.

dtuxcomp

riikka_gg I only have my own account to manage, but I know in general I use names most of the time, but I also use the last few digits of phone numbers when I don't have someone's name attached to it, so maybe where you don't have room for both, use the member name and last 3 or 4 digits of the phone number ?

riikka_gg

jfc1951 Agree, that would be ideal!

anth006

I haven't done the poll as I currently only have one account. However if I did have more then it I would definitely recognize then by username. I would have no chance of remembering numbers.