Users who put in the wrong email during sign-up

UX
1

I’ve had somebody talk to me about why they can’t sign up… it turns out that they typed their email incorrectly. I have a potentially bad solution to make the sign up process more user-friendly. Possibly change the default text on this signup page ( login.activate_email):

image

Change the last sentence to something like…

If it doesn’t arrive:

  1. Check your spam folder.
  2. Check that your email is the same as what you typed in: %{email}

This does make the instructions more complicated, which can be less idiot-proof. I don’t know.

“Please follow the instructions in that email to activate your account” could be shortened to remove the last part. Or just tell them to click/tap the link in that email.

2

It looks like your screenshot addresses those points very well and succinctly. It lists the email the user entered, brings to their attention the possibility that the email may be caught by a spam filter, and advises them to find that email and complete their registration. Personally, I couldn’t ask for more :blush:

3

Hmm the stock wording (which is what my screenshot shows) is not fool-proof because it doesn’t explicitly tell the user to check that their email is correct. I thought about it a little more and this wording may be better:

You’re almost done! Please follow the instructions in the activation email that we sent you.

If the email doesn’t arrive:

  1. Check your spam folder.
  2. Check that your email is %{email} (←what you typed in)

To be fair, I don’t think it’s possible to make the process 100% foolproof.

4

You can change the text for those on your site by editing login.activate_email, and js.login.resend_title for the button, in your /admin/customize/site_texts :+1:

5 Likes
5

If they didn’t read their email address when they typed it, they won’t read text asking them to check…anything. :person_shrugging:

But you can customize that text on your site if you think it’ll help.

2 Likes
6

I’m trying to get Facebook groups users to migrate to Discourse and it’s interesting how people use computers. Some people don’t use desktops because they don’t know how (they use their phone usually).

I just know that:

  • Facebook and mobile apps have made Internet forums/groups more accessible for people. Suddenly a lot of people can now use online groups.
  • A lot of people are getting stuck on Discourse. I would assume that Discourse is a lot easier to use than phpBB. But even Discourse is… challenging… for some folks. For example, somebody went to the site on mobile and hasn’t yet figured out how to read a post… because they got confused by the categories setup or something.

And somebody asked me how long email takes to arrive (because they didn’t get their activation email). You and I would probably assume a minute or so, but people get stuck on this stuff. And when they get stuck, they get really stuck. In this particular case, they don’t know that they should read %{email} for typos because they weren’t explicitly told to do so. They don’t have troubleshooting instincts that would lead them to take that initiative.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m only learning about this stuff now because the forum’s topic (vaccine injury) affects a cross-section of society. Suddenly, people with computer allergies really want to use online groups to get information about their health (e.g. they can’t work anymore).