

Ask YC: First and Last Name + Username vs only Username? - glen

We are finalizing our sign-up process for NIXTY (www.nixty.com). Broadly, our market consists of educators, learners, and academic institutions. We subscribe to the belief that getting users easy access is hugely important. However, our target market isn't the most technically advanced. So, we are struggling with what information to gather on the initial sign up page. Should it be:
First Name  Last Name
Username
Password
Email<p>Or...should it just be:
Username
Password
Email<p>One person thinks that educators and students might feel more comfortable putting in their first and last name and then choosing a username - partly b/c the idea of a 'username' might not be immediately apparent w/out the first and last name. In addition, the first and last name would be gathered on the second page. The other person feels that most people know what a username is, so the first and last name isn't necessary on the sign up page.<p>One last thing to keep in mind, the username is the person's unique identifier and will be part of their URL.<p>Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thank you.
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philh
If you really need someone's full name for them to use the service, it's
probably best to put it directly on the sign-up process. If not, make it
optional to add after registering.

You may want to dispose of usernames entirely, and use their email as a unique
identifier. That ought to be easier for people who aren't used to the concept
of usernames.

~~~
glen
Thanks. Yes, we will need their full name. We did talk about using their email
as a unique identifier, but we need to have something for their URL - like:
www.nixty.com/philh

~~~
falsestprophet
That was my thought as well for the last application I built, but no one is
going to care to find their data by url. Just use a random key to form the
url: okay.com/lekaro.

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zealog
I tend to go either way when building a site, depending on the market and how
people are going to interact with the site and with others. On sites with
kids, using real names is a BIG turn off and if it isn't clear how the name
will be used, people will pass.

It's anecdotal, but I use my real name in many places (not ycombinator,
ironically), but my wife never will. If she can't choose some sort of display
name, she will pass or use fake info.

Also, you might want to check out Smashing Magazine's recent survey of signup
web forms. They touch on this a little bit. They don't give much other than
statistics, but it might lead to some good discussion.
[http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/04/web-form-
design-p...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/04/web-form-design-
patterns-sign-up-forms/)

~~~
glen
Thanks I'll check it out. Appreciate it.

~~~
glen
Just checked it out. Here are the take home points: * the registration link is
titled “sign up” (40%) and placed in the right upper corner, * sign-up forms
have a simplified layout to avoid distractions for users (61%), * sign-up
forms are one-page-forms (93%), * sign up forms attract visitors by explaining
the benefits of registration (41%), * titles of the input fields are
highlighted bold (62%) * no trend in the label alignment can be identified, *
designers tend to use few mandatory fields, * designers tend to use few
optional fields, * vertically arranged fields are preferred to horizontally
arranged fields (86%).

So, it seems, from this data, that 3-5 fields are OK, including full name and
username.

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mhb
Make both, offer them randomly and monitor the statistics.

~~~
falsestprophet
I don't think that is worth the effort. Unless there is a really good reason
to require a username, just use their email address to identify them.

~~~
Mystalic
Personal identity can be important to users. Testing is always important and
often worth the effort.

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metajack
We found taking out the first/last name (and pretty much everything else
besides username, password, email) caused the completion rates to go way up. I
guess people don't like sharing that stuff. Many of the people who did give
their names, used fake ones.

~~~
ScottWhigham
I would assume your false account rates are much higher then. It certainly
cheapens the value of your database when you can't address them by name. It's
the idea of getting an email that says,

 _Hi kgu39573! We have a new, important announcement that we really want you
to listen to._

or

 _Hi, John. We have a new, important announcement that we really want you to
listen to._

Studies have shown people respond better when using their name. Period. People
that don't use this may have better signup rates but do they have a
better/quality database?

~~~
glen
Thanks. Very good marketing point. I didn't necessarily think of that. We'd
need to get the names at some point in the process anyway.

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vaksel
For a site like that I would gather the first/last name and then suggest a
generated username based on that combo, something like jsmith22.

Generate it in a text box, so that the user can edit it, if they don't like
it. Or if you want the site to be more professional, don't give them the
option to edit.

I figure these people are usually used to using format like that for usernames
from their jobs/schools

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code_devil
A form with 1\. first name & last name 2\. user_name
[<http://www.nixty.com/user_name>] 3\. email 4\. password

Also, for #2 make sure people you display the corresponding url, so people
know that it will be a part of their url as well.

~~~
glen
Thank you.

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jauco
If you go for the first name last name route, and your target is not just
english speaking users, you might want to check out
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name>

