Best practice for a public page (not logged in page) prior to log in

Question

Hoping to get some best practices on what should be shown on a landing page or a not logged in page prior to our users logging in. We have a landing page / public page before the login page.

And we have a search bar on this page to enable users to search our public content. We have links to product info, learning, case management but every time a user clicks on any of these links they would be taken to the login page. In fact, we have 6 such links + 3 others that say "Log in".

What we are debating now is if this would be frustrating for users to find each time they click on a link they are taken to the login page or is it still pertinent for us to keep these links as they provide info on what this portal can help with.

Any suggestions? Looking for best practices and any UX studies that would sway the decision makers one way or the other. Thank you!

Answer 1

You should stick to what you are already doing by making the sign-up process contextual, it lets the user understand why they are signing up. Big apps like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. do this.

It's like letting a potential customer try out your bread before buying the full loaf. If you bake something the user likes, they'll buy the full loaf.

YouTube does this, you can view as many videos as you like, but as soon as you try commenting/liking/etc. It redirects you to login/signup page.

Personally, this is the way. Make the sign in/sign-up section contextual. You answer the question "why am I signing in?". Using the YouTube example, showing the SignIn/sign-up call to action after a user tried to like a video sets up the following context "oh, if I want to like a video I should be logged in. I should login then". Way better than showing the login page as soon as the user tried viewing a video, cause the user's context is "why do I need to login before watching a video".

Answer 2

• Maybe a 1-2 min review of the video will be helpful for the user then a popup if they want to continue to watch, then login. Other basic standards includes,
• Show them "why they should login?"
• Give them a short login experience with as quickly as possible so that they don't hesitate to login/signup

Answer 3

It could be slightly frustrating but it's also a very common practice in the industry these days. Most popular websites like Linkedin, Facebook, etc. follow this. The landing page (or the Google search landing page) will have some info and links but when you click a link, you'll be redirected to the login page.

As long as you balance it out by having a nice and minimal user friendly design, as much useful or utilitarian information on the no-login pages as possible, etc., there is no reason for the user to become too annoyed.