Interesting, but I completely disagree. By removing anything that remotely signals the user to "sign in" is to assume that all users will live with and grasp the fact that "sign in" is not called "sign in."
Here's my issue. Fine to give the perception I am Amazon.com and I welcome you without asking you for your credentials. Not fine, in that Amazon heavily promotes their recommendation engine, but you must be signed in to get an accurate view of those recommendations or to see what you previously purchased. Because I don't shop at Amazon and the site is intensely text heavy, I keep missing the Welcome to Amazon.com "your name should go here but it doesn't because it doesn't know your name yet" feature, which says next to it, "if you're not, click here." If you're not what? If you're not you? If you're not who? Then, if you actually do click through, the next page has a "Sign In" graphic. Why not say "Sign In, if you're not," right? I thought in interaction design, we're not supposed to be about assumptions? We're supposed to make it clear to the user this is where you sign in. Just those two words alone save someone a world of headache when trying to figure out how to sign in. Amazon is not Wall-Mart, in the sense that it's not a physical store. When you walk into Wal-Mart, the cash registers are at the front of the store for a reason. They aren't just there to take your money when you leave, but to indicate to you on arrival that you may have to go through them at a later point in time, should you need to. If you want to talk supermarkets, I love the Whole Foods register area, where you stand in a line and the system shows you on the screen above which register is open for you at that very moment, so you don't have to scan 40 yellow lights to see which on is off at that very moment. Does Whole Foods need to display this information? No, they don't. Other supermarkets don't, but they live in the past. Clear, concise information that leads you to where you either want to go or didn't realize you needed to go, but now have information to make that choice, better serves the customer. When I forget how to log in to Amazon, I get frustrated. I should not get frustrated by this process. There should be no resistance at that point of egress. On 7/7/09 3:18 AM, "Jim Drew" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jul 6, 2009, at 6:51 AM, eva kaniasty wrote: > >> I don't buy the idea that users don't look for sign-in. I'd be more >> inclined to believe that sign-in has become a convention in itself >> that >> anyone who has used the web for any length of time is familiar with. >> Whether or not it conceptually makes sense to sign in first, I think >> users >> become trained to do things a certain way without thinking about it, >> and >> removing that functionality seems off-base. I am not arguing that >> sign-in >> shouldn't be seamlessly integrated into checkout as well, I just >> think that >> it doesn't make sense to remove it as a separate function. > > > I completely buy it. I've never looked for a sign in option at Amazon > > We talk about (gripe about) software coders who create UIs that serve > their programmatic model rather than the user? Well, you're doing the > same thing here: "I know that a user is going to have to sign in to > complete the transaction, so I want to know where that control is and > how it operates and how to sign out." > > But what Amazon arguably wants to be is a Wal*Mart (god forgive me for > saying so!). At such a store, by walking in the door, you are > assumed to be a customer, someone who is going to buy something, even > if that's just a candy bar. They don't have a guard at the door > saying "What's your name? Show me your credit card!", but instead > they have someone saying "Welcome to the store! Enjoy shopping!" > > By assuming that if you're there, you're going to buy something -- and > if not this time, the next one -- they take that "Show me your ID" > gruffness out of the equation, saving it for the time when it is > actually needed, at the purchase transaction. And in doing so, they > remove/reduce the opportunities for users to get fed up with the > questioning and just leave. > > > > And in contrast, today I did my monthly visit to the Science Fiction > Book Club website to say "Nope, don't what this month's offered books, > don't send them." This site *doesn't* remember that I've been there > before. So I have to go to the upper right corner to sign in -- to a > link usually partially off-screen because they assume I'll have a non- > portrait shaped browser window (but I do), rather than a username/ > password control. And that takes me to a page where I have to choose > either to Sign In or create a new account -- again, not to a username/ > password control. And that takes me to a username/password control... > which have my saved credentials already filled in. Talk about wanting > the returning customer to feel like they are annoying you! (Actually, > I fib slightly. That's the flow from a couple months ago. they've at > least merged the 2nd and 3rd screens, which reduces the annoyance by a > factor of 2, but they still don't put it on the front page or sign me > in automatically, still making it 4 times as annoying as Amazon's > method.) > > -- Jim > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! 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