[Today’s random Sourcerer profile: https://sourcerer.io/bperel]

While you typically optimize for best performance through all your flows, improving the deletion flow is very different. In some ways, deletion flows are counter to your regular thinking. Where friction is typically avoided, friction is desired. Where complexity is typically shunned, complexity is desired. Account deletion is an important part of any service, but there tends to be different schools of thought with the ease, complexity, feedback, and security on how it’s handled. Also, with GDPR (specifically article 17) now in full effect, I was curious to see how top sites handle themselves in this regard.

In my tradition of studying popular flows, I’ve decided to walk through a couple to demonstrate the differences between them in the hope of clarifying future design decisions for myself at Sourcerer and for others looking to optimize their own.

I specifically have chosen to review; Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, StackOverflow, Yelp, GitHub, LinkedIn, and Amazon.

Let’s begin!

Twitter

Deletion Flow:

User enters “Settings and privacy” from main navigation. “Deactivate your account” link is found at the very bottom of the page. User is presented a deactivation page with relevant information for you to consider. User is requested to enter their password to deactivate. User’s account is deactivated.

Full Twitter account deletion flow found here.

Twitter’s deletion flow was as expected as you could imagine any flow to be like. A link to deactivate was easily discovered and directly listed from their “Settings and privacy” page making for a very straightforward process which I believe is appreciated by users. I found, like other examples listed here, that they make use of a deactivation page which prompts the user for information about their decision and provides links to take a user out of the flow should that have been a mistake. At the very end and also typical to see, before deactivation can actually happen, Twitter requires your password to be entered. While I personally believe this is a precaution to ensure deletion is justifiable, some would argue the added friction is in place to “frictionalize” the flow.

Facebook

Deletion Flow:

User enters “Settings” from main navigation. Under “General Account Settings” user clicks “edit” under “Manage Account”. User clicks “Deactivate your account”. User is prompted to enter their password to continue. User is presented a deactivation page with relevant information for you to consider. User is prompted to give feedback on required reason for leaving. User is prompted to confirm deactivation. User’s account is deactivated.

Full Facebook account deletion flow found here.

Given all of Facebook’s privacy concerns these past few months, I was very keen to see how they handled themselves with account removal. Walking through it everything was as expected. Entering the flow was straightforward and directly linked one layer under from their “Settings” page. They then immediately prompt you for your password. I found doing thisso early in the flow to be quite interesting. Specifically, you are asked for password before the deletion flow actually begins and not as the last confirmation step. Why? I’m not sure. Immediately after you have given your password you are then taken through the rest of the flow where you are presented with relevant information for you to consider. Each choice has an explanation and often contains a link to take the user out of the flow should it have been a mistake. I found the popup UX, in this explanation flow, to also be an interesting choice as it adds yet another layer for you to escape and continue the flow. Should you continue on, you are prompted with a confirmation message about your action and then your account is deactivated.

Reddit

Deletion Flow:

User enters “User Settings” from main navigation. “Deactivate Account” is found at the bottom of the page. User is presented with a deactivation popup containing relevant information for you to consider. User is required to enter username and password to continue. User’s account is deactivated.

Full Reddit account deletion flow found here.

While Reddit has one of the more straightforward flows I’ve seen, they do a few things slightly different to take note of. Specifically, after you’ve entered the “Deactivation” flow they opt to use a popup for this interaction vs a page. I try not to overthink things here but they are the only one I’ve seen in my study to do this. Is it an efficient design, or maybe, with popup blockers becoming standard, maybe they hope it won’t fire? Just speculation here but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was in their thinking. Interesting as well, Reddit also requires a user to enter both their username and password before deletion while also confirming their intention with a checkbox confirmation. All clearly steps to add more friction in an otherwise straightforward flow.

StackOverflow

Deletion Flow:

User enters private facing account page from header navigation. User selects “Edit Profile & Settings” from the page. User select “Delete Profile” under this section. User is presented with relevant information for you to consider when deleting your account User is required to confirm this information has been read and understood. User’s profile is deleted.

Full StackOverflow account deletion flow found here.

StackOverflow’s deletion flow is the simplest I’ve reviewed; having close to no added friction to take note of. Given my experience with their onboarding, I’m hesitant to label this as smart, but maybe I’m wrong. A user simply enters the flow from “Profile & Settings”, which is clearly listed from their private facing dashboard. The user is then presented with a deletion dialogue with relevant information to think through. I didn’t even notice any links to jump the user off this flow, should their choice be in error, which seems to be a pretty standard practice in this review. A user is only required to confirm the information has been read and understood before proceeding with deletion. Simple and straightforward. No username or password asked. Almost no additional friction. Is this good or bad?

