29 April 2007

5 Trust Points for Website Usability

For a while now I've been working (slowly) on a new web application; the details are unimportant; I'll talk about the specifics in a couple of months when I'm ready to show something.  I have about 60% of the backend written, and am just starting in on the web frontend.

I am far from being a good "web designer", having the graphic-design and artistic skills of a newt.  The best I can hope for is creative imitation.  It worked for the Japanese car manufacturers, didn't it?  Consequently, I am paying close attention to what works and what irks on other websites, particularly the flow around initial engagement and user sign-up.  Here are the most irritating and unnecessary five things I've figured out.  These are all prompted by stuff I see over, and over, and over again on website after website.  It's getting old.

1. Don't Make Me Jump Through Premature Hoops

Allow me to explore the website. I am entitled to poke about and get some reasonable idea of what the site does, the why and how, before you ask me (or require me) to create an account.

I grant its really not a big deal creating an account, especially since most/all of the details I'll give you initially will be bogus because I have no reason to trust you at first. IBM still, about ten years after filling in a webform on their site, send junk mail (the paper kind) to "Lord Mike" :-)  But there's still some small effort involved in entering a Login-ID, email address and whatever other bits and pieces you require me to fabricate before you allow me into your walled garden.

If I cannot fathom enough detail about the site, if it does not help me to figure out the value proposition it offers me, I will just walk (well, click) away to somewhere else.  The Web is, for all intents and purposes, infinite.  For me to have stumbled across your tiny patch of virtuality was nearly a miracle in the first instance.  Don't block me from finding out whether I want to actually give you my time and attention.

2.  Don't Assume a Trust You Haven't Earned Yet

When I actually do sign up for an account, don't ask me for my whole life history, food preferences, sexual orientation and DNA samples.  I'll just lie, anyway.  I don't really trust you yet.  I only think that your site may have something I want.  This ties into the previous point: The more information I am able to glean before signing-up, the less likely I am to lie to you about myself, the more trust you will have created between us.

For the site I am building, I will be asking for:
  1. Your choice of Login ID
  2. Your email address.
Nothing else.  I don't need to know anything more about you yet; why would I assume that you're willing to give me any more?  I will generate a password and send it to you; I need to confirm that your email address works anyway, and, since I want to be able to send you email, I need you to confirm that you're OK with that, so I may as well send you a password at the same time.  You can always change it to that standard password you use everywhere later, if your browser doesn't remember it for you, anyway.

Incidentally, I just made the sign-up process as quick and painless as it can possibly get, didn't I?  There's only one way to make the process shorter.  Do you really, really need people to sign-up?  I know its an attractive proposition to a certain mindset, but is it really, truly necessary?

As I gain confidence in the site, I may go back to my profile page and fill in missing details, and correct some of the more egregious inventions.  This may take months or even years.  This brings me to my next point:

3. I Am Human, Ergo I Forget.


OK, so you don't burden me by asking for too many personal preferences and details early on.  Well done!  On the downside of that, I will repay your consideration by almost instantly forgetting that I left out details, lied about my birthdate or typed jarblewarblefarble into that form-field.  I know that you can actually make your site more useful and usable to me if I do give you those details, I just was not ready yet.

I suggest that you remind me occasionally.  Perhaps every second or third time I sign in, put a little reminder message on my landing-page, and ask me to fill in one specific piece of missing data.  And make it dead easy for me to do so, either by linking to my profile-management page, or by placing a relevant edit-field right there on the page.  Don't get tiresome by nagging me every time.

And while we're talking about reminders, if you're running any kind of email service, do remind me that I am subscribed, together with my subscription details and your unsub-algorithm periodically -- not more than once a month, but not less than quarterly.  Perhaps in the form of a newsletter.  (You did get my explicit permission to send me email, didn't you?)

4.  Don't Make Me Sign In Again

I'm talking about the phase immediately after initial-sign-up.  I've made the emotional commitment (however small!) to sign-up with your site.  Don't immediately demand that I do more work by signing-in.  I've just told you all that stuff -- login-id, password (twice, no doubt) -- don't make me type it all in again.  You're just being tiresome.

What?  Did you think somebody may have hijacked my IP address in the intervening two second?  That some malware may have sucked your session cookie out of my browser for nefarious unpredictable purposes?  Get over it: you already know who I am (for some value of "know".)

And then, once I am "signed in", don't forget it. (Hello, Feedburner!)

5. Reciprocate My Trust


Having
  1. signed-up for an account, possibly
  2. jumping through the confirmation email hoop, and then
  3. signed-in to that new account
Don't pretend you don't know me!  Don't present me with a page that says

Get an Account with Us!
Here is how:
Step #1: Create an account at Flibertigibbet.com
Step #2: Blah, blah, blah.
Step #3: Blah, blah, blah.

That's it!! What are you waiting for? Get major benefits, make money, win friends, influence millions! Create your account now!
Didn't I just do this?  Who are these idiots?
You just trashed my tentative trust in you.  Goodbye.

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