Sign in, register, join?
Have you set up, or are you about to set up a site where users can join/sign in/ register online?
What terms are you using for new and existing users? Here is a quick view of 30 different sites and the terms they use.
Date: 12 December 2008
Author: Russ Weakley
Category: General, News, Web
Tags:
Nice list. Login v. Log in is always up for debate in my mind. I’m happy to see others aren’t very sure either.
P.S. I think you’ve got wotnews.com.au’s around the wrong way.
I prefer the term Login as one word, although I think we’ll need to use “Sign up” and “Sign in” for our site – to me they’re clean and consistent. Did you also have a look at what these sites called their “members” and any preferences there?? (I could look myself I s’pose…).
I would imagine/hope that user-testing will help with ideas of terminology from a user perspective? Has anyone done this do you know?
@Simon: Thanks, you were correct. wotnews was around the wrong way. Fixed now.
@Lynda: Agree re testing. I think these terms are very site-specific. What is ideal for one site is not for another. User testing based on the sites target audience would help determine the best fit for the site.
I always like Join over Register as join sounds a bit friendlier – like you’re joining a club, whereas register sounds a bit more official, like there’s loads of paperwork or red tape.
Prefer login to log in – I think the words login have been around for long enough that everyone understands it’s an internet term and it’s familiar.
Call me old fashioned, “login” and “log in” have different uses. “Login” is an old technical noun synonymous with username, “log in” as in “to log in” is an action but they are so commonly interchanged these days, who knows.
Depending on the audience, I prefer “sign in” as it doesn’t assume any technical background (though you’d be hard pressed these days to find anyone that didn’t understand “login”).
Hi Russ, I took your list of terms and made it into a survey: http://tr.im/signin_survey
Hopefully we can get more coverage this way. I’m off to try to figure out how to publish the spreadsheet results publicly!
This is hilarious. I “struggle” with this on a regular basis, which is to say that I waste time debating which combination to use on for each new site. I think you should add “password reminder” vs “forgot password?” vs “reset password” while you are at it
@Cheryl Gledhill – agree about Register – seems too much of a barrier
@hank:I prefer login to sign in but cannot really define why it seems better
@Chris Messina – a great idea – be very interested in the results. I still think that the terms will need to differ from site to site based on the type of site and its target audience.
@jonathanstark – yes, that is going to be our next “term” discussion.
Another resource for your research, figure 1.1 on the following article from Smashing Magazine shows the terms that 100 large interactive sites use:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/04/web-form-design-patterns-sign-up-forms/
(answer 40% use “Sign Up”)
@Charles Everett Decker – thank you very much – I had forgotten that article!
I really dislike the “Sign up”/”Sign in” pair. They always give me pause and, you know, “don’t make me think”. So due to the ambiguity I prefer to use neither.
I like “Join”/”Login” as they are single words and quite clear in meaning.
We have an interesting one on one of our client sites – you can ‘Register’ to be a site user (post comments etc.) or ‘Join’ (i.e. become a paying member & get extra access). Have often wondered if it would cause much confusion.
Would be interesting to see terms for Newsletters (Subscribe, Sign Up, etc.) as well.
I think there are shades of meaning that give valid cues/clues to the user:
Join = if there is an actual community to ‘join’
Sign up = enrolling in some sort of programme of action/newsletter
Log in = to a system implying some sort of interaction/control
Create an account = account based membership model/usercentric
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it. We’re just about to do some focus group action, so will put this to the people : )
In a previous job I did a study of various combination, and found only about a 5% difference in comprehension. I am afraid that any of these work about as well as any others for a general audience.
[...] Sign in, register, join? [...]
[...] Sign in, register, join? [...]
[...] As you may have noticed, there are many established conventions when it comes to the login process, and the login label is no exception. The exact text that many visitors are likely to be looking for is either “login: or “sign in”. There are multiple variations, but these two words are almost universally understood, so are pretty safe options to use. [...]
[...] As you may have noticed, there are many established conventions when it comes to the login process, and the login label is no exception. The exact text that many visitors are likely to be looking for is either “login†or “sign inâ€. There are multiple variations, but these two words are almost universally understood, so are pretty safe options to use. [...]
[...] As you may have noticed, there are many established conventions when it comes to the login process, and the login label is no exception. The exact text that many visitors are likely to be looking for is either “login†or “sign inâ€. There are multiple variations, but these two words are almost universally understood, so are pretty safe options to use. [...]
[...] that many visitors are likely to be looking for is either “login” or “sign in”. There are multiple variations, but these two words are almost universally understood, so are pretty safe options to [...]