Gradual user engagement instead of registration form

Original author: Luke Wroblewski
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Recently (in the spring of this year), Twitter redesigned the registration process to increase the number of new users. And although in the new version one more page was added to the registration, that is, an additional step, the conversion still increased by 29%. Why did this happen? Thanks to gradual involvement.

Gradual involvement is the process of moving a user through an application or site, actually “trying” it and seeing all its advantages. In the normal registration process, the user is shown the form that needs to be completed. Here, on the contrary, registration is either postponed until later, or occurs in the background, and the first user experience is focused on showing how to use the service and why it is needed at all.

The correct gradual involvement tells the user about the main essence of the service through simple interactions. If you make a person happy, it’s even better. Will Wright, creator of Sims & Spore, believes that games should allow people to win within the first 5 seconds. It is a good philosophy to achieve gradual involvement. In fact, you can allow people to do what the meaning of your service is in one or two simple interactions. This is the best option.

I translate the term "gradual engagement" as "gradual engagement." In my opinion, it accurately reflects the essence, but you can indicate your option in the comments.

Examining his users, Twitter found that while celebrities with their tweets were the only reason people came to Twitter, it was very difficult to keep the audience. In fact, people on Twitter were held by their passions: hobbies, conversations with experts in a particular field and friends. This is the main essence of the service, on which gradual involvement should be based.

Here's what Twitter registration looked like before the changes.
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She missed the mark. If a person decided to register, then he was greeted by a form where he:
  1. had to create an account
  2. could find friends through his mail account,
  3. View a list of the most popular tweets that you could follow, and
  4. finally, if he couldn’t find anything or skipped the previous two steps, he saw a blank page with the question “what are you doing”.

In the new version, after creating an account, the user sees a list of topics that may interest him. Themes are broken down into the most popular categories (music, entertainment, fashion, art and design), and also include current events populated by tweeter editors.

In the previous version of registration, users saw a list of popular tweeters that could only be of interest to them. Now they themselves can choose exactly what they need. This is the essence of Twitter and, as a result, a great approach to gradual engagement. In the new version, people begin to follow what is interesting to them, and they are less likely to face an empty home page.

The new version of the registration on Twitter
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Although the new registration process consists of 4 steps instead of 3 and takes more time, it is completely completed by 29% more people who become much more involved in Twitter than before.

Personally, I (the translator, too) are very curious to see what would have happened if the creation of the account had taken place after people began to follow the topics and friends that interest them. Now it goes before people get personal benefits from Twitter. As I noted earlier, true gradual engagement will delay the creation of an account for later or hold it in the background.

A few more thoughts


Making people fill out forms is one way to get information. On sites, this is the de facto standard. But it should not be so. Instead of showing people forms every time, it’s better to turn to the principles of gradual involvement.

It allows us to collect information from people so as to engage them in the use of the application. In fact, we teach people its benefits and capabilities.

Gradual involvement is the task of information architecture, because it makes us think about the main essence of the application and develop a process that introduces people to the program, while collecting the necessary information. The sequence of information requests through interactions allows you to make the first acquaintance with the application more useful and memorable.

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