Jan Miksovsky has a great critique of OpenID usability. It's hard to disagree with observations such as:

It's way, way too hard to get started. All the sites supporting OpenID point curious users to the home page for the OpenID Foundation. From this site, it's actually stunningly difficult to find a link to a place where you can actually get an OpenID. A link to a site called I want my OpenID! sounds promising, but the destination page doesn't actually deliver on the promise of getting a user an OpenID either.

We had exactly that discussion yesterday in the board meeting of the OpenID Foundation, and we really need to get this fixed. (Yes, Kaliya, you are right, too!)

An OpenID is an identity (like a user name), not an account. A consumer still needs an account to use the site. However, this isn't at all obvious to a consumer.

Yep, and I shudder having to explain that one to an end user. (I don't think anybody does right now.)

When I actually tried to use my OpenID on a site, I got a confusing message from the OpenID provider requiring me to confirm that I really wanted to let the site access personal information I had associated with my OpenID. The clarity of such messages varies from OpenID provider to provider, ranging from puzzling to incomprehensible.

True, too.

As Simon Willison pointed out on the OpenID general list, this is excellent feedback. Let's get to work!