The situation

Not too long ago, Opera Community software allowed us to create our own URLs based on our free text, or the post title. This is certainly a welcome addition as its much easier to remember a URL based on words than some system generated numbers: show.dml/27659. But I've noticed a hiccup in how the users expect the system to act, and how it actually does.

If you want to follow along, it's easy to reproduce:

1. Create a blog post (w/title)
   
2. Click preview
   
3. (On the preview screeen) Now, change the post title
   
4. Save blog post
   

You'll find that the "Post URL" is based off the first title instead of the second. I know there's a reset button which will (obviously) reset the title, but it's asking me to reset something I never "set" in the first place. In other words take action to correct something I never initiated. The system generated that URL and I was oblivious to it.

That's a poor solution IMO. Either the user is going to specify his own URL with that box or the user is not (leaving it to be an automated process). Where does the reset button fit in with the latter? And heaven forbid if it's hidden because the "show advanced options" menu isn't activated... Then the users wouldn't have any idea that a URL was being generated at all!

Great Expectations

The real problem goes beyond the implementation/technicalities of web forms and into the realm of "system expectations." We could argue what the user has responsibility to check before hitting submit, but the bottom line is that our expectation of "preview" across all software systems is that changes made there will not be reflected in the final version. Changing the title in the preview page should carry that change over when I hit "submit" whether I hit reset or not.

It's not hard to imagine* someone blogging without the "show more options" dialogs open, who drafts a half hearted, or possibly offensive post titled:

"our drunken boss at the christmas party"

...and clicks the preview button and get a change of heart, moment of clarity, more witty, etc etc... and end up with:

"He knows how to have fun!"

Then the user passes the URL out to the office:

Hey, I put up pictures from last night! Enjoy:
http://my.opera.com/aboutToBeFired/blog/our-drunken-boss-at-the-christmas-party

...even if the user does have the "show more options" dialogs open, it's not hard to overlook something like that at all. If you're used to autogenerating URLs, why would you bother checking it? I see the reset button only being useful to those that took the conscious effort to create their own URL string in the box.

It's not hard to come with some solutions to the problem though, here's a quick list of suggestions to alleviate this problem:

• Don't hide the URL in the advanced options.
  
• If Opera generated the title from the post title, set a flag. If the user entered the text, then don't
  
• Then, on "submit" generate the URL from the final title and compare with what was already in the "Post URL" field. If different and the flag is set, ask which to use. (Opera created the first one, but the user could have edited... we're unsure if the user is aware of the title). This step could also be done if the user has changed the title of the post.
  
• If the flag is not set, keep the old, user generated title (the user has shown they are aware of the titling by creating their own)
  
• If the "Post URL" field is empty, then generate from the title as you would going to the preview page and submit away!
  

This was posted to the Community Forums on 17 October 2006:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=163058

*not hard to imagine because it happened to me. I often put up temporary titles until i can see how everything comes together... how it looks on the screen with the pictures, or maybe I just haven't thought of a title yet.

**We'll also say that I purposely set up this post to have the title and URL mismatched.. yeah, that's the ticket.