So I’ve been toying around with how different sites handle the first crucial steps the user takes once signed up. This process should at least fulfill three criteria to be considered successful:
- Get the user to complete the process.
- Get the user to disclose as much of himself as possible, balanced against the previous point.
- Get the user to get as many of his friends as possible to do the first two points.
So far I’ve seen just one site that really manages to solve all three in a decent manner, namely Facebook. But Facebook also makes some mistakes in making it difficult to add friends in bulk and a very annoying confirmation-screen with just one real option, “back”… a flash-message à la 37signals would be nice. Not sure why more sites don’t take advantage of this. Virb is also pretty okay (as you would expect), although the momentum feels sort of lost when you’re done signing up.
I’m looking for best practices on these three points, any suggestions? It would be very nice to find sites that are making the signup process “invisible”, collecting information in a more intelligent manner.
Tags: friction, signup, socialnetworks, Web 2.0
19 June, 2007 at 10:09 am |
This is good stuff, I have been thinking about this for when I commercialize Yaalr.
19 June, 2007 at 8:47 pm |
Would be pretty sweet with a stat-app with a viral component, wouldn’t it?
25 June, 2007 at 2:11 pm |
Hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, that would be hot. Imagine sending your latest bunch of “hits” to your friends – “Hey doods, look at all the visitors to my web site!”
w00t.