Improving the registration form on the site
On the Internet, the registration procedure is found to us as often as the form of authorization on sites. You have to register to perform: in all kinds of web services that help you find the information you need, free distribution of materials, online stores, social networks, etc. At such moments, the feeling of joy from an interesting find instantly disappears due to the need to fill in endless input fields (besides, sometimes completely superfluous).
As a rule, all this is inconvenient, takes a lot of time and looks too intrusive. Plus, a person can reasonably be alerted to the requirement to provide information about himself, as this violates his privacy (and privacy is important to many).
Today we will tell you how to make the online registration form on the site convenient and less time-consuming to fill out so that it does not annoy potential customers. Let’s take a look at some good examples from the net.
The note is a translation of this article, plus we added a couple of details. Compared to login forms, there are much more different nuances to be guided by.
1. PAY ATTENTION TO SAFETY
People want to know that their personal data is protected. If you are not ready to ensure the privacy of your subscribers, then sooner or later they will turn away from you. When creating a registration form, think about how the user will perceive it. Often, he simply does not understand why you needed all this information, and this misunderstanding scares him off.
A case in point is registration in the Claritymoney service. In it you will see the now popular checkbox “I am not a robot”, demonstrating that the whole process is reliably protected. Why is this a good decision? – Numerous studies have shown the negative impact of the use of captcha on conversion, as a person has to put extra effort. Clicking on the flag is not difficult, plus it gives the visitor a feeling of complete security.
Good example registration form
A good implementation can also be found in the Mint.com project. An icon in the form of a lock is located on the “Sign Up” button – this makes the user understand that the whole further process is reliably protected.
Security for registration forms
After clicking on the button, you will be taken to a page where you will be asked to indicate your e-mail (note that there is no need to write your name and surname), phone number (optional) and password. After that, you just have to click on the “Create Account” button with the image of the same lock. By the way, at the bottom of the page you will find links to the company’s security policy – this is by no means an extra thing.
2. USERS NEED EXPLANATIONS
Another way to make the registration form more “friendly” with respect to visitors is to clearly explain to them why you are asking to indicate certain data. This is important because in most cases, people simply do not understand why you need their personal information. It will be great if you take the trouble to explain this, say, somewhere near the input fields.
A separate story concerns passwords. The Github resource immediately tells you what characters should be contained in it – the corresponding rules are located just below the field itself to fill. Remember how many times you invented and entered data on various sites, after which you received a system warning about the inadmissibility of the selected combination. This is very annoying.
Some services in the usability issue went even further – they offer beautiful meters of password strength and a built-in warning system that the selected login is already taken by another person. Moreover, the user receives all this information before clicking on the “Register” button. And do not re-require password confirmation – this is the last century!
Another good example of the foregoing is the popular Dropbox web project, where the entire process of creating an account takes less than a minute.
Dropbox Registration Form
3. DO NOT NEED MANY FIELDS
The motto “less is better” applies in our case. The number of fields to fill directly affects the potential conversion.
Take the ebay system. There, the online registration form is quite simple, given that this is the largest online trading platform where serious financial transactions take place. Here you will not even be asked to come up with a login!
Pay attention to the icons on the right – these are additional features that help you find answers to popular questions. Very convenient, practical and not distracting.
4. USE SOCIAL CHIPS
To simplify the process, it is often proposed to use e-mail as a login, but an even more interesting option from the point of view of UI / UX design is the ability to register and log into your account through accounts on social networks. This will allow logging in on the site in just one click, and the user will not need to store dozens of passwords.
