Registration Form Fail: How Much Is Too Much Information?

I recently came across a contest run by the Globe and Mail, asking readers to vote on their favourite user-submitted stories.

Getting users to vote on content is a great way to encourage interactivity. But here’s where many companies fall down: they ask for too much information.

Turns out you can’t vote without registering first. Fair enough. Here’s the form:

The first problem is it doesn’t indicate which fields are mandatory. This means a user fills out sections, hits submit, and suddenly gets error messages asking them to fill in the blanks (which is exactly what I did).

The second and bigger problem: why are they asking for so much personal information? All it takes to track a voting system is a user’s IP or setting a cookie. They don’t actually need anything else.

Of course, part of the contest was probably to stimulate subscribers to their website. Yet asking for so much information likely cuts their completion rate enormously.

You need my entire address, two telephone numbers, and my birthdate? Really?

As a rule, especially in this age of identity theft, companies should ask for the least amount of information possible. Usually this means little more than a name and an email.

That’s it.

Fresh vs. Familiar: How Aggressively to Redesign

Jacob Neilsen, the godfather of web usability, published a column recently on redesign. It’s a gem of a piece, as it highlights the main difference between how a business sees their website, and how a user does.

The basic idea: companies tend to think of web users as people that come to their site, click around for the sake of it, and admire all the time spent on their design.

Truthfully, users are task-oriented.

Users don’t care about design for its own sake; they just want to get things done and get out. Normal people don’t love sitting at their computers. They’d rather watch football, walk the dog — just about anything else. Using a computer probably rates above taking out the trash, though.

How does this apply to doing a re-design? While wild and unique designs have their place, it’s best to stick with the simple and familiar. This includes things like:

• Top or sidebar navigation
• Easily recognizable links
• Easy to read text
• Clear hierarchy of information

Of course, everyone wants their website to look good. But at the end of the day, it should help the user get what they want faster, without confusing them by having to learn your unique navigation or design.

Read the full article here.