- Forms
- Explaining the process
- Community driven
The light version of this pattern is the shopping cart of an e-commerce site, where the user can accumulate relevant products in a cart and then in turn register an account if he or she chooses to make a purchase.
In the heavier version of this pattern, an anonymous user account is immediately created for the user – full with an auto-generated database ID and a complimenting cookie with the account’s ID that will ensure that the user’s details and the information he or she has entered will be remembered upon the next visit. With appropriate intervals, inactive anonymous accounts are cleared from the database in order to not clutter it up.
As the user interacts with the system, data is accumulated to the account. While some data might not be shown to the user other kinds of data will. It is the latter kind of data that in turn will make the user register – the visible evidence that the user has invested energy into using the system. A smart way to gather such data is to expose holes of data that the user can populate.
Two such holes are the username and password: the two bits of information that will allow the user to log into his account from more than one computer.
For this pattern to work, you need to provide the users with an incentive to give you the registration data you are looking for. You need to provide a worthwhile service to your users for them to give you their data back in return. You want to use classic Carrot and stick motivation – and just as important: communicate the benefit you are providing. If the registration data you are looking for with the user is sensitive, you must be able to assure your users that their data will be safe and secure.
At penzy.com, you don't have to create an account to try out their product. The application lets you play around before you decide to save your work.
Geni.com let's you start immediately without registering for an account first. It lowers the barriers of entry for the user to start exploring and be motivated to actually signing up.
Slide.com lets you play around with their software before you decide to sign up.
Scapblog.com uses the lazy registration pattern to lure its users into signup. It postpones signup until the user has put enough time and effort into the web application, that not signing up for an account would make him or her loose work put into the application.
UI-Patterns.com is the work of Anders Toxboe – a Danish web developer seeking to categorize what has before seemed like ad hoc approaches to developing web applications.
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© Copyright 2013 - Anders Toxboe, UI-Patterns.com
Jasper Kennis
20 Mar, 2008
Voted negative, for the simple reason that I believe (so no prove what so ever here) users are more likely to just toy around without really getting involved if you don’t demand them to really decide to take part in what ever you have for them. I think having to registrate to be able to do something can be annoying, but at te same time makes you feel more involved, what makes you remember, what makes you come back. I guess…
bryan migliorisi
22 Mar, 2008
I completely agree with Jasper. I wouldnt implement a ‘try-before-you-buy’ type of account in any of my web sites. Most of my sites do not require an extensive registration process anyway, so it would be only a minute or so of the users time and that 1 minute may turn away a few potential members, but at the same time it presents those who go through with the process a bit more involvement and that makes them likely to return.
thomas
24 Mar, 2008
Absolutely positive on this one, I acutally saw very impressive numbers of the effect such a lazy registration can have.
Janko
25 Mar, 2008
I also voted negative. Account registration pattern describes an extremely easy way to register a user and requires only a few fields to fill, so, I would always force users to register instead of letting them to try.
Andrew Assarattanakul
25 Mar, 2008
There is a good and a bad from this type of registration.
Some people will feel cheated if they spent their time on something then prompted with a registration form to save their work. You may get a few more people to register because they have something to loose if they don’t.
On the other hand you will get more people to try out your web site because they can use it without having to create yet another account on another web site.
Rob:-]
26 Mar, 2008
Check this article at A List Apart: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/signupforms
JoseFajardo
31 Mar, 2008
You guys are voting it down for business reasons. The actual pattern is sound in my opinion. You guys have to remove your bias for judging based on business reasons. This pattern meets the needs of what a “Lazy Registration” should be like!
Voted up!
Lindsey
28 May, 2008
A positive vote from me! Some services are perfect for this, like the calendar in the example, or any of the to do apps. Allowing the user to begin playing with a new application is an excellent way to pull him/her into the service. Also, what better way to explain the positive points of a service than by letting the user see the features?
