How should I write a scene when the character is interacting with a computer?

[Guest]

Should I try to put down what they are seeing?

• Username:
• Password:

Or should I just write it out normally?

[Joseph]

Could go either way. I guess I depends on how important the specific login is to the story. Would you lose anything of importance is you just did “Bob logged in”
Seeing the prompts could be more immersive, though.

[Dwain]

If it is important to the story, write it out. If not just say they entered the username and password or logged in. If it's not important, I think it would just bog down the story.

[Nathan]

Let's see, thought Bob, how had Maisy set up this thing for him? Username, 'bandt@opennet.com'. Was that one 'n' or two? Or one 'm'? Maisy, with her chicken scratch handwriting! And the password? Oh, that was obvious: Mai$ylovesGramps1. He chuckled at the thought of his granddaughter coming up with that one.

He entered his best guess at the spelling of the username and the password. Bingo! Right the first time! After a short login sequence, he was in! Now what?

Sighing, he reached for the phone, dialed Maisy's number, and waited for her to answer. He was in over his head, and needed an expert.