The wheels are well in motion and this week has been about setting up the first few foundations of Lemontree to work. 

One particular area that we’ve given a lot of consideration to and will continue to refine is the sign up page. The signup is at the heart of the interaction.

A user has to feel motivated and passionate enough to sign up and start using your app immediately. For this to happen we need to remove any hurdles that get in the way. In an existing university system which is where we’re first delivering Lemontree, the University already holds a lot of information about the users. 

According to the book Designing for the social web* 

You have a few different usage cycles. 

Unaware
Interested
First Time Use
Regular Use
Passionate Use

we want to make sure our registration /login adheres to three principles that ensure

1. we make the choice of signing up very easy,
    give the user reasons and incentives for signing up (tell them about the speed of sign up)  and give enough information about who’s using it and how they’re using it, the benefits. 

2. We dont force the user to fill in a lengthy form, or force the user to remember a new password or have to make an identity immediately. 

3. We make repeated visits simple!

So right now, we’re aiming on using a combination of FB Login / our own registration if they don’t use Facebook or don’t want to associate Lemontree with their FB profile. To those who do we give them an incentive to do so.  After all lemontree wants to exist on the most used social channels. 

Referenced points in this article from: 
http://www.slideshare.net/bokardo/designing-for-sign-up