JustAGuy
3 Jun, 2008
I totally agree with JoseFajardo and Lindsey.
Even for business reasons I would you use it. It’s the virtual variant of try-before-you-buy. If the product / service is perfect for your users they will coe back. Not because the filled out some form.
wiNZurf
5 Mar, 2009
I like this pattern, the engagement value is there, the user will be more likely to register after they have created something of value than they would if they had to register before hand. Once they have made an ‘investmnet’ they are more likely to protect it.
Patric Schmid
26 Jun, 2009
To some degree i understand the arguments against a Lazy Registration because you generate more “quality” users… One invested efford in registration = more interested and committed to service.
The PROBLEM with this thought is: your assuming a visitor fully understands the goal and benefits of your service instantly… – but does he really?
A user decides within 8 seconds if he is on the right page or not. (speaking he has found a site which solves his problem)
I would assume there are very few web-services which could claim a 8 “second-understanding”
Therefore i would always chose a free-trial or lazy-registration approach! Even give the users the main benefit without registration, then afterwards trading additional services for a registration.
I think the barrier to registration is very low if a user already had a benefit from my service or is committed through data he put in.
Greetings
Patric (Benutzerzentrale.de)
dvir
21 Jul, 2009
Totaly voted positive.
The difference between half a minute of registration and 5 minute registration is not as big as the difference between half a minute registraion and zero minutes registration.
rtdt
21 Aug, 2009
I agree this is a solid pattern and should be used if the information the user is being asked to interact with is not too involved. It depends on what this registration applies to. Tax forms? Obviously a full registration makes sense. A calendar application that simply lets me view friends’ birthdays? A light-weight solution makes sense.
A good rule of thumb is the registration should never take longer to fill out and authenticate than the actual function the user is trying to complete.
Bruce P. Henry
21 Oct, 2009
To me it seems clear that the user views the form fill on signup as a cost rather than a benefit. However, once they have used the application/site to produce something of value they go into “loss avoidance” mode. There is plenty of research out there showing that loss avoidance is a more powerful motivator than gain seeking. For sites that can use it, lazy registration would seem to be a very good business decision.
That said, even were it not, this is still a useful pattern for certain sites.
Andy W
7 Sep, 2010
Like all design patterns, this works really well in the right context. How you implement will depend on the specifics of the problem that you are trying to solve, but this is a mature and proven solution.
Japser, getting users to “toy around” is the whole point. That’s what creates the interest and engagement required for commitment in the first place.
LRC
16 Mar, 2011
This is no worse the ubiquitous 30 day software trial. In fact a time restricted ‘Lazy Registration’ would probably be a logical extension to the pattern outlined in the definition. I can’t help but suspect that people just feel put out by the name…
Shivam Maharshi
17 Sep, 2012
I completely disagree with Jasper and others who say that with lazy registration people just toy around.
Firstly if a person get to see what you have to offer and he likes it too then it makes sense for him to give you all his information. Even if you forced him to register and he does(which many people don’t) and he doesn’t like what you have to offer, he’ll probably never enter your site again, there goes a database entry just for showing that you have so and so users registered when actually very few use it, WHAT A WASTE…!!!
Secondly, When people are in a hurry at least they can use your service pretty fast and come back later to register (as they liked their past experience with your site). Saves a lot of their time so the site’s user experience increases, a big factor in determining its usage.
I think these are the two big factors.
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FischVolker
13 Mar, 2013
I don’t quite understand the arguments of the people who vote this one down…
Yes, you have to use lazy registration only where appropriate and “the right way”, BUT it is very convenient for the users and will prevent them from bouncing, when they are still trying to find out if your service is the right one or not. Getting started right away is much more powerful than the greatest tours (although tours are lovely!).
People don’t like to be asked for too much private information when they are building trust.
Of course, in a perfect world the users would fall in love with your site as soon as they enter and would willingly give you all their data and money before they use your service. Reality can be more difficult sometimes. ;-)
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