Don't let the login shut down your users

@TerryFan (Cisco Cloud Collaboration User Experience Designer): The original author Raluca Budiu is the senior developer of Nielsen Norman Group, which shows some examples of landing pages and provides some solutions. Personally, although from the perspective of pure user experience is reasonable, but from the product marketing perspective, some processing is still necessary.

Welcome to my micro-letter public number "book translation" to get a new article push.

============================= I'm a login to the split line =============================

Summary: When users use mobile applications or view site information, forcing them to register or login, not only improve the user's interactive costs, but also violate the design of the principle of reciprocity.

In a large number of user tests, we rarely see a user in the face of the "login wall" does not feel bothered. "Login Wall" refers to those pages that require a user to log in or register to continue.

The Ruelala on the left shows the landing interface when it starts, while the gilt on the right shows the product to everyone.

The image above is a two-pin mobile application, and the Ruelala on the left shows the login interface when it starts: this makes it impossible for potential consumers to know whether they are interested in the product in the application. The gilt on the right shows the product to everyone, and only when they buy it, they need to sign in. Gilt's approach is clearly more reasonable because they give users expectations, which gives the user a good reason to sign up.

The login wall greatly enhances the user's interactive cost, for those who have accounts, they have to remember the login credentials, and none of them takes time to create a new account. Therefore, we should only use it when the login wall can bring great benefits to the user. Private personal applications, such as mail or banking, that can block intruders from the login wall. However, the login wall is always an annoying presence for services that are rarely used by users. Take a look at what the user says in the study:

Registering thousands of different websites is a never-ending obsession for me, because I just want to look at some of the most basic information inside, so what's the point?

Login wall does not belong to product first experience

Although we have suggested this in 1999, there are still a number of websites that require them to log in before presenting their real content to the user. It's especially common on the mobile side, when you first start an application or visit a Web page, a login wall is in front of you.

Let's take a look at the following case, Task Rabbit require users to log in to see the content of the site, they can not see any of the tender information or Granville (translator Note: A freelancer is a tall name, specific can ask Niang) of the information, that is to say, Users simply do not know the site can provide services and quality of the customer. If I want to find someone to help translate the letter, do you think this website can help me? or do I have to look at other websites?

Task Rabbit requires a user to log in to see the contents of the site

Instead, odesk allows potential users to see the site's tender information and a list of their clients, and they will be better informed about whether the site is right for them.

Odesk shows the content of the site before the user logs on

Odesk the content of the site before the user logs on, and only needs to log in when the subsequent user publishes the solicitation information or hires a customer. Even so, the site can still get benefits (in fact, perhaps more), as more potential users will be able to complete the transaction on their platform.

In our user experience training course on mobile end, we also talked about the problem of the login wall, and the most commented on is "but this is only the first time, the next time the user comes to stay in the state of login!" You know what? Maybe there's no next time. Users must be bothered to enter their own information before attempting to do something unknown. Based on the expected utility principle (interaction cost versus profit), users don't have a lot of ideas about what they can get out of using your app or website, but they know it's a burden for them to fill out a bunch of information (especially on a touchscreen phone, it's too painful to enter a username and password). You need to give users a lot of power to make them want to take it, not to delete apps, and then look for alternatives, and that only takes two steps.

(Of course, when users have a preference for your brand, that's a different story – if I have a Facebook account and want to use it on my phone, Twitter doesn't have any use for me, even if it doesn't need to be logged in.) But for most companies this is not the case: there are always other similar applications in the market that can be simpler than yours. )

Some designers think that previewing a product's functionality (rather than its actual functionality) is enough to arouse the user's curiosity and then register. Maybe, a good preview of a product can increase the user's assessment of the expected utility of the product, but they still need to guess, and to be on the safe side, they will lower their expectations, knowing that many of the online services are so flattering that the user is already getting it.

Most of the cases, these previews or introductions are so ambiguous that the user is not determined to use your product, although it is better than nothing, but far from the ideal goal-users can not interact with the product, but waste a lot of time to see the introduction.

The trip it ipad version allows users to view the services they provide before they log on, but the introduction is almost entirely a step and function point, and the user simply cannot determine whether it is useful or usable.

Web sites and applications to force users to sign up, a trick they often use is to design this feature inconspicuous and place the focus of the interface on the login and registration options. Yelp is guilty of this: the functionality that can be used without logging in is hidden in two different designs. Many users ignore this feature and think they have to have an account to use Yelp.

Yelp is designed to make it hard for users to find features that are not logged in, and the "Register Now" button is significantly more Sign.

　The login wall at checkout

Many of the electronic business sites and applications set up a login wall at checkout time. The designer believes that the login can get the account information previously set, so that users do not need to enter the address and credit card operations.

This may be true for most users and most situations, but not absolute. Users often make a one-time purchase on a website. (This is one of the five electrical dealer users we've mentioned in a previous article) they want to complete the purchase as soon as possible, even if they create a new account, they may never use it again, which is almost no good for the site. Even those who own the account may forget the password or do not have the memo handy-this is a very common mobile user situation. (Yes, you can recover the password, but it's a long and time-consuming process.) In order to provide the greatest convenience to users, we recommend that the site provide a guest checkout function, allowing users to complete the purchase without having to sign in or sign up for an account.

Amazon is guilty of this: they don't have the option of a visitor checkout. Perhaps most Amazon users are repeat customers, which is why Amazon's user experience needs are different from most other electronic sites. Still, that doesn't mean the buyers will remember the password. In fact, we find that many Amazon users are unable to log on on the mobile side, they are regulars with other platforms (such as desktop browsers), and passwords are stored automatically, giving users little opportunity to enter their passwords and remember them.

Amazon forces users to sign in or sign up at checkout

Overstock users have the following three options: Create account, login and direct checkout as guest.

We can also use the Guest checkout function to replace the registration. When the user adds all the information, the site can provide them with an option to create a password to automatically complete the registration and keep their data in the associated account. We can wait until the user completes the purchase behavior and then the password creation, according to the principle of reciprocity, you help users to complete the transaction, they may be good for you to provide the experience feel great, then easy to create a new account is not alone.

PayPal Checkout is a better choice than a visitor checkout. (or Google Checkout, "Billing Me" checkout, or other similar options) so that the site can reuse the user and PayPal account binding information, which can greatly reduce the user's operation, in addition to the input PayPal password. (yes, that sounds ironic, we're against the login wall, but we're advocating that you let users log on to other services, but you know, users always remember their PayPal password, because many users will often do it to buy online.) In addition, on the mobile side, PayPal also allows users to use a PIN to log in, which is much simpler than entering a regular password. Although PayPal checkout is a good choice, but we can not use it to simply replace the visitor checkout, because not all people have PayPal account.

Neiman Marcus provides users with a guest checkout or through PayPal

　　Summary

As a rule of thumb, we suggest you use the principle of reciprocity when considering whether you want to set up a login wall for your users. Take the user as the first thought, the login wall settings can bring to the product what kind of benefits: if these benefits are not obvious, give up the login wall, or let users understand the meaning of its existence and let users know what they can get from your site.

The Electronic Business website should use the Half-open login wall, in addition to login and registration, provides the user to allow the customer to checkout or through PayPal Checkout the option, this can show the user your website to the different user situation as well as the interactive channel ponder.