Yelp

Deletion Flow:

User enters a seperate account closure page — https://www.yelp.com/support/contact/account_closure User is asked to log in. User is requested for feedback on their decision to leave. User is sent an email to delete their account. User is presented a choice to close their account. User’s account is deleted.

Full Yelp account deletion flow found here.

Yelp, was the only site reviewed that did not directly link to their flow from the user’s dashboard. A user has to find their “Account closure” link in their “Support Center” flow. Searching for it was a bit challenging but alternatively you can search for it on Google where it’s indexed and easily found. Once the link is discovered, a user needs to log in and provide an explanation for their closure to proceed. After doing so, the flow continues as Yelp then sends you an email to confirm your closure. Following that, clicking from the email lands you back into the flow with another confirmation for you to close your account and officially completing the flow.

GitHub

Deletion Flow:

User enters “Settings” from main navigation. User selects “Account” from side navigation. At the bottom the user can find a link to “Delete your account”. User is presented with a deactivation popup containing relevant information for you to consider. User is required to enter username or email and the words “delete my account” to continue. User’s account is deleted. User receives an email for further confirmation.

Full GitHub account deletion flow found here.

In my last article, I spoke of how impressed I was with the efficiency, directness, and practicality of the onboarding flow for GitHub. I am just as impressed with their deletion flow and personally take a lot of interest in it, given how highly matched their user personas are to Sourcerer’s. Straightforward and simple are the words best used to describe their flow. A link, clearly labeled with “Delete your account” to enter the flow is easily accessible from their “Account” page. This triggers a popup (the only other one I’ve reviewed apart from Reddit to do this) that informs them of their choice to delete. I especially like how “threatening/warning” they make this feel with a prominent red warning label at the very top. GitHub, also presents users with a link to learn more about deleting their account should they be interested. This link smartly jumps the user out of the flow. Should that not deter you, you are then asked for your username and to type in the words “delete my account” to proceed with deletion. I personally find this to be a great implementation of needed friction. It smartly, confirms a user’s intention while explicitly getting their acknowledgement. I find it quite interesting that they are the only site that I’ve reviewed to do this particular step.

LinkedIn

Deletion Flow:

User enters “Settings & Privacy” from main navigation. User selects “Account Management” from side navigation. User selects “Change” under “Closing your LinkedIn account”. User is requested for feedback on their decision to leave. User is presented with a deactivation page containing relevant information for you to consider. User is asked for their password. User’s account is closed.

Full LinkedIn account deletion flow found here.

Although slightly hidden, I felt LinkedIn’s deletion flow to also be rather simple and efficient as well. I did find their use of language for their call to action to be quite interesting. While most others were direct (i.e. “Delete” or “Deactivate”) about it, LinkedIn uses somewhat indirect language, with the word “Change” when accessing their flow and “Close account” as the final call to action. Maybe nothing to overly evaluate but a difference nonetheless. Everything else was as expected. They used a typical deactivation page with relevant information, that also contained links to break out of the flow while also requiring your password to complete the process.

Amazon

Deletion Flow:

User enters “Your Account” from main navigation. User selects “Help” from footer navigation. User selects “Need More Help?” from side navigation. User selects “Contact Us”. Users selects “Login and Security”. User selects “Close my account”. User is presented with an option to speak with a representative or chat with one.

Full Amazon account deletion flow found here.

Amazon was the trickiest out of all of them to discover. Hidden under multiple layers, a user will eventually find it under “Contact Us” under the “Need more help” section. Not only did they have this carefully hidden flow but deletion was not automated in any regard. Assuming you even find this flow and make it through, to delete or close your account you still must speak or chat with a customer support representative. Absolutely no automation. This is by far the most friction I’ve encountered in this study. It does however, make a ton of sense to me given what I have to imagine the value an amazon customer to be.

In conclusion, what a fun exercise to go through! The various levels of added complexity made for an unexpected treat each time and highlighted the differences for me, in how an “optimized” deletion flow is thought about using different services.

Key learnings:

A majority of the reviewed services made account deletion automated and accessible from a Settings and/or Privacy page. Only 1 to 2 layers deep. Nearly all the sites effectively used a “warning” page that made use of jump off links to break the user flow and redirect them to other suggested parts of the site. All sites used some combination of a username, password, and required text to confirm a deletion. Sites used different nomenclatures (delete, close, deactivate) to identify their flow.

A lot to think through here for my purposes with Sourcerer. Hope this exercise was beneficial to you as it was for me. Have any thoughts or know something I might have missed? I’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments and I’ll respond quickly!