#36 - What are login walls?

Sent the January 19th

Issue Artwork by Ekaterine Rogava

Article written by

Juan Jesús Millo

Understanding Login Walls

Imagine that you want to buy clothes in a shopping centre and suddenly you see a couple of brands that catch your eye on the map of the building, so you decide to go and see if you like them and if the price fits your budget.

You go to the shop and what you find is a totally opaque shop window and a woman at the door. When you see that you can't access or check the stock, you decide to go in, but this woman blocks you. - "Good gentleman, if you want to see the articles we have in our shop please fill in this form with your name, surname, e-mail, telephone, ID and a password between 6 and 10 characters containing capital letters, small letters and numbers", what face would you put? This is known as like Login Walls.

"But I haven't even seen your offer of articles! Login Walls are patterns that completely block the content offered on a website, with a very high interaction cost (especially on mobile phones), which varies our expected utility in relation to the required effort. Remember that this utility is the expected benefit minus the cost of interaction, but if we do not know the benefit and the cost is very high, is it really worth it?

Disadvantages of login walls

By blocking content, quality and quantity, we are not able to make a positive decision, so abandoning is the most common option, unless they are apps that contain very personal information, such as banks, academic information, notetaking, etc.

We must be very careful if an implementation is necessary, since in the vast majority of cases, it can be considered a dark pattern.

Articles & Ideas

26 questions UX designers need to ask during a kick-off meeting‍

The secret weapon in a Product Designers toolkit are questions! Especially at the beginning of a project where it is important to fully understand the challenge, the current understanding (biases), and to ensure usability is thought about on day one. Blayne Phillips

Shit’s broken: why we need Mindful Notifications & how to Design them‍

You pick up your phone to check the time or your to-do list, and the first thing you see is that you've received 9 messages from 4 different people, who are waiting for your response. Let’s start with an assessment. Clo S

Facilitating Silent Design Critiques‍

I’ve lost countless hours receiving feedback that wasn’t relevant to the problem I was trying to solve. For example, receiving feedback on visuals while looking for UX solutions. Muriel Schvartzman

Designing permissions for a SaaS app‍

For many SaaS applications, product designers need to design permission systems because of the concern of privacy and safety of data, or in order to make it more efficient and relevant for different types of users to use. Licia Li

Five reasons to use open-ended questions‍

Despite the ease with which you can create surveys using software like our MUIQ platform, selecting specific questions and response options can be a bit more involved. Most surveys contain a mix of closed-ended (often rating scales) and open-ended questions. Jeff Sauro, PhD and Jim Lewis, PhD

6 Ways to Improve the Relevance of Cross-Sells in the Cart (52% of Desktop Sites Don’t Do Enough)‍

Recommending products at this point in the purchase process can also increase the average order value by bringing additional items of interest to users’ attention. Sally Collins

Products

TailwindCSS Page Creator‍

Tails is the ultimate drag'n drop page creator built for TailwindCSS. Over 120+ components to help you look pretty for your customers.‍

Spaceli‍

Turn Google Docs into a knowledge base.Organize all the docs in a way where people can find them.‍

macOS 11 Big Sur UI Kit‍

Get the incredibly detailed and most accurate macOS UI Kit for Sketch. The library is loaded with hundreds of components, colors, and text styles. Arguably the fastest way to get started with your Mac app designs.‍

On Deck Designer Fellowship‍

The On Deck Designer Fellowship is an eight-week remote program for ambitious designers who want to hone their skills, increase their impact and grow as leaders.‍

Grapevine‍

Grapevine’s daily one-way video updates will keep your remote team collaborating and productive, no meetings required.‍

Shipit‍

Ship products like a pro! Product management is pretty straightforward. At least from a high level it is. Filling in the blanks is what makes great product managers. Let us do the structure for Product Management such that you can focus on the content.‍