80
This is a great question and it may take a few more attempts to get it right. As a rule, people don't read, so a short description is key. I'd try:
Preferred Full Name
Nicknames are fine, titles are discouraged
Hope this helps
74
No!
You can't send "forgotten password" links to a single account if you have the same e-mail address, unless the user specifies a unique username. But what happens if the user forgets the username as well? Then you need to reset password on all accounts associated with the e-mail address.
65
Answering your question, which doesn't involve specific motivation behind it. Yes, people don't like to register on sites, people don't like giving information all the time, people don't like remembering passwords and user names.
This behaviour is common to everyone, but some groups are more annoyed than others and some are more radical than others; for ...
51
So basically you want someone who signs up for a new account and enters already existing credentials, to log in as the owner of these credentials?
I wouldn't recommend this:
The chance that the person signing up is not the owner of the existing account may be small, it is still possible.
The difference between signing up and logging in should be clear.
A ...
44
Yes!
There are no security problems. If two people share an email account, and one of them has an account on your site, either of them can reset the password on the account (since they both have access to the place where the "forgot username" and "forgot password" emails get sent). Both people have the ability to take control of the account, and that's ...
43
It depends
In the general case, the fewer forms you have the higher the conversion rate. However, if the form lacks important information for the users, like trust signals or other specific info, your completion rate will drop.
One thing at a time is much easier for the brain to process.
"Two stimuli therfore achieve worse results than just one. It ...
42
Yes, log the user in
There are several ways an existing user might end up on a sign-up page:
User clicks sign up by mistake
User recently signed up for an account and the browser URL autocomplete takes user back to that URL (most recent)
User forgot they signed up previously and is attempting to sign up again (and, like many users, ill-advisedly uses the ...
38
From English.Stackexchange: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5789/whats-the-difference-between-to-confirm-and-to-verify
Verification requires external evidence.
Confirmation requires a re-issuance of a believed statement.
To use your example: 'Confirm user account' is asking the user from their perspective. 'Would you like to do this?'. '...
38
Don't give instructions. Give clear, concise, impossible-to-ignore examples.
Display Name
(e.g., Bob Jones, Liz Johnson)
The example names that you choose, like the ones here, need to communicate that users are encouraged to enter their "daily use" first/last names, without having to actually type out that direction, which users may glaze over.
35
Yes - underhanded, but this is not a problem reserved for the web - it's long been an issue for print too.
A couple of years ago, the EU banned pre-ticked boxes on shopping websites in order to prevent such issues as unintentional purchase of insurance or optional extras when purchasing plane tickets, for example.
The legislation does appear to revolve ...
35
NO.
There are chances that user might have no idea about their registration status on the site. And start a fresh registration.
In such a case, best solution would be to OFFER a way to login by inline validation. Before the user reaches the password field, the validation should suggest ways to login as the email is present in database. But, since its not ...
34
Hiding information behind logins is really bad from the usability standpoint. Imagine you are a user who googles for a certain piece of information.
Workflow on website without registration-wall:
enter search-term into search-engine
click on first result
read question to confirm it's really relevant
read answer
Workflow with registration-wall
enter ...
31
Where is the best place to ask the user their ethnicity?
Honestly -- in the doctors office.
Unless the benefit to the user is clear then don't ask for it. You wanting to keep track for your own records isn't clear benefit to the user. If it turns out that a user sees value in telling you their ethnicity (like in a doctor's office due to ethnic related ...
30
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.
30
I disagree with the other answers, and say yes, it may make sense (with a couple of caveats).
There is an increasing prevalence of the combined login/sign up form pattern on some sites, where the whole sign up form is simply email address and password, and all more substantive profile questions become an optional step after registration. This pattern ...
28
As a non-native english speaker, I always have found sign in & sign up, VERY confusing, I always click the wrong button. You should avoid Sign up. Login and Logout are not so much confusing
28
The most common solution I've seen to this is including Facebook and Google login, considering most users will already be logged in to either of the social sites.
27
Does your system allow users to control their own display name at a later point in time? E.g., once hired, can Robert V. Jones go into some settings panel somewhere and change their own display name to show "Rob Jones" or "R.V. Jones"? (If not, what happens if they change their name legally and want to be subsequently addressed by "R.V. Smith"?)
If so, I'd ...
26
I'm not sure we can we specifically answer the question with the information given, but below are some ideas of what to do and what not to do that may help you determine the best course of action in your own scenario.
Automate the sign-in after sign-up. I really dislike those sign-ups that gather all the site needs to use an account then redirect users to a ...
25
Sadly there is no standard for the name of such an email - all your suggestions are used. But consider the following:
Verification Email - used when you can still access services, but need to verify your email in the meantime.
Activation Email - used when services (account) are not accessible until email activation takes place. You can argue that there is ...
22
The second time you are asked to enter your email you may notice it says "confirmation." That's all it is really, just confirmation that you are entering the correct email.
In some instances, asking for an email twice is crucial. Consider signing up for an email list for example. If the user makes a mistake and enters their email incorrectly, they may leave ...
21
Stripe.com (a payments processor) offers an even more "immediate" sign-up process - they allow you to skip it all together. Any guest can begin using their dashboard and begin customising settings, testing mock transactions and making customer profiles before entering any sign-up information. No username, password or email. It's only when you want to go live ...
19
I disagree with @Alphabeticaa's answer. From personal experience, I hate it when I need to register simply because I wish to view an article or post a simple question. I have a "dump" e-mail address with a free provider especially for these "one-time" registrations but I try to avoid them.
As a concrete example, I often browse the Stack Exchange websites ...
18
A form can absolutely be too easy to complete.
Some decisions need to be slowed down rather than expedited. One example might be a modal that reads, "click here to give your no-account Brother-in-law power of attorney."
LinkedIn got themselves a class action suit for making it so easy to spam everyone on your address list that many people didn't even ...
17
Because some people just want to watch the world burn
There's an argument that you wish to entice people to register (ie make it prominent), while those wishing to log in are already interested, and likely to not mind clicking the extra button. They are also likely to click "Remember me" anyway
It also depends on your paradigm, how your customers use your ...
17
Yes
There’s a widely agreed-upon guideline to “Remove fields which collect information that can be (a) derived in some other way, (b) collected more conveniently at a later date, or (c) simply omitted“ from registration forms.
But there is at least one big exception to this rule: the name field.
Your system probably doesn’t require a name to complete a ...
14
To begin with, It is known that Facebook did some multivariate testing on their site (with the delete account page, for instance). Although I'm not sure they did the same with their front page, it is safe to assume this design is based on empirical tests. But that's just an assumption.
Motivation
The likelihood of people undertaking a task is based on cost/...
14
If you clear the password field when you have a faulty password, then it should clear the password field on a faulty CAPTCHA too and it should not specifically state that it was the CAPTCHA that was wrong while the rest were valid.
Why?
In case of using CAPTCHA — i.e. you are expecting bots to come knocking on your door and you wish to turn them away — ...
13
I can't help feeling that if you can't answer this question yourself, then you don't know what you are going to use the data for even when you have it.
Maybe if you think about what data you actually need it might help? Do a little role playing where you put yourself in a position where you actually need to make use of this information in different ...
12
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 ...
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