Paul Trevithick has a good post today taking a look at the experience of a user who doesn't have an identity card selector installed (or, perhaps, has a selector - e.g., with IE - but no cards). Faced with a choice of the openID NASCAR billboard and tthe tiny purple Infocard logo the user is more than likely to opt for a familiar logo in the openID display - if they even notice the tiny .

He goes on to suggest various behaviors for a mouseover event which would, at least, let the user know what the icon represented. He then offers a popover showing the logos of up to four "trusted" (by the RP, presumably) card issuers with the user able to click on one and be carried through the process of creating a card, downloading a selector (if needed) and then re-directed to the original site to complete the infocard authentication process.

Besides taking an inordinate amount of time (something internet users appear to not want to do), it places infocard relying parties on the slippery slope of favoring some card issuers over others leading to abusive behavior (charging for placement/positioning, blackballing, etc.).

Perhaps the ICF (Information Card Foundation) should consider issuing it's own "super logo" which would present, on a rotating basis, all card issuers...