Facebook added something recently that many people may have never noticed before or always thought was there. At the login screen you’ll now notice a little “Remember Me” checkbox that allows a user to keep their login information saved on their computer so they can by-pass the login screen on future visits. Seems insignificant or overdue, depending on who you are, but consider this…

Over 40 million people use Facebook and each of those people spend an average of 3 hours a month on the site*. This includes accessing Facebook from places like student libraries, friend’s houses and workplaces. In implementing a feature like this there’s a lot at stake. If you mistakenly decide to check that harmless little “Remember Me” at your best friend’s house and next week their not so friendly or if someone at a public machine had access to your account imagine what they could do. Destroy your credibility? Steal personal information? Add your Mom as a friend?

Okay, maybe it’s nothing really to worry about, but these are the design decisions that people like me have to make everyday. What is the cost of a good experience? Clearly it’s much more convenient to have a feature that everybody wants but will we want if a million Facebook accounts end up being maliciously accessed? If all that thought has to go into putting a little checkbox on the page imagine what goes into decisions of a much larger scale. In the end the Facebook team had to probably give in on this one (I imagine it was one of the top requests in user feedback) and take a chance.This is just something to think about if you ever assumed these decisions are trivial. 

*BusinessWeek – 09/25/2007