Most Common Log-in Problems and Solutions
by Nick Babich
For many of us, logging into sites or apps is a part of our daily routine. In fact, we probably do it so often that it’s almost automatic… until something goes wrong: we forget our password, our username, the email address we signed up with, or even if we ever signed up at all.
Detailed analysis of a major ecommerce sites found that 45% of all customers had multiple registrations in the system, 160 000 people requested their password every day, and 75% of these people never completed the purchase they started once they requested their password.
Log-in experience is a big deal. Designers should always strive to create seamless sign in experience. Here are a few things to focus on for to create good user experience:
Tell Users What’s Wrong
When users face a sign in problem, they want to know what caused this problem. Wrong combination of a username & password could lead to multiple attempts before successful log in… or create enough frustration for users to they quit. Generic responses (like ‘Your email or password doesn’t match’) don’t provide a meaningful feedback for your users and don’t allow them to fix their problem. Users, who are not logged in, read “One of these two fields is wrong but I won’t tell you which one”, and this reduces conversion rates and engagement.
You should help a user get through a log in task efficiently and effectively. The response should explain what isn’t matching correctly — the password, or the email address.
The stress of forgetting a username/password combo is alleviated on the MailChimp. If a username does not exist, they tell you before you even attempt retype your password. They detect the problem and offer a link to let the user fix it.
The Q&A service Quora takes a similar approach. Quora’s log-in form tells you if no account is associated with the email address you have entered, and it gives you the option to create a new account right then and there:
But this technique also has a major downside: it might allow a third part application to know that an particular email, person, name is registered on a site or app. Security and data privacy is important part of UX design that’s why this solution is not recommended for online banking (security reasons) or services where users might be concern about their membership status (privacy reasons).
Remind Users They Changed Their Password
Users can get so used to typing in their old password that they can forget they changed it. And when they see an error message “Your password is incorrect”, they simply believe that they’re mistyped the password.
What users need in this case is a reminder that their password was changed. Instead of giving users a “Your password is incorrect” error message, tell them how long ago they changed their password. This message should only appear when users type in their old password. If users mistyped a password, the system should display a regular ‘Wrong password’ error message.
Solve Multiple Log-In Problems
When see multiple sign-in options (such as sign-in via Facebook, Twitter or Google+) on a site or app, they might not remember which service they used to sign up (or if they used one at all), and thus hesitate or fail to log in. Even worse, when someone picks the wrong provider, instead of signing in to the service, they might accidentally end up signing up again, thereby creating a new account.
While a site or app can do its best to match accounts from different services, there’s no 100% guarantee whether a Twitter and a Facebook account belong to the same person. So, in order to solve multiple log-in problem you should keep users logged in until they explicitly sign out. The less people need to log in, the fewer sign-in problems you’ll have.
Another good solution is remember users when they return. Quora eliminates the need for you to enter a password when re-logging into service. All you need to do to enter the website is click on your profile picture or name on the log-in screen.
Again, these solutions have a downside — they work only for people who return to the website using the same browser. If users sign-in using a different browser or computer, this technique won’t be very helpful.
Design a ‘Forgot Your Password?’ Flow
Most users forget their password. It’s therefore very important that this situation should be well handled by the login process. Login forms should offer a ‘Forgot Password’ link to reset the password.
- Don’t show this link only after the user clicked on the password field or has already entered a wrong password.
- Don’t make users reenter their email address on the forgotten password page if they already entered their email address and then used the forgotten password feature.
- Don’t send the current or temporary password via email (security reasons)
The right thing to do is to send a reset password link on the registered email address. Also, make sure the reset password email is delivered as fast as possible. When it takes minutes (or even hours) to receive a reset password link, users might be easily upset with that behavior.
Warn Users Before Locking Their Account
To prevent brute force attacks user accounts are often temporarily locked out after a number of failed login attempts. This is of course a necessary security measure, but be sure to warn users before their account is to be locked.
Mailchimp warns users after the third attempt that their account will be locked for 30 mins after 9 more unsuccessful login attempts.
Conclusion
All parts of your product, even the most common interactions such as logging, should be designed with the maximum attention to details. Always design your interfaces to prevent errors.
Thank you!
Originally published at babich.biz
