A guide on trending authentication and signup flows

Login and signup processes are one of the most underrated tasks when building and upgrading a website or platform... or multiple ones. However, on this kind of development tasks, implications go far beyond asking for an email and a password: security issues, user experience, customer profiling, different tech stacks compatibility and adaptation...

To build forms and logics that take all these factors into account, and that are also easily and quickly editable, requires a lot of coding time, but it is exactly what we have achieved with Arengu. Do you know how it can help your team?

6 ways to improve your signup processes

Here it goes a list of examples to improve your user verification and authentication processes, without hurting user experience, that you can build with Arengu.

1. Dynamic forms

Unify your login and registration processes in a single form, showing proper fields depending on whether or not the email was previously registered.

How does it work?

Form changes in real time, based on user input and responses, browsing different itineraries, showing or hiding fields on next steps and, if you want, automatically filling them with public data from external web services.

What advantages does it bring?

• Better UX. By displaying the most suitable itinerary for the user, the amount of data to manually include is always the smallest one. Form automatically adapts to each use case, reducing friction during the onboarding process, and avoiding users to fill in unnecessary fields.
• Error reduction. Pre-populating data allows us to complete our users profile, and even offer them the opportunity to correct and validate the information that we already have, without asking them for a great effort.

2. Passwordless flows

A user verification process that doesn't require to remember a password. It uses a temporary code that is sent by email or sms, but it can also work with magic links.

How does it work?

It verifies the identity of a previously registered user, asking for an alternative auth factor, like a one-time password, mobile authenticator apps, a token... but it can also use fingerprints, facial recognition and other biometrics.

What advantages does it bring?

• Phishing protection. Password theft has been increasing in recent years, and it has become a common problem, because many people reuse passwords on different pages and services. By not requiring that kind of password, you protect your users and your services from this.
• Better UX. Password requirements that are intended to be more secure (number of characters, numbers, symbols, etc), make them also harder to memorize. With this system you free your users from remembering, recovering and updating their passwords.
• Easy to scale. If your service grows rapidly and, with it, your users database and security needs, it will be really easier for you to scale it, if you don't have to worry about guaranteeing the security of all that data.

Do you want to know more about this? Maybe you would like to check this tutorial about easily adding SMS verification to your forms.

3. Progressive profiling

A marketing strategy that seeks to collect more data during a user's journey, to complete customers' profile, avoiding to ask for all the information at once.

How does it work?

Form automatically adapts itself to each case, and it only requests user information that is not really available, and that cannot be obtained from third-party services. Data is also usually requested at strategically timed intervals.

What advantages does it bring?

• Better UX. As we have seen in the previous example, it prevents users from manually inputting too much information and, consequently, the form getting too long to complete and submit.
• Very valuable knowledge. This method allows us to collect a lot of information from our users without burdening them, that is also really important for inbound marketing strategies. That's why many times, users are offered something of value (an ebook, discounts ...) in return.

4. Adaptive multi-factor authentication

A risk-based MFA process that automatically chooses the right factor to require in each case, depending on the user’s profile and behavior.

How does it work?

It automatically evaluates if there is enough evidence to allow the user to access a website or execute an action, or if more information is required to verify the identity. Depending on the risk, it chooses what factors are better to request on each case.

What advantages does it bring?

• Great security. This evolution of the multi-factor authentication system allows us to have a wide range of authentication factors for each user, so we can check with a high degree of reliability on who the user is.
• Great UX. Security and user experience sometimes seem to be kind of incompatible but, by being adaptive, this system allows us to maintain a high security level, without subjecting the user to a lot of friction.

5. KYC onboarding

'Know your client/customer': a process that aims to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with a business relationship, to ensure that services are not misused.

How does it work?

It consists of obtaining information from customers' identity and address. Especially demanded by banks, insurers and financial institutions, it is gradually becoming requested by non-financial industry and even non-profit organizations.

What advantages does it bring?

• Fraud prevention. It really helps prevent the inappropriate use of customer accounts, it's a really reliable way to check users' identity, and to obtain accurate information about them.
• Very valuable knowledge. To know as much as possible about users is really helpful if you want to build proper long-term business relationships, especially when adapting your products and services to their real needs.
• Properly regulated. Although it may seem a bit intrusive, it is actually a legal practice, that is also mandatory in many countries. You just need to make sure that proper security and data protection requirements are followed.

6. Payment subscription forms

A subscription method that includes any type of payment to use a service, or access any kind of content and information. Payment can be optional or mandatory, and amounts can be free or predefined.

How does it work?

They just integrate a payment gateway in the form, to pay after form submission. If you are using Arengu, you can add Stripe by simply dragging and dropping a field, and easily set up any type of payment subscription plan.

What advantages does it bring?

• More attractive pricing. Charging users a small amount each month is more attractive for them than charging a larger one once a year. High prices are a common barrier when purchasing a product or service, and creating split and customized plans is a good way to break it. It is also easy to offer trial versions, like the one you can see in the example form above.
• Returning costs. Monetizing features or some types of content is a very suitable way to return costs from customer acquisition strategies. The length of time customers remain subscribed can vary, but this is a really good option on retention and management of ongoing relationships.
• Very valuable information. Using subscription forms to get more information from your customers and real audience will help you better profile your buyer personas. These data can be really useful to improve your service offer, and to adapt it better to your main clients.

Do you want to know more about it? Maybe you would like to learn how to create dynamic payments in forms with Stripe & Arengu.

Embed them anywhere... and quickly iterate!

Best thing about creating your user verification and authentication processes with Arengu is that you can update, replace, publish and test them... at a dizzying pace. This is because you don't have to deploy your application every time you need to make a change!

Just create the form and its flows in our editor, and embed them anywhere with just two simple lines of code, thanks to our JS SDK. Our forms and flows are compatible with any technology and framework: React, Gatsby, WordPress, PrestaShop... and you also can connect them with any auth system with an API.

Do you want to try it yourself? Sign up free or schedule a demo with our team!

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