The article I chose to explore is written by Rameez Kakodker and it is entitled “10 Rules for User Sign-up Journeys”. I found this article interesting because of much of the impact it has on every person who uses the internet. For every website, it seems like a user can sign-up for something related to that site or company. I doubt some people can keep up with all the sites they have signed-up for and given their personal information.
In the article, Kakodker gives us 8 rules for the “sign-up” attachments to a site. under each rule, he allows the readers to understand why based on research to apply this rule. The first rule he gives us is to ask for basic information only to create an account. Some of the research behind this is that sign-up with more 2-pages cause users to drop off the site. Only asking for name, email and password are far more reasonable than asking for 3 pages worth of personal information.
After we learn the first rule of sign-ups, Kakodker then gives us steps 2, 3, and 4; Mark what is required and group them together, indicate password policy, and implement inline field validation & indicate errors onFocusOut. These three rules allow a site to minimize the steps necessary for a user to enjoy the site fully beyond the extent of signing-up. Grouping items together makes the process shorter and eliminates the repetition of information. Indicating a password policy will put a stop to common passwords by help the user create a unique one.
Rule 5 and 6 are next and they discuss the efforts and energy in not blocking access to an account with an unverified email and an just indicating the account exists with the email. These two rules speak to the safety of an account made by a user. Setting these email extensions up with the sign-up allow the confirmation of the correct person logging on and off of the site. “If a user enters an email that already exists in your database, don’t just tell the user that the email exists.” (Kakodker, 2019) By providing the user with a reason attached to their failed login, it becomes easier for a person to figure out the correct login and avoid creating a whole new one.
The last two rules (7 and 8) are social login should be the norm, and a tab keypress should go to the next field. From a user’s point of view, pressing the tab button is second nature when wanting to go from one field to another. But sites must put these features in place in order to create a smoother experience for the users. In terms of rule 7, creating normalcy of logins is great for all sites because it gives the user a personal connection to whatever site they are using.
With these rules, sites are able to change and evolve for their users based on the UX preference. Decision and mistakes are made based on the use of the user and their ability to control their own journey successfully through a login process.
Kakodker, Rameez. “10 Rules for User Sign-up Journeys.” Medium, 28 Sept. 2019, https://uxdesign.cc/10-rules-for-user-sign-up-journeys-7f9b19079a72.