Recently, Brain Traffic Twitter friend Taj Moore (@tajmo) asked us for some advice about copy for authenticated websites, or websites that require registration in order to log in for firewalled content and/or functions.
Taj wanted to know our thoughts on what to call members vs. non-members, and logged in members vs. non-logged in members.
Taj’s question inspired quite the philosophical discussion around here. And by “philosophical discussion,” I mean: “really long email chain.”
We like Amazon’s approach to labeling members.
In short, we side with Amazon’s way of doing things. But, as it is with anything of value, it was the ride that mattered. Here’s how we came to our conclusion.
Are there terms to diff. bw member logged in and member not logged in? "Guest" not useful bc conflates w/ non-member.
…Or another tack: how about a word for guest/visitor who is not a member?
…b.c. I am leaning toward "logged-in," "logged-out," & "non-member" but thought you might have better insight.
Kristina: Let’s discuss. Who wants to go first?
Katie D.: Just call everyone Earthlings. We’re all just people, after all.
Christine A.: Is he asking about a user-facing label? I’d question whether there is any value in showing those terms to users.
I like Amazon’s approach. They use a cookie to identify users who have accounts, and ask them to log in only when they do something significant like go to their shopping cart.
Amazon doesn’t tell people they’re logged in, logged out, non-member, etc. They just put the person’s name up there if the cookie is in place, or show a generic login link if it isn’t. They don’t need users to keep track of their own status.
If he’s asking about what the developers/UX people/etc should call it, it doesn’t much matter as long as they’re consistent and the labels identify clearly defined roles.
Elizabeth(her email passing Christine’s on the information superhighway from NYC):
I’d say, the first question is, how are these terms going to be used? Are they internal or user facing?
If they’re meant to be user-facing, they don’t really seem necessary. If the user is logged in to the site, you’d address them by name. If they’re not logged in, you’d probably call them a guest. If they’re a member who isn’t logged in, you can’t really know that. Not sure why it’d be necessary to label each separately, unless he’s talking about terms to be used internally …
Angie K.: Whoa. It’s like Elizabeth and Christine A. had a cross-country mind meld.
True story: We ate walking tacos, we drank margaritas and Mexican beer with lime. We swung at piñatas.
And, oh, we broke a window.
Kristina took it well:
What We Did on Our Summer Vacation, Part II
It was the day after a tornado tore up part of our fair city. The sky was dark. The rain was falling. We would not be deterred. We would not.
For to see our name in lights at Midway Stadium, to get down with Mudonna and Super Fan, to leave the Nerd speechless was our mission. Watch out, St. Paul Saints. Here comes Brain Traffic.
The highlights:
Before the rain. And beer.
Bear says "What? What?"
Eye Love Baseball. And beer.
Slumhog Millