Which is the better UX for a user to see their password at the sign up form? (default state)

Question

Regarding the login forms, it is advised to hide the password as default and providing the option to the users to view it in case they need to.

When it comes to registration forms though that the users are creating their password, they might type it wrong so they would probably need to view it in the default state. So in order to avoid typos, we can consider it as a good practice to show the password in default state with an option to hide it.

On the other hand, it is a convention to always hide the passwords even when it comes to registration forms cause this is what users recognise in general. For example,Yahoo and mailchip registration forms use the functionality of the eye and have the password hidden as default and if the users want to view it, they will click on the eye.

What would you think is the best user experience?

Answer 1

passwords are not hidden for the reason that it would be better user experience, but because it's a better security default when people don't check by default that someone might be watching their screen (like a contractor reviewing security camera footage or some other paranoid scenario)

ultimately it might be better user experience when your account doesn't get hacked, but this is not something you will discover during usability testing if you ask people to compare visible and hidden password input...

the possibility to show password is a good option only when the benefits outweigh the risks (e.g. to discover difference between password and "confirm password" fields, after unsuccessful login, when it's possible to switch keyboard layout, ...)