The never ending debate last week, this subject has been beaten to death, I kept hearing the infamous “in my opinion..” over and over again. I unfortunately had to use the “your opinion doesn’t count here, it’s what makes it smoother for the user what counts, your job description includes shutting up when you have to, read the fine prints next time”
The short answer, email!
here’s why:
- No duplicate issues
- If the email is already registered, it means that the user already registered (duh!), he can request a password reset
- One less thing to think about (how many times you bumped into “sorry username already taken” and had to think of a username that doesn’t sound stupid?)
- If it’s a social network or the user has some sort of a public profile or credentials, let him choose a display name.
- Take it a step further and offer OpenID
There you have it!
by Thomas
16 Dec 2009 at 11:07
Very interesting and straightforward post.
However, don’t you fear to lock out the computer-illiterates who are sharing a single e-mail address ? Couples, or small organizations e.g.?
by Soupy
17 Dec 2009 at 11:03
Hey Thomas! thank you for your comment, much appreciated.
By using an email address I am not locking computer-illiterates out. it’s always one account per email even when using a username instead of a full on email. Restrictions should be forced just to fight spam (can u imagine opening several accounts using one email address to spam?).
In the company that I work for, all of our “shared accounts” have one email address and one password (the ones that don’t give different type of permissions) we log in to our twitter account/whatever using the same credentials.
What I would suggested is the following, if an email is already in use, ask the user to reset the password (in case he/she forgot it) or suggest to get a new email (why not?) by providing links to free web-based emails.
Since everybody uses the policy “one valid email for every account” for security/spam/control reasons, I suggest to go with just the email for the reasons I mentioned in my post.
It is our job as UX specialists to make it easy for computer-illiterates to use a certain website, but when it comes to security/spamming issues, a bit of sacrifice is needed.
by Akshay
12 May 2010 at 00:27
Nice article. But hey, disclosing email means invading privacy. Eg- on a file hosting site , if it says “uploaded by a@a.web” next to each file. Display names might work in this case bt username is must. Though i myslf prefr email login. Thanx.