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This vividly shows how important usability is.
by mixmax 18y ago
This vividly shows how important usability is.
- scott_s 18y agoIt also shows how much users resent registration - which comes up here at least once a day.
- jmtulloss 18y agoIt's not quite as obvious for a shopping site. Users are going to all the necessary information anyway, but if you pose the question as "Would you like to save this information" at the end instead of "Create an account to get started", it makes a world of difference.
- FalconNL 18y agoIndeed. Though there are some fairly easy steps to reduce this as much as possible. 1. Give guests full use of all the features of the site. Posting, editing, befriending, etc. Store this information by identifying them by the combination of IP + username (which they have to enter for each post) or something similar. This will encourage them to participate (no barrier to entry) and let them decide whether or not they want to become a full member. 2. If they register, link everything they posted while they were guests to the new account, i.e. change the username on all the old posts (if necessary), etc. That way they don't lose all their stuff. 3. The only required information should be a username and password. An e-mail address should be optional, with a warning that if you don't provide one you won't be able to recover your account if you lose your login details. Naturally you should be able to provide one later if you decide you really don't want to lose the account. This keeps the "You just want to send me spam" people happy. 4. No mandatory confirmation email. When you click submit on the registration form you should be logged in and ready to go. Opening your mail client/website is an unnecessary and annoying step. I might have missed one or two points, but adhering to these rules should take the majority of the pain out of registering.
- arjunb 18y agoYep. Why does it seem like most new sites still roll their own reg? OpenID/Facebook Connect/etc all seem like better choices.
- SapphireSun 18y agoIt's a usability nightmare. No one knows what OpenID is, I only heard of Facebook Connect from you mentioning it. I once tried to establish an OpenID account for stackoverflow, but it was too much of a hassle so I didn't bother registering. Users can just reuse names and passwords. It sucks from a security perspective, but unless you can make it transparent to the user, you're pretty much boned because no one will want to use it.
- potatolicious 18y agoBecause facebook may not be around next year. In fact, given the way things are going for them, I would not be surprised if your site outlived theirs. When it's something as crucial as keeping track of your customers and users, don't "outsource" it unless there is a very, very compelling reason.
- markessien 18y agoFacebook covers only a small percentage of people online.
- astrec 18y agoAnother of my favourite examples from Luke Wroblewski's book is "A Case Study of Explosive Ordnance Disposal" by Jack Moffett: "When “Number of Deaths” is one of the field labels, you can be certain that every design decision is an important one." Fairly vivid too!