One thing that continually pains me on my daily travels around the web is the seemingly relentless requirement to sign up and register to use most websites.

Requiring registration in itself is not necessarily without reason (or merit) - web sites are in a very competitive space these days, and have to strive to provide compelling offerings to their visitors to keep them coming back. But the amount of information they expect a visitor to provide as part of registration is often cumbersome if not daunting.

Large forms absolutely do put people off completing registration on your website. Here are some key considerations to think about when designing your online sign-up or registration processes.

1. Do you really need to know that?

Think carefully about what information you are asking visitors to give you. People are very protective of their personal details. And fields such as Date of Birth, Address, Post code, Phone number, etc. start raising red flags immediately. Unless you have a very good reason for needing to know personal details (an online store needing delivery address for example) don't ask for that information.

2. Do you need to know that right now?

Consider keeping the information required to sign up as bare minimum as possible - perhaps its just an e-mail address and a password. Then as the registered user starts to use a feature of your website that requires more information, ask for it then. People are far more likely to give up additional small pieces of information on demand if they are already a registered user and therefore have a vested interest.

An example might be a registered user making his first post in your online forums; "Hey there, we notice we don't have a nickname on file for you yet - would you like to give us one now so you can complete your post?"

3. Provide an incentive to give more information

An approach I've seen several sites using is to provide a virtual incentive to providing more information over time. For example LinkedIn will let you know that 'your profile is 87% complete' because they have more fields which can be filled with your information. While arguably this is a pretty arbitrary measurement, it is an incentive to fill in that information. It's surprising how much it motivates people to have a goal (in this case '100%') to reach.

4. Keep private information private!

Accepting personal information about a visitor on your website comes with a moral (if not legal) requirement to look after that information in a responsible manner. Facebook controversy has shown how sensitive people have become to their details being published without their explicit knowledge.

Be absolutely transparent with explanations of why you need to know personal information and what you will do with it. If, for example you have a profile for each user of your website; be clear about what will be shown publically/what will be shown to other members, and give options to enable/disable showing such information to the user.

Conclusion

These principles can be applied to most online forms, not just registration or sign ups. Filling in forms is no one's idea of fun. So you, as a responsible site owner should try to identify the pain points in your forms, and make it as simple as possible for someone filling them in.

[This was originally posted on the Red Jungle blog]

Have a great Xmas everybody. Blogs may be a little thin on the ground for a while - I'm off to get married in a few days!

News / Web Happenings:

Songbird 1.4.2 Released, Brings New Look, CD Ripping, and Device Support
Firefox 4 Windows mockup provides 5 UI hints of things to come
Etherpad Now Open Source
uTorrent 2.0 RC Brings Transfer Cap and UDP Support, Video Streaming to Come
Firefox 3.5.6 Update Brings Security and Stability Fixes
Google's Text-to-Speech Converter Service
Goo.gl, Google's URL Shortener
Mapping out public transit options in Auckland: Google New Zealand Blog

General / Neat Stuff:

Google Tool to Check How Much of a Page Appears in Typical Browsers

Apple:

Apple Releases Firmware Update to Address Screen Flickering on 27-Inch iMacs
Apple Rolls Out iTunes Movie Bundles

Development:

jQuery 1.4 Alpha 2 Released
Mono 2.6.1 is out
ASP.NET MVC 2 RC Released

FAIL of the week:

Safety Product Fail

News / Web Happenings:

SharePoint 2010 Ignite Training announced for NZ
Google Chrome for Mac and Linux Finally Hits Beta; Very Fast, Pretty Stable
Chrome Extensions Gallery Officially Opens
Thunderbird 3 Officially Released with New Features, Improved Look
Google Googles: Take Photos of Things Around You to Search for Them
NAVTEQ, Microsoft team up for better 3D maps
Google Launches Real-Time Search
Offline Gmail graduates from Labs
Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows - includes Skype Access, call transfer and more

General / Neat Stuff:

Repair a Broken Ethernet Plug with Zip Ties
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Apple:

Apple Acquires Streaming Music Service Lala Media
New! Pingdom iPhone app 2.0 - Get push notifications when your site goes down
Apple Rolls Out New App Store Look
Google Mobile App for iPhone Updates for Speedier Results
Ustream Streams Live Video from Your iPhone 3GS

Development:

Birds Eye View - Google Maps API - New
Google Translator Toolkit Data API
Styling HTML Lists with CSS: Techniques and Resources
Mono 2.4.3 is out

FAIL of the week:

Golfing Fail

News / Web Happenings:

Introducing Google Public DNS: A new DNS resolver from Google
Google Officially Converts Homepage to Minimalist, Fade-In Style
Black Screen of Death Not Microsoft's Fault
Bing Maps Take on Google With Fancy 3D Streetview
BitTorrent Tracker Mininova Goes Legal-Only
Dell Offers Customized Chrome OS Build for Mini 10V Netbooks
Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 Available with Many Fixes
Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate Available for Download
Google to Acquire Teracent, Makers of Algorithm-Generated Banners
Chrome Extensions Gallery Open to Developers
Hands-On Look at What's New in Office 2010
Gmail Now Lets You Add and Send Attachments Offline
Google reveals what New Zealand searched in 2009
Recent Windows Patch Causes "Black Screen of Death" For Many Users
Microsoft Office 2010 Arriving in June 2010
Invite to IT Pro 'fireside chats' with Microsoft execs
TweetDeck Updates with Support for Lists, LinkedIn, and Geolocation

General / Neat Stuff:

Layar 3.0 Puts 3-D Objects in Your Augmented Reality
Your call cannot be connected due to stupidity
ASUS Maximus III Extreme mobo lets Bluetooth cellphones tweak settings

Apple:

Apple to Take iPhone's Maps App to 'the Next Level'

Development:

Free .NET Profilers and Some Paid Ones Too
Pushing Your Buttons With Practical CSS3
Critical Mistakes Freelancers Make
Google Analytics Launches Asynchronous Tracking
Google Says Adios to Gears, Hola to HTML5

Fail of the week:

Before and After Fail

News / Web Happenings:

The new 2010 Office.com online portal enters beta
First Glimpse at Google Chrome OS
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 available November 24th includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers
Silverlight 4 Beta Announced
Fring Puts Free VoIP Calling on Android
Camino 2.0 Adds New Features to Speedy Mac-Centric Browser
Opera Mobile 10 Beta Available, Now with Tabbed Browsing and Speed Dial
Office 2010 Professional Beta Available for Download
Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Available with 90+ Bugs Squashed
Seesmic for Windows preview launching today!
The Pirate Bay Tracker Officially Shutting Down for Good
Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta Brings Hardware Acceleration to Web Videos
SyncToy 2.1 Update Speeds Up Windows File Syncing
Chromium on Linux Gets Bookmark Sync
An Early Look at Chrome's Extensions System

General / Neat Stuff:

Apostrophe.me Explains When You Really Need Apostrophes

Humour:

Academia vs. Business
Tech-support slash Designer

Apple:

An update to Google Earth for the iPhone

Development:

Announcing the Official jQuery Podcast
Designing CSS Buttons: Techniques and Resources
Introducing Mapsicle - a Street View library
ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta Released

FAIL of the week:

And the Darwin Award Goes To