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This is so common nowadays that for many sites I have the direct login page bookmarked. It indirectly implies that once you sign-up, the company stops caring ab

This is so common nowadays that for many sites I have the direct login page bookmarked. It indirectly implies that once you sign-up, the company stops caring about you. At-least for me.

philosopher1234 5y ago
It implies that because it’s literally true. Not a complete loss of care, but it makes sense to hide the sign in button because users who are already signed up are already invested, and less likely to abandon the service. The front pages main job is to grow the company by attracting new users, and a sign in button for users who aren’t going anywhere anyways gets in the way of that.
- simonh 5y ago
  Inconveniencing either current or prospective customers never ‘makes sense’. It’s not like you have a fixed amount of inconvenience you have to distribute.
  - philosopher1234 5y ago
    You have a fixed amount of screen real estate on the landing page. Distributing it to your most important users for that page (prospective users) does make sense to me.
    - kemotep 5y ago
      Is the solution presented in the blog to utilize a cookie to determine if someone is a prospective user versus already a user not an acceptable compromise? It seems rather straightforward to me, from their example, to de-emphasize the "Sign Up" button and prioritize the "Sign In" button for someone who already has an account.
      - philosopher1234 5y ago
        That seems like a good strategy to me. It raises the question though, is it worth the cost of maintaining a separate page?
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      I can’t see how people that already pay me money could not be the most important users?
      - philosopher1234 5y ago
        Your existing and paying users are: 1. Less likely to abandon your service than prospective users 2. by far less likely to even see your landing page, since they’re usually already logged in. In this specific context, your existing users are the less important ones.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  Churn is a thing though and is as important as conversions
- fckthisguy 5y ago
  While that may be the case (I'd also argue that the front page should be a welcoming place for existing users), showing me that you value your existing users is a great marketing move. It's otherwise very hard to convey that you care about existing customers so this seems like a no-brainer.
erhk 5y ago
It's punishment for deleting your cookie. Don't sign in we don't want that. Just stay signed in. Trust us.
- mrweasel 5y ago
  Even the solution in the article seems to suggest using cookies. I don’t understand the problem, if people want to try or sign-up for your service they’ll locate the signup button. That’s a one time problem. A hidden login button just annoys existing customers. My feeling is that this is down to testing without privacy in mind. Your site might be fine, but others aren’t so a minority of users will clear cookies at the end of each browser session. That’s not a senario most will test for or experience.
- tesseract 5y ago
  There are some websites that are both super aggressive about timing out your session and also make you play hide and seek for the login button. Of the sites I use frequently UPS used to be about the worst offender but the most recent version of their site does have a usable login link.
  - Anon1096 5y ago
    Vanguard is another one that drives me up the wall. Going to Vanguard.com doesn't have a sign in area to autofill with a password manager; you have to go to the personal investors page. And sessions are hard limited to 15 minutes so you have to jump through these hoops every time. I have the correct page bookmarked but even on that page the log in boxes don't appear until half way down.
    - switch007 5y ago
      The same Vanguard that could have millions of dollars of investments in your account? What’s the appropriate time out?
      - fckthisguy 5y ago
musicale 5y ago
> once you sign-up, the company stops caring about you precisely
daniellarusso 5y ago
Remember when a CRM was concerned with following the lifecycle of the customer, not just getting to the initial sale? Perhaps these are similar symptoms.

This is so common nowadays that for many sites I have the direct login page bookmarked. It indirectly implies that once you sign-up, the company stops caring about you. At-least for me.

philosopher1234 5y ago

It implies that because it’s literally true. Not a complete loss of care, but it makes sense to hide the sign in button because users who are already signed up are already invested, and less likely to abandon the service. The front pages main job is to grow the company by attracting new users, and a sign in button for users who aren’t going anywhere anyways gets in the way of that.

simonh 5y ago
Inconveniencing either current or prospective customers never ‘makes sense’. It’s not like you have a fixed amount of inconvenience you have to distribute.
- philosopher1234 5y ago
  You have a fixed amount of screen real estate on the landing page. Distributing it to your most important users for that page (prospective users) does make sense to me.
  - kemotep 5y ago
    Is the solution presented in the blog to utilize a cookie to determine if someone is a prospective user versus already a user not an acceptable compromise? It seems rather straightforward to me, from their example, to de-emphasize the "Sign Up" button and prioritize the "Sign In" button for someone who already has an account.
    - philosopher1234 5y ago
      That seems like a good strategy to me. It raises the question though, is it worth the cost of maintaining a separate page?
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    I can’t see how people that already pay me money could not be the most important users?
    - philosopher1234 5y ago
      Your existing and paying users are: 1. Less likely to abandon your service than prospective users 2. by far less likely to even see your landing page, since they’re usually already logged in. In this specific context, your existing users are the less important ones.
quickthrower2 5y ago
Churn is a thing though and is as important as conversions
fckthisguy 5y ago
While that may be the case (I'd also argue that the front page should be a welcoming place for existing users), showing me that you value your existing users is a great marketing move. It's otherwise very hard to convey that you care about existing customers so this seems like a no-brainer.

erhk 5y ago

It's punishment for deleting your cookie. Don't sign in we don't want that. Just stay signed in. Trust us.

mrweasel 5y ago
Even the solution in the article seems to suggest using cookies. I don’t understand the problem, if people want to try or sign-up for your service they’ll locate the signup button. That’s a one time problem. A hidden login button just annoys existing customers. My feeling is that this is down to testing without privacy in mind. Your site might be fine, but others aren’t so a minority of users will clear cookies at the end of each browser session. That’s not a senario most will test for or experience.
tesseract 5y ago
There are some websites that are both super aggressive about timing out your session and also make you play hide and seek for the login button. Of the sites I use frequently UPS used to be about the worst offender but the most recent version of their site does have a usable login link.
- Anon1096 5y ago
  Vanguard is another one that drives me up the wall. Going to Vanguard.com doesn't have a sign in area to autofill with a password manager; you have to go to the personal investors page. And sessions are hard limited to 15 minutes so you have to jump through these hoops every time. I have the correct page bookmarked but even on that page the log in boxes don't appear until half way down.
  - switch007 5y ago
    The same Vanguard that could have millions of dollars of investments in your account? What’s the appropriate time out?
    - fckthisguy 5y ago

musicale 5y ago

> once you sign-up, the company stops caring about you precisely

daniellarusso 5y ago

Remember when a CRM was concerned with following the lifecycle of the customer, not just getting to the initial sale? Perhaps these are similar symptoms.