Joshua Porter’s workshop at recent UX London conference was great and a must see if you can, but there is something that’s been bugging me since. In discussion about difficulties of getting people to sign-up for service, Joshua mentioned how some companies see connecting with Facebook Connect as Facebook “owning” their users.

They are right, but it doesn’t matter much. Relying on Facebook for authentication certainly makes Facebook sort of a gatekeeper. This does not matter because it can and should be a transitional phase in an evolving relationship.

My view is based on assumption that company wants to build a long lasting relationship with a customer. This may not be true, but then there really is no point in having a sign-up at all. Avoid friction of one, make a trade and move on.

I think most user lifecycle strategies look like trying to get laid by the end of evening while hoping to start a long-term relationship. It might work, but how likely?

There are two things relationships need. Continuing benefit to parties involved and mutual trust. And trust is built through actions over time.

Traditional UX life cycle can be seen as:

Awareness -> Sign-up -> First-time use -> Engagement -> Referral

Each step has to offer more benefits to person taking it as it requires more trust. Moving sign-up after first-time use changes dynamic by making service prove itself before asking same of its user.

Using Facebook Connect (or OAuth , OpenID …) is just going further in mimicking natural relationship building. It’s asking of a smaller commitment at a fragile stage of relationship. You can ask for a bigger commitment with your own authentication later on, when you have already proven your worth and gain enough trust. You could even offer something available only to “full” members to make such commitment more enticing.

If you are building years long relationship like I have with Amazon, does it really matter if you get me to fully sign-up after third month instead of first?

Hence sign-up should be thought of as a gradual process taken over time instead of one-time obstacle.

All this is just speculation at this point, but I hope to test it on two projects this year. If I do, I’ll let you know how it went.