Should websites require e-mail addresses?

Question

I never understood the need to have an e-mail on websites. Using them as a log in is even worse. Does using your e-mail as a log in improve anything? Is memorizing a username really too difficult?

Are there any studies or reports that state that using e-mails as a log in is better?

Obviously other than being able to then contact users... But even so, having it as an optional field would do that just fine.

I'm working on a product, and wondering if the log in should be their chosen username, or their e-mail address (if it's their username, then the e-mail would be optional).

Answer 1

Having the user enter an e-mail address has the following advantages:

1. The user is unlikely to forget it - unless they use a custom e-mail address for each site.
2. It's unique. You won't have to have code that suggests other similar usernames when the user's first choice is taken. Though you will still have to check they're not trying to sign up again.
3. It gives you a way of contacting the user.
4. It discourages users from signing up with multiple accounts - or if they do they need to have multiple e-mail addresses. You can check for the GMail + trick by looking for that and removing all characters up the @ before checking for existing addresses - though you should store what the user entered.
5. It's what virtually every other site does so users are expecting to enter their e-mail address.

However, if you can find ways to address the issues raised by the first four points then there's nothing stopping you not requiring an e-mail address. Doing something just because everybody else does it - without fully appreciating or understanding why they do it - is not a reason to for you to do the same.

Answer 2

Usernames are shorter than email addresses, making login easier.

Have an email address as a non-optional field so you can:

• Drive traffic to your site with email, reducing your dependence on search traffic.

• Send emails for password reset if a user forgets his username or password.

Answer 3

I'm not sure that I've seen websites having username as a mandatory email id. But, they do allow symbols '@' and '.' in a username so that people can use their email id's to register.

I believe this is easier for people to remember their one login id/username across different websites. Also, if you have an email id that is unique, that would also guarantee that the username you are trying would be unique. Secondly as you said, it does allow the websites to contact the users, and thus get in touch with them. Another reason that I can think of is, using emails reduces the number of fake accounts one can possibly create, thus allowing the website to verify the authenticity of the user (to some extent).

Also, these days much common practice is to allow once to use their existing Facebook or Google accounts to login, which is easier from the user's perspective to do, but unless one thinks about all the privacy issues which is easily dismissed these days.

Answer 4

I believe in usernames which user shouldn't think/ponder to remember. For users who use only a few websites in a daily basis, or if your website gonna have a distinguished impact in user's real life, requiring the user to adapt a username is considerable, but if your website/webapp is developed to be yet another any thing already exists, you may consider helping the user by not requiring him/her to remember usersname.

The other important reason is that usernames are unique in websites, so there is a chance that the username user wants to adapt would be already taken and the user becomes forced to add a suffix/prefix to his desired username. So I think the best practice is to avoid dedicated usernames in most scenarios.

Answer 5

Obviously other than being able to then contact users... But even so, having it as an optional field would do that just fine.

Maybe you are thinking that you don't want to send mails to users who did not opt in to get messages, so giving them the opportunity to leave out their e-mail address will be the perfect way to opt in or out.

But the problem is that, as soon as you have created a site with accounts on it, you need to be able to contact each user for one special case: when the user forgets their password and/or user name.

Users do this all the time. They create an account, and even if they remember the user name because they use it consistently accross sites (and many users do not act this way), they forget the password. Then they want to reset their password. And please in a quick, automated fashion, without writing the admin a mail and waiting for him to take care of it.

So imagine that a user has an account, and forgets their password. If you have their e-mail, you can send the new password to it, problem solved. If you don't, the account is lost. You cannot ask a user who forgot their password to provide an address in their password recovery request, because then everybody can get a password for a known username sent to their own address.

If you are making a site where you outsource the user management completely (e.g. only accept logins via OpenID or similar), then the above does not apply. But once you do your own user management, the ability to contact a user at a known address is not optional.