NextVR: Forcing Account Signup
Some teams wanted to force visitors to create accounts. Others wanted to allow as many people as possible into the product. I proposed A/B testing to determine user behavior and give us data to facilitate an informed debate.
LEFT: initial VR screen presented to a subset of new visitors (returning visitors and most new visitors were allowed in as usual, without requiring an account). RIGHT: indirect competitor research indicating established forced signup patterns on the web (slogan, service description, signup/in form)
My hypothesis was that we'd see a 54% reduction in entries by blocking entry with an account signup form. We set up analytics to test this, and the initial report indicated a 53% reduction.
Documentation that specifies how we lead people through signup. We detected whether we recognized a return or new user, then presented options within that context.
We switched to a linear form process where email (username) had to be entered first; this way, we could make it easier for returning users and people who had forgotten they'd signed up already.
Notably, we hadn't asked for passwords on existing voluntary accounts so far, so we devised an intricate way to maintain account integrity rather than forcing everyone to start fresh.
We added passwords to existing accounts; however, rather than kick people out of VR to go through verification, we allowed them in immediately.
ABOVE: A handful of the VR dialogs, alerts, emails, and web screens required to verify emails and reset forgotten passwords. Even though it was just a test to see how many visitors would sign up or leave, everything had to be bulletproof.
