If you know anything about online payments, then you know that certain card types start with certain numbers. e.g. MasterCard cards start with 5, and visa start with 4.
If a user starts entering 5xxx then you’ll know its a MasterCard card.
As an example of poor user experience I discovered recently when paying online, I was asked to select my card type and my enter my card number. As i was already tabbing through the fields I entered my card number first and then went back to select my card type.
I accidentally selected “visa” and was told that my entry was incorrect.
Why this is a problem
- There is no need to ask a user to select their card type. The system can figure this out from the number they enter,
- It creates one extra click for the user which is unnecessary
How to fix it
- Remove the need to select a card type when filling in credit card details
- Automatically show the user what card type they have entered. Although I doubt that its even useful, and is probably legacy practice that this website, and probably countless others haven’t questioned.