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

6 points by glen ↗ HN
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

Or...should it just be: Username Password Email

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.

One last thing to keep in mind, the username is the person's unique identifier and will be part of their URL.

Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thank you.

19 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 46.8 ms ] thread
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.
Jax
Hi philh!

Bug report of your thought:

The second option you mentioned - about disposing off usernames and using email addresses as unique identifiers - is not feasible in glen's case, because he intends to use the unique identifer as a part of the url.

@glen: collect the first name and last name only if u need them. If you just want to address your users then, you can just do "Hi [username], what's up? Bla... Bla... [some-username] has sent you a message..."

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.

mhb
Make both, offer them randomly and monitor the statistics.
glen
We talked about doing some of this testing. Thanks. Not sure what we decided upon.
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.
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.
glen
Thanks. One of our team members hypothesized this same thing, so it is good to hear that your experience confirmed this.
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.
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...

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.

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