The Water Cooler

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  • 1.  Login page slow and user-hostile

    Posted Sep 26, 2019 03:35 AM
    Edited by Michael A. Lowry Sep 26, 2019 09:19 AM
    This morning I returned to the office after a short vacation. When I clicked a link in one of my open browser tabs from a week ago (my post about broken redirects), I was redirected to the main login page https://www.broadcom.com/mybroadcom/login.

    I'd like to share this one user's experience in the hopes that the design could be improved.

    • At first, I thought I had been redirected to a broken page. The login page took about 5 seconds to display anything.
      After that long wait, the Broadcom header finally appeared.
    • Then about a second later, the login box faded in over the course of approximately one more second.
    • The page flashed completely white momentarily and then reappeared.
    • Then as I was about to click on the username field (because it is not given focus by default), the page redrew, inserting content above the login box, and pushing the login box lower down the page. It was like trying to hit a moving target.
    • Finally the page stabilized and I could use it. From start of page load to usable page was probably about 8-10 seconds.
    • And of course, the GTCs check box remained even though I have visited this page and logged in hundreds of time.

    If you aim is not to drive users slowly mad, please try to improve this page (and all pages).
    1. Make the page load quickly. Eliminate cruft that's not required for the particular page. Try to get the real-world load times down from 8 seconds to 1 or 2.
    2. If dynamic changes must be made to the page, ensure that these do not alter the layout or position of the main content of the page. Do not make the stuff the user is actually there for a moving target.
    3. Use a cookie to remember if the user has already accepted the GTC/EULA. Do not make the user jump through hoops every single time they log in.
    4. Give the user name field focus by default.


  • 2.  RE: Login page slow and user-hostile

    Posted Sep 26, 2019 08:34 AM
    Edited by Carsten Schmitz Sep 26, 2019 08:35 AM
    ​That page loads fast for me. Throws a web font error, but that's probably harmless.

    BUT this, to me, is just another case of companies need to understand their corporate clients need to use their basic tools possibly behind proxies, security appliances and all kinds of stuff.

    Upon inspection, the login page pulls in several hundred kilobyte of Javascript code (node.js stuff from https://www.broadcom.com/js/vendors~main.bundle.js and  https://www.broadcom.com/js/main.bundle.js).

    Why do you need Javascript to display videos and stuff on a login page for a client forum!?

    I guess the answer is "because we can, and because in 2019 we just don't care".

    But I'm not surprised, then, that this lags, times out, behaves eratically and generally tanks when combined with the unfortunate realities of often times ****** security appliances. Seen it myself so many times when I was forced to be behind proxy cascades, I could write a book about it.

    Just my $0.02.


  • 3.  RE: Login page slow and user-hostile

    Community Manager
    Posted Sep 26, 2019 09:16 AM
    @Michael A. Lowry& @Carsten Schmitz  -    the time out for our Okta is strict so after a week away I'm not surprised it timed out and sent you to login.   If I transition from our corporate LAN to my home LAN, I have to reauthenticate.   Okta or the SSO manages your identity when you login across many systems and it works. ​​ I use the 2nd level of validation as well.   Security and timeouts are part of any login system as both of you know.   As for the login page, ( /mybroadcom/login) it loads fast for me and has been improved since launch.    I've had broadcom and non-broadcom pages hang when logged out and been redirected to login.   It's definitely not the normal experience but when any web application there are issues when the user environment is aligned with a straightforward login, the web app can be slow or break   We do have error handlers to work around issues but I'm sure not all cases are covered so an issue like this will happen.

    The load tests for https://www.broadcom.com/mybroadcom/login on my corporate LAN were 2.36 which just looking at the page should be faster but as Carsten mentioned there are a lot of .js files loading behind the scenes for Okta which bumps the load time up to 2.36.   Web Apps are not perfect.  Our dev teams work hard to optimize for both load times and user experience.

    ------------------------------
    Thank you
    Jason
    Community Platform Owner, IT
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Login page slow and user-hostile

    Posted Sep 26, 2019 10:00 AM
    Edited by Carsten Schmitz Sep 26, 2019 10:00 AM
    Hi @Jason McClellan,

    > ​​​the time out for our Okta is strict so after a week away I'm not surprised it timed out 

    Hm, I'd be more than happy to have that problem after a week or so. Despite allowing cookies and not being behind a proxy, I have to login several times per day on various Okta logins. I think while you have sessions, it's not stored in cookies at all, so when we shut down our PC (corporate policy) in the evenings, we need to re-log the next morning, and then sometimes per day as a bonus for reasons I don't know.

    Hence my request in the other thread for a "remember me" option that sets a cookie for at least a few days.


    > on my corporate LAN were 2.36 which just looking at the page should be faster

    It was about 1.2s for me after wiping the cache so actually I'm faster than you :) Maybe you're behind a proxy or the new laptop with the six cores they gave me now pays off by parsing all that JS faster? ;)


    > Our dev teams work hard to optimize for both load times and user experience.

    I do not wish to overly criticize Broadcom because I exprienced my proxy nightmare during CA's reign, so I can't speak with authority on the Broadcom dev teams (beyond what I already voiced on my point of view regarding that java script). But at least back in the CA days, the prioritization of load times and UX was entirely abysmal.

    Best,
    Carsten