Registration pages

Wireframe: Registration

This page is just a placeholder for a registration process, as in just about every web service, which may have more than one page. It should be kept as short as reasonably possible, with perhaps the only necessary detail supplied being e-mail address, which would be verified as in most current services.

As in many other sites and services, this is just to establish the bare minimum information needed to proceed. This page should be reworked to act both as a general login page and also a registration page.

I am registering to use the system and entering my preferences.
OR
I am logging in to the system.

• any page on the Web

• Birth year for new registration
• Enquiries overview for registered users

• none

• MyEmail
• others to follow

In this or subsequent pages, users will be required to provide:

• year of birth (non changeable, used only as permitted), perhaps date for those not clearly over 18?
• default visible name (may be tailored for any enquiry); will be used in e-mail
• e-mail address
• username, only if wanted different from e-mail address
• password or other authentication information
• (possibly) chosen server
  • For initial trials, there will only be one server. However in the longer term, the user will be asked to select a server that they trust to host their information, unless they are coming from within an organisation which already has a server.
  • Explanation will be given, in terms of both scalability and trust.

Information from these preliminary pages is stored in the local server.

This is standard stuff that can be copied from many other web sites

It may be worth writing a bit more about the requirements behind the idea of separate servers. These are the fundamental ones, as I see them now:

1. to reduce the risks involving a single point of failure
2. to scale effectively during any possible period of fast growth
3. to give users an added degree of security, in that they can choose who to trust to hold their data
4. to enable a medium-term strategy of offering the service to established membership networks

This last will tie in with established networks or user communities specialising in different areas of question-composing expertise.

Registration for the service should be not more complex than other popular services. Given that registration is fairly complex on many platforms, this is not a concern, provided that the amount of information is reasonable and the speed and ease of use good.