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Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

smashingmagazine.com

41–50 of 178 posts

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#41
post #36

I hate being forced to login with my email address. My username is the same or similar for most sites I use but I use a site specific email (with gmails + feature) for almost every sign up.

Do you hate it because you end up having to type a longer username than you'd prefer? Or what?

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#42
post #32

Autofocusing the login field is a bad idea. Sometimes the javascript take some times to load and the user already filled the login field and is already typing is password when the javascript focus the login field: then the password is written in clear on the screen, and that's not pleasant for the users.

I always embedded the focus javascript immediately after the username, so that as soon as that part of the DOM is loaded, the user's input is focused there.

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#43
I feel that asking a user for the right username after they sign up wastes even more time when they can settle it all at once at the sign up page... The tips mostly reduce hassle and why cause them more trouble by alerting them that their username is already taken when they felt they're already set to use the site.

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#44
post #38
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the prevailing sentiment right now seems to be that OpenID is not a good idea.

Why, exactly ? I'm about 100x more likely to sign up for your site if you let me press a button and log in with my Google account. It's also really easy to implement with Django middleware. Google turns up a Quora thing which, frankly, is full of handwaving bullshit. Are there actual technical reasons why OpenID is bad?

As far as I understand it, OpenID is still used, for letting people login with Google or even Yahoo accounts, but no longer with full flexibility in OpenID providers.

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#45

the best signup flow I have seen recently is http://friend.ly perfect integration of facebook .

The problem with the likes of friend.ly is that it forces me to use the email address associated with Facebook and it's PITA if you use multiple email accounts / filters for multiple purposes

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#46
I'm skeptical of such articles, but this one had a lot of good advice.

I so hate country selection popups that have 200 countries in them, and United States is near the bottom even though 95% of their customers are in the US, or perhaps they don't even ship outside the US. So many sites do that and it is infuriating.

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#47

the best signup flow I have seen recently is http://friend.ly perfect integration of facebook .

The problem with the likes of friend.ly is that it forces me to use the email address associated with Facebook and it's PITA if you use multiple email accounts / filters for multiple purposes

The problem is nothing is editable (full name, birthday, location, email -- ok, they can have gender). If I'm signing up for some brand-new, unknown service, I'm usually not inclined to divulge anything more than an email address with an alias (+newsite@gmail.com).

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#48
post #22

I have never understood why I need to type my password twice. Inevitably I just copy what I wrote in the first box into the second. I'm also interested in the elimination of the post sign-up confirmation email. I'd rather get a "Welcome! If you didn't sign up for this service, click here" email, but I can imagine that if I didn't actually sign up for the service, I'd never want to "click here" for fear of spam. There…

The post sign-up confirmation email is proof to the service that you indeed opted-in to their service and agree to receive future emails. Without a confirmation, the service is at risk of being blacklisted for spam.

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#49
post #46

I'm skeptical of such articles, but this one had a lot of good advice. I so hate country selection popups that have 200 countries in them, and United States is near the bottom even though 95% of their customers are in the US, or perhaps they don't even ship outside the US. So many sites do that and it is infuriating.

This kind of thing is the curse of using off the shelf e-commerce packages. You can easily avoid these kind of mistakes if you roll your own.

Re: Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

#50

the best signup flow I have seen recently is http://friend.ly perfect integration of facebook .

I am reallllyyyy not comfortable with revealing my real identity on sign-up to a new website. It admits me to consequence in a lawless zone, full of wankers, that never forgets.

Also, I google everybody, whether because I am reviewing your cv, or because you are a friend of a friend. Facebook connect is a definite no-no.

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