Disqus Improves User Experience of OpenID

Sometimes the results of OpenID logins look a little bit strange, certainly not as expected by users. Blog comments are a good example. Usually I would expect my real name or username displayed there but occasionally it looks like this:

The provider simply didn’t send my name (Google in this case).

While some providers allow personas, i.e. users can create different sets of login information, e.g. one with a business email address and one with a personal one, the most don’t. So what can users do if they want to change
any of the information like name or email address? Actually not very much. Changing the information before each login at the provider is not really an option. Switching to a provider that features personas is a good idea but doesn’t suit all users.

Disqus is a comment system for various platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and many more, and is tackling at least one part of this problem in a rather elegant way. Among other ways it lets users comment with their OpenID. When commenting users see this popup:

They can easily change the display name. It’s a small popup, it’s unobtrusive, and a good example of how relying parties can improve the user experience of OpenID. Well done!