Category Archives: ux

On the way to Amsterdam from San Francisco. So many miles. So little space… For legs, arms, books, food, necks, feet, bags. On the last leg of this trip the flight attendant used the bathroom as her “office” — when it wasn’t otherwise occupied of course. For some reason I had to take three different hops to get over there. Looking forward to a single flight on the way back. However, once I’m settled in, there’s alot of time to read, or even work if there’s no one sitting beside me. Can’t work on a 17″ laptop without bumping into the next seat.

Think of it, a sign up form can be almost conversational, as easy and intuitive as writing on a sheet of paper. Luke Wroblewski in a UIE Spoolcast points to the Huffduffer signup form as an example.

I’m totally envious. Talk about reducing a barrier to adoption. I wish all sign up forms (and the ones our team is working on) could be as easy, fun and conversational as this. Even for a bank or financial application. The same requests for information could be presented in an engaging way. Also the Huffduffer signup uses progressive engagement, asking for a bit more information at the next step. There are examples all over the web, from Netflix on, of how well this works to draw people in to getting involved with a site or application.

Good article in UX Magazine on welcoming users to a new site or application.

As the author, Whitney Hess, mentions, the unique focus of first experience with Tumblr is worth emulating… certainly has caught on virally as the easiest of the blog platforms to get up and running quickly. And the sign up experience at Tumblr is similarly smooth and simple.

(If you haven’t seen Tumblr, check it out. Easy to discover a wide range of content and contributors.)

Wishing the new sign up flow our team is working on now could be as smooth and easy as Tumblr. When you’re trying to welcome new people in, its not the right moment to set up multiple barriers. As this article points out:

They say you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, and on the Web it’s truer than ever. If you don’t capture the attention of new visitors from the moment they arrive and guide them on their initial journey through the site, they won’t learn that the benefit you provide outweighs the cost—their time and effort to participate—and as a result, won’t stick around very long.

In addition, for sign up or any interaction, it’s important to let the user know you understand their context. If they’re on a mobile device, don’t expect the same complexity of inputs (long sign up forms, etc.) as on a larger screen with a keyboard.

The article is part of a new book, Designing Social Interfaces, putting it on my reading list.