After months of being bombarded by their marketing, I recently cracked and joined Netflix. The first thing that struck me was how easy it is to sign up. The process uses a very well designed UI to direct me at each stage. I’d go as far as to say it is one of the best designed order processes I have ever used. I’m sure huge resources have gone into optimising the process (and it is ongoing), with the sole aim of reducing ‘friction’.

Friction slows down the user, increasing dropout rates and reducing conversion rates. Your challenge is to identify these friction points and to smooth them over. This is true whether you have an ecommerce website or you run a blog.

In this post I will look at some of the most common areas of friction and how you can remove them.

Keep it simple

With future marketing and segmentation in mind, there can be a huge temptation to ask for a person’s life history to sign up to your service:

• Name
• Age
• Address
• How did you hear about us?
• Telephone number
• Alternative telephone number
• Email address
• Username
• Password
• Password reminder
• Captcha
• And the list goes on

How much of this information do you really need to know straight away? Focus on converting the customer now, and marketing to them later. Name and email address should be enough to get started so leave it at just that to begin with, and then prompt the user to add any further details once they sign into their account.

This example is taken from Netflix who inspired this article with their super simple sign-up process.

Clear error messages

If a user performs an action or inputs data that that is incorrect, always give them a clear warning AND what they did wrong. A simple warning is not enough, be explicit about what they need to correct.

Sticker Mule let me know I haven't input my email address correctly, and explain why they need this information as well (“We need this to send you a proof”).

Answer questions before they are asked

If a user has a question or is unsure about part of your website, only a minority will contact you; most will just leave. Give your visitors answers to the most common questions at each stage to reassure them and reduce friction.  For example, what is the typical delivery turnaround, why do you need their telephone number etc.?

Builditwith.me addresses common user concerns and questions instantly.

Be consistent

Maintain a consistent lay out of all your pages and information layout. For example, keep the location, language, colours and size of your call to action links consistent at every stage so the users learn what to look for and can identify it instantly.

Threadless make buying from them almost too easy, information in the same place across their website and call to action buttons you always know where to go to find them.

Sign post their progress

People don’t like the feeling of being in an open ended process with no sense of how long they have left to go. How frustrating would it be for you if they abandon a basket with only one step remaining? To avoid this, use breadcrumb navigation to show your customers where they are in the order process and how many more steps are in front of them. This gives the user a sense of context and how long they have left to go before they finish.

Additionally, customers can easily go back to a previous step if they think they’ve made a mistake rather than giving up altogether!

Thanks to Asos' visual steps, I know I've only got to complete 5 stages and the shirt is mine!

Do their research for them

Show reviews and testimonials of your brand/ services to help overcome a visitor’s uncertainty and reinforce that they are making the right decision. You can use reviews you have gathered yourself, or for more credibility reviews on 3rd party review sites and comments made on Twitter.

B&Q know a lot of their customers are not DIY experts and some of the products are quite expensive. Peer reviews help put my mind at ease.