Where to place the login panel?

Question

The following Screens is taken from the most popular websites.what is the best practices for login panel. (right, left, cennter). wordpress display login panel in center while yahoo google and other display login panel on left side. Yahoo and google display some motivational text on right side while wordpress display only login screen.

Answer 1

The position of the login panel really depends on what do you want to promote!

• if you want to promote login on a single page put it in the middle of the screen or the top left
• if you want to promote other content than simply just put it in the top right - which is the generally expected position for login panel on a home page (right column) and in this case other more important positions like top left, may contain your primary content

Answer 2

This depends on the site functionality.

Administration site is typically something you always have to log in (no access unless you log in), so this would typically be center screen.

Other sites that have some valid functionality for anonmous users (like Google and Yahoo), it would be more natural to have a login section at the top right. This is the case where you can browse around without necesarrily have to log in. If you need some user specific functionality, you need to log in to get access to more.

A third option is if the site generally does not need login for most functionality, and login is just required for some advanced functionality, which is only availabe to a selected group of users (example: editors of the site content). In this case it would be natural to just have a login link/button some place, and when click on that, you get a login screen in center.

Answer 3

What does the page before the login panel look like? Before arriving on the login page, did your users click on a link in the top right corner (as in the yahoo and google examples), or did they for example use a bookmark?

The top right position of the login panel is a very efficient solution (little mouse and eye movement needed) if your user's focus is already at the top right corner. If not, the center position is more prominent, and in that case it makes sense to position your login box right in the middle of the screen.