Our website entry for the Victorian Government App My State competition has been completed. Dailie, the public events sharing system is an experimental site that allows users to view festivals in Victoria that are scheduled to occur during the following week. Users can select and save details about the festivals that they would like to remember and then share those details as a calendar reminder on Google Calendar.
The website is novel in that there is no requirement at any stage during this process for a user to sign up. Why should a user be required to fill out a sign up form to use the website? Our unique system automatically creates an account for the user, so that their selections can be saved for when they return to the site. All of this occurs without the need for any personal information. There is an option for a user to sign up for an account if they wish to use multiple computers, but this is not actively encouraged by the website.
This freedom from sign up process has been largely influenced by our observations of the stack overflow website. We know that filling out sign up forms can be a turn off for many potential customers. Whether that be purchasing something from your website store, or using some facilities that you provide, ask yourself whether you really need the customer to sign up.