61 Doodle

The Doodle website (www.doodle.ch) is even better – there is no registration or login.

(BugMeNot doesn’t either! And I’m not Peter Brown)

posted at 11:48 am on April 1, 2008 by Peter Brown

62 Untitled

i think it,s a great post.

posted at 11:14 am on April 2, 2008 by alan mick

63 Excellent post

Hi,
Excellent post. But how could you ever sign up to a new GMail account without providing any data? I think sign up forms will still exist even in 20 years…

posted at 10:18 pm on April 2, 2008 by Designer Timo

64 Some Thoughts...

Reading some of the comments on here about “ooh… it was an article about signup forms and we had to signup to comment, how ironic / ALA get your house in order…” etc… strewth!

Ok, as an occasional reader of ALA articles (usually from a google link – I long-since learned to trust ALA articles) I just decided that it was about time I signed up, so I can take part in the discussions. I was required to enter a username, password, and my name. Email and URL were optional but I gave them anyway. Bish-bash-bosh and I’m signed in. It’s not like they are asking for my biometrics! A few simple fields filled in and we are good to go.

Furthermore, surely the ALA process is exactly what this article was about? You get to read some excellent articles on a wide range of subjects. You get to read the comments that people make. If you want to comment, you are informed that you will need to sign up. The sign up process is simple and doesn’t even require email address. By reading “you need to sign up to post comments” you know exactly what benefit you will get from signing up. From reading articles and comments, you know exactly what you are signing up for. Seems to me that ALA have got it bang on with this!

The other thing, as I said I am an occasional reader of ALA. Now that I have taken the next step and signed up, this has introduced a new level of my relationship with ALA, which means I may be more of a regular than before – with increased benefits for myself and (hopefully!) ALA.

posted at 01:20 pm on April 3, 2008 by Nigel Moss

65 Spot on Nigel

I was just about to comment on this myself.

The entire point of the article was to let the people that come to your site actually see what they get out of membership and then have an “information as needed” sign-up form. ALA is a perfect example of this.

On the other hand, there are cases where there must be a sign up form for something to work right. Timo points out a good example with webmail, something that does actually need a sign up before you get to use it, but still there should be something like screenshots and maybe a video of some actual use with a dummy account that people can see before deciding to sign up for an account.

The key is balance, letting users get as much of a taste of your service as you can before you actually need to have them sign up to avoid things like malicious use of your service. You also need to balance what you ask for, a webmail company does not need my name, age, address, social security number, height, weight, age, birthplace, first pets name, and a contract to give them my firstborn child, etc… It needs Name, ID, PW, and maybe an alternative form of contact (snail mail or phone number) in case you forget your PW and need to reset it. Let me do a job search without being a member of your site though, and if I like your search methods I’ll join, rather than force me to join before I even see a readable screenshot of your search page.

posted at 03:38 pm on April 3, 2008 by Ben Kendall

66 Great thinking...

I see this as useful methodology in my direct marketing work. I market to potential new medical plan customers for my Medicare clients. Standard method is to mail them an info kit and drive them to our micro-site to answer a short questionnaire, check a box to ask for an outbound quote call, etc. or ask for sign-up forms. Medicare is scary, and I see this as a way to make it warmer to the prospect (age 64+, in terms of Web familiarity and comfort). Seems like it could only lessen the rate of abandonment in those sign-up forms.

posted at 11:05 pm on April 3, 2008 by Mark Field

67 Is a blanket appraoch really wise?

I read this article and found what it had to say rang true in a number of cases. However, there are sites where the details of a member need to be checked before access is given. One way to check that is to get the information required in a sign-up form. the account is created but not validated until the site moderator can check the validity of the applicant.

This is a different area to ‘web services’ this is really very specialist, data sensitive web communities. Ensuring the quality of members before they gain full access goes some way towards protecting existing members. It also improves the quality of experience once they have registered – opening doors to new content and new features. Whilst providing good content and useful experience for those who do not wish to register. I admit this is not perfect but for some sites it is essential.

The one thing I found disturbing about this article was the blanket approach it advocates – all sign up forms must die. this is not true and not wise.

posted at 04:28 pm on April 7, 2008 by Nathan Davies

68 Captures must die

The most annoying thing in a sign up form is mostly the capture. Sometimes the letters or numbers are so weird deformed that it is not possible to read them. And if you enter the wrong code and the form is reloaded sometimes all the entries you have done before are deleted. These captures really must die!

posted at 06:32 pm on April 7, 2008 by Gordon Brown

69 where's the numbers?

I will admit I am completely of a mind with you on gradual engagement – and you will see this approach in our ecommerce experience at Seatwave… (wait for it) …but:

- why don’t you publish numbers? I am constantly bewildered by aspiring thought leaders propensity to expatiate an opinion without providing numerical evidence of why it matters, for example:

Did Google’s signup process have a higher conversion rate to singup or did the other website’s? Your opinion’s nice and fine, of course…

I will state categorically that 100% of businesses that succeed pay attention to numbers – and 100% of those that don’t (well, ok 99%) completely fail.

posted at 03:10 pm on April 18, 2008 by taylor wescoatt

70 OpenID + ALA

Jeffrey — I definitely take your point about desiring a higher order of discussion on ALA, but OpenID might actually encourage that at this point — since it would make it a lot easier for those of us with OpenIDs to get in and focus on the comment we’re thinking of making before having to register.

I guess my point is that they’re not mutually exclusive. You can still offer registration as you already do, but for those with IDs stored elsewhere, you can make it easier for us to get up a running — and to prove that we’re from a certain URL/web address.

posted at 04:39 am on April 28, 2008 by Chris Messina