The sign-up screen: where most users walk away

The sign-up screen is the first place where someone has to do work for your app before getting anything back from it. That's why so many people close the app right there. The best fixes are simple: don't ask for an account until you need one, ask for little, and let the phone fill in what it already knows.

Ask for an account only when you have to

The first question is "do I need an account here?" The form comes after. Google's guide to sign-up forms says that wherever possible you should avoid gating features behind login. For shops, it recommends making guest checkout the default so you don't lose carts.

Apple has an even clearer rule for the App Store: if your app doesn't include significant account-based features, people must be able to use it without logging in. And an app can't require personal information to function unless it's directly relevant to the core functionality or required by law.

In practice: let people see the menu, the prices, the hours, the products. Ask for an account when they have a reason: saving an order, booking an appointment, wanting their history.

Every extra field is a reason to leave

Look at the form and ask about each field: will I use this in the first week? Date of birth, full address, company name can all be asked later, when the person actually needs them.

A few mistakes that the web.dev guides call out directly:

• Doubled-up fields. "Confirm email" and "confirm password" make people type everything twice. Use a "Show password" button instead, so they can check what they typed.
• Blocked password pasting. People using a password manager can't paste their password, and web.dev points out that blocking paste can even make things less secure.
• The wrong keyboard. The email field should bring up a keyboard with "@", the phone field the number pad.

Let the phone fill it in

Phones already know the person's email and can generate and save passwords. To help, the form has to label each field correctly. On the web that's the autocomplete attribute (for example "new-password" on a new password field), and native apps have their own equivalents. When it works, the person taps twice and the account is done.

web.dev also recommends federated login (Google, Apple, Facebook) for people who don't want yet another password. It's worth offering, but not as the only option: some people don't want their account tied to another platform.

The account has to be deletable too

A new rule this year: starting June 30, 2022, Apple requires any app that lets people create an account to also let them delete it from within the app. Plan for it from the start: where the button lives, what data gets deleted, what happens to past orders.

Measure where people drop off

Don't guess. Add an analytics event to every step: opened the screen, entered email, tapped "Create account," confirmed email. The step where most people stop is the first one to fix. Often it's email confirmation: the person left to check their inbox and never came back.

If that's the case for you, let people use the app right after they create the account and ask for confirmation later, for example before the first payment or the first booking. An extra screen at the right moment bothers people far less than one placed at the door.

If you're still defining your core features, read our article on MVPs and the one on push notifications, the second moment where the app asks the person for something.

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