►Feedback◄ Does "Register" turn off a lurking user?

BenHayat

Say I have an app developed in Aware, one type of user is Vendor that needs to register himself as a vendor, the other end is consumer.

As those of you who have developed public facing apps, do you find the notion of "Register before access" is a turn off to those lurking and surfing on the vendors and their products or do you see it as "Ok" to ask to register first?
Having a "registered" user is so much more beneficial for vendors to have some way of communication with consumers, but will forcing consumer to "register" before they have any access will cause losing them?

For example, the other I went to site that sells furniture, and I could see the pictures, but it was asking me to register with email address and etc. I gave up, didn't sign up and left.
Will this happen to my application if I force people to signup first?

Your opinion and experience is appreciated.

4xjbh

A Users Opinion,

I need to look at manufacturers products on a daily basis jumping from site to site to find everything I need to put into a building. It drives me insane having to create an account on each of these sites to download a cad file. But these are 'web sites ' not web apps.

Web apps that give me a lot of information to me in a features page, what it does, and how using this app will make my life so much better, will always make it more attractive to register than no information and a registration form.

Can you have a demo user similar to the aware sample apps that gives them immediate access to everything except broadcasting (email, chat etc). Have that magic register button there ready to go once you have sucked them in.

BenHayat

4xjbh wrote
Web apps that give me a lot of information to me in a features page, what it does, and how using this app will make my life so much better, will always make it more attractive to register than no information and a registration form.

This is exactly the point. A web App is more about "Information" than a website for marketing.

But I (most of us) have two dilemma.
a) Vendor tells me, how many "registered" consumers do you have in your system for me to Signup?
b) Consumer says, "What do have for me to register?"

It's like, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? 🙁

4xjbh

I would not be focused solely on 'registered users' focusing on how many new visitors a month visit the site , how many return there are are metrics you need to sell to your clients, these can usually be tracked via a cookie. There is a a lot of voodoo involved in marketing to get someone to cross the line.

If you are making your money from the vendor then you need to get as many consumers on your system as possible. your application should be able to serve the consumers needs on its own, without the vendors. As vendors get attracted to the prospect of getting more exposure to your consumers the addition of these vendors is 'value adding' to the consumer base.

You just need to find a way to get them to come back. The most comon way for this to happen is to give something away for free. Sometimes when you are trying to get an app off the ground it may be free for life to get those first ones in the door. Sometimes they may need an extended time to find out the benefits for themselves, giving a trainer 30 days free when an exercise program is 12 weeks may not give them enough time to 'evaluate'. If they dont signup have a good method to find out why.

I plan to let the office I work in now have access for life, no restrictions apart from storage quota. This is a boutique buisness that is unlikely to grow to users over 20. I can use them to make my app better. If I can market it correctly and make some money great.

EDIT: Maybe login using Google, Facebook etc will help and provide you with a perceived streamlined registration and information required to market / survey retention or lack of it.

CalD

for me it depends a lot on what the site is and what it is offering. Also what does it take to register. I have closed that many websites down when I click register and are presented with a massive form and a lot of "required" fields.
Register with email and password only I will do if the site appears to have what I want.
Also you can ask for an initial Reg of email/pass and then have a complete registration process later to gather other info you may need when the user is progressing to other areas of the site - i.e if they want to purchase something or contact a vendor etc

Obviously when a vendor asks how many registered you would disclose the first level of registration.

BenHayat

CalD wrote
for me it depends a lot on what the site is and what it is offering. Also what does it take to register. I have closed that many websites down when I click register and are presented with a massive form and a lot of "required" fields.
Register with email and password only I will do if the site appears to have what I want.
Also you can ask for an initial Reg of email/pass and then have a complete registration process later to gather other info you may need when the user is progressing to other areas of the site - i.e if they want to purchase something or contact a vendor etc

Obviously when a vendor asks how many registered you would disclose the first level of registration.

Thanks CaID;
Yes, we plan to have a minimum of a register form for consumer. First name, Last Name and email.
This goes into Registration object, that our admin sees the registration comes in. We have a software to verify that the given email is in fact valid email from a valid server.
Once it passes the validation, the system will transfer the form to the actual consumer object, creates a temp password and sends the user an email that they are registered and a link to activate their account with password we provided and asks them to change the password to their own. Once it's done, all the VP menu items show up and are ready to Rock & Roll.
The Vendor registration is a bit more and requires them to provide FIEN so we can verify they're legit business in US.

pureist

95% of humans have no attention to detail skills.
95% of humans have a 10-15 second attention span.
95% of humans can't, even if they want to, get past the first few bullet points or paragraph and a half of a document.
95% of humans are stupid as fluck.
..and
95% of humans don't want to do any work/make any effort, and expect something for nothing. They are lazy.

I wouldn't even ask them for their email. It's too hard, cause they would usually need to enter their email address TWICE and then the password TWICE then check their email to verify themselves. And this is not to mention all the Tab key presses and mouse clicks involved in this rigmarole.

Forget it. It's too hard/too much commitment.

I would just have a simple small panel (collapsible) integrated in the website (say, first panel in the left frame) which invites them to assign a 'nickname' for their 'Session' and a password.

Have an info box on the panel informing them that if they enter a password once then the system will assume they want to reconnect to an existing session, and if they enter a password twice then the system will assume they want to create a new session.

No having to click a separate button to create a new, and a different button to continue an existing, session. It's superfluous clutter.

You have to get them 'in the funnel' before requiring them to invest any real effort.

It's like fishing. You gotta get them on the hook first. And you have under 20 seconds in which to do it.

Hence I don't suggest a popup sign-on panel because it blocks their view of something underneath they might spot which might get them on the hook.

If you don't want to put a collapsible login panel in the left frame, then perhaps a left side slide out is okay in terms of not obscuring their view of something that might get a bite.

I use 'Session' above, but the nickname they choose becomes their Customer ID, thus they are really creating a new customer. But don't use the word 'Customer' at that stage because is sounds to committal. Hence I suggest calling a 'Session', what the system will treat as a Customer.

If they order something, then they will expect to attach their email, name, etc. to their 'Session Profile'. And maybe they will even want to change their Session 'Nickname' when they decide to get serious.

The above is possible (never having to leave the webpage and use the Aware login screen) if you design an application around using Session_ID().

BenHayat

pureist wrote
...

I'll be having two types of consumers in the system. A guest consumer type to do mostly surfing. What you described, defines the lurking consumers. This will get them interested in stage two.

Becoming a registered consumer with valid emails, allows them to become part of a hub or network which ties them to vendors in the same hub. This requires a valid email address.

One step further is a direct connection with vendors, this will also require a valid registrations.

The app is "Business Networking" among Vendors/Consumers and not a shopping mall.

pureist

yes, but you are still dealing with humans. thus, the same issues prevail.