Sign Up forms are awesome! The design of them are quite challenging, but when done correctly, they are a breeze to use. While most of them are smart by

- dynamically checking the username/ email existence in the database

- indicating password rules as you enter them

- indicating password strengths

- indicating mismatched password & re-password fields

- indicating captcha mistakes, etc.

Some can even exhibit intelligence by auto-correcting names, email addresses, etc.

Any interaction in Sign Up forms is generally given the most precise and helpful instruction towards successful completion.

Login screen seems neither loved nor lovely

Apparently, designers don’t seem to have noticed that, a Sign Up form on a page is mostly used once by a user. Whereas, the Login form is used over hundreds (email clients, social networks, banking sites) or even thousands (workstations etc) of times, over the application’s lifetime!

GMail — Incorrect password

Yet, such a critical form seems to have been rarely given any substantial usability improvement. Alternate logins using social networks, contextual links in errors (‘Register’ in unregistered username/email or ‘Recover Password’ in incorrect password entry), showing passwords on clicking on the ‘eye’ icon, are well and fine.

But the password field hasn’t gone beyond fancy red border animation and error pop-ups.

One password to rule them all! Well, almost.

Let me come out daringly about something. Despite being educated at India’s premier technology institutes, I use almost the same password for everything I interact on the internet. I know the risks of such a behavior, yet I primitively behave so. Right from simple CMS-based forums that save the password verbatim to the letter in the database, to the highly-encrypted secure passwords for credit card payment gateways, I use nearly the same password, the variant being dictated by the rules during the Sign Up phase.

And I believe, many of you do the same, sometimes despite your high technological intellect and awareness.

For example, few of the common rules for passwords in Sign Up and Password Setting forms found in our day-to-day activities on the web are

1. Minimum 6 – 15 characters

2. Minimum 8 characters with at least one number and alphanumeric

3. Minimum 8 characters with at least one number and one symbol (Only @, $, &, ! are allowed)

4. Minimum 8 characters with at least one number, one symbol and one uppercase alphabet