Hot answers tagged registration
57
I'm going to be blunt. Any site that only allows me to sign up using FaceBook is a site I will not use. And I'm not alone in that - if you check out any of the debates on Spotify's decision to do likewise, you'll see a lot of negativity about the idea.
If you want to use a third party provider, give a choice. Limiting it to one provider only is not a good ...
52
Here's a must-read article -- BestBuy saw a $300 million increase in annual sales via their online store by not requiring users to register at all to buy products (this means they would have to enter their address, etc. every time they bought something). If that's not enough,
Later, we did an analysis of the
retailer's database, only to discover
45% ...
50
Facebook only? Don't do it! I would always give people the option for maximum chance of sign up. Sign up forms that allow for your own sign in and using another account don't have to be complex, although many do seem to be for some reason. Digg is a good example of one that keeps it pretty simple.
You already said you don't know your customer audience that ...
33
A system should not store the user's password in retrievable mode. This could be done adding salt (a meaningless string of letters and numbers, which doesn't change) and then hashing the whole string before saving to a persistent storage.
When the user signs into the system, the same route is taken to make sure that the password is correct. (password + ...
33
All of them except "e-mail" and "Password".
This is the minimum information you need to uniquely identify a user and allow them secure access to your site. The only other piece of vital information would be their address if you were shipping them something - but you can ask for that when they actually order something and not before.
All of the other ones ...
28
It's better to use a special one-time login url.
Reasoning: You want to make the process as easy as possible to have the lowest drop-off rate. Sending someone a temporary password requires them to either retype a password that they haven't chosen, or copy and paste it. It also provides no additional security benefits.
27
Instructions on how to activate your
account have beem emailed to you.
Please check your email.
The word "instructions" may be scary to some people. It makes activation sound more complicated than it is. I'd suggest changing the message to this:
Almost done...
We've sent an email to
joe.doe@gmail.com. Open it up to
activate your ...
26
Like Roger says, ideally you can reset your password easily and securely, but there are certain times that's not an option.
If you're not validating email addresses it's more important that their login credentials are correct; if they lose their password it might be game over if they entered fake email information.
Assuming you have to have a password and ...
23
If the form was rejected by Server-Side validation, the password should be blanked out since it shouldn't be sent back to the client.
This problem is easily solved with inline validation though, you simply shouldn't be able to submit a form until it won't be rejected, and then no form data will be lost.
Passwords should only be lost in the rare situation ...
21
Rather than asking them their religion, ask them which religion's holidays they would like to show. This both makes it clear why you need to know, and also covers plenty of alternative scenarios that just asking their religion won't:
People who aren't of their countries official faith (e.g. non-Christians in US and UK) may want the official faiths holidays ...
20
Fun Solution: Translate the entire site into Farsi with English at the top that says "Not Afghani? Select a new Country"
Less fun solution: Put the top 5 countries that visit your site as the top 5 choices. People chose the first when they realize they will have to dig through dozens of countries.
20
While I agree that having "too many options is not a good UX", I would not say that having 4 or 5 options is too many.
Your question also somehow suggests that you need to have your own sign-in procedure, or a standard one. I don't see why you could not have a combination of both.
Look at how this very website does it:
You have a clear choice between a ...
20
Let's say the user just cannot receive email on their mobile device - for example those that deliberately do not want to be contacted by email - those on a limited data plan - or those without the inclination or technical know-how to setup email.
For whatever reason, there are going to be people who fit that category. So ask yourself if you want to ...
19
Log in / out is more technical sounding than sign in / out. That said, I don't think there is any confusion with either one of them. The last time I looked at major sites using log v. sign it was a pretty even split between them. I would opt for sign in / out simply because it is more human speak.
Regarding Join, Register and Sign up. They each have ...
18
I would guess that users can't see why you require the country and so are picking the first one in the list just to get through the form.
Perhaps you need to explain why you need this a bit more clearly. I notice you have:
Please tell us where you live so we can show you books that are available to you
at the bottom of the form, but this could be easy ...
17
Put the most common countries first, as someone else already said.
Also, consider setting an initial value based on IP lookup? It won't be right all the time, but it won't go wrong as often as your current method. :-) Definitely accompany it with something like "we need your address because... and have made a guess based on your IP address".
16
I like the way Microsoft handles this in Windows 8. There is a single password field, and a button that displays the password while it is held down. That way, the user can check for typos. If the user enters their password with great confidence, then there is no need to enter it twice or look at it, but people who want to see if they typed it correctly can, ...
15
NO.
When speaking of either registration forms or comment forms, they are merely common attempts at foiling false registrations, and SPAM. I find Captchas annoying and frustrating.
There are many other options:
Email verification
Multiple choice questions (http://tiny.cc/aq6jl)
Random addition (comments on WebDesignerDepot)
Code Via Text Message ...
15
Neither.
Registration should be a one step process that just asked for the absolute minimum information you need to be able to distinguish one user from another. The goal of the sign up process is to be as frictionless as possible so that the user doesn't get put off and go somewhere else.
In the vast majority of cases that's e-mail address and password - ...
14
Your users are sending you a clear message: they don't want to tell their country at this point in the process (the control is straightforward and other users do specify their country, so I don't think they select Afghanistan by accident). You'll either have to convince them to tell it anyway, or listen to them.
Looking at your website, I can think of ...
14
If a trial required me to enter these details before beginning the trial, I turn the other way and would not use the product at all. There is no good reason to gather these details in advance other than to increase the chance that the user will forget about the trial and get an automatic bill. I have all too often installed trial software and forgotten about ...
13
'Sign up' is shorter and, I agree with Dan, sounds easier than 'Create an account'. And indeed A/B testing can help to find the best solution in the context of your site.
One important thing to mention:
I observed people in usability test being confused by the wording 'Sign up' and 'Sign in' next to each other. They're just too close and too easy to mix up. ...
12
I think the best-case scenario is this:
Don't ask for any information until the moment you need it.
Make it always easy for the user to give you whatever information they feel like sharing.
These rules apply to both initial registration and acquiring additional details after registration.
12
The double-entry system for passwords is standard and consistent, so I don't believe there's any significant usability harm in continuing to ask for it twice.
The purpose is simply verification to prevent the user from making more mistakes than necessary.
Masking and unmasking are not ideal options, as there are times when a user could be registering in a ...
12
Emailing the password exposes it, since it is sent as unencrypted text.
If you do email the password, make sure the user changes it during the first login.
Alternatively, you could send a link to a continue page where the user can choose a password. This link has to have a time limit, since the link is also sent as unencrypted text.
You can use the same ...
11
Consider the lazy registration design pattern. Basically, it defers registration until it's absolutely needed and can even fill in some of the information for the user based on their previous interactions with the site.
Here are some examples:
Lazy Registration Pattern
explained by UI Patterns
Lazy Registration Pattern
explained by Ajax Patterns
12 (10) ...
11
I say it plays a few psychological tricks quite well.
First, as noted, the feeling of exclusiveness: that not any average Joe will go there, it's not something common like (insert lots of contempt here) IKEA.
Second: it creates curiosity. Just by not being able to see, you get curious about what you are missing. A few nicely placed teasers on the front ...
11
There are 2 reasons I can think of:
Confirming an email address before letting them in.
Making it slightly easier for a new user to set up their autofill username + password while their password is fresh in their mind.
If you don't care about their email address, then I would log them straight in. See reddit's sign up process, for example.
There are ...
11
CAPTCHA and email verification serve different purposes, so one does not replace the other.
CAPTCHA is a way of trying to make sure that it is a person that is submitting a form and not just a script. There are many alternatives for how you can do this, but that is another question.
Email verification is a way of making sure that the email address that ...
10
Why would any user want to have two separate accounts?
If you ask me, I want one login for everything on the internet (and still retain control over my privacy, thank you).
You would build artificial hurdles. I'm a seller, and see something I would like to buy.
Do I have to log out, log in with my new "buyers" account, find that product again?
Do I ...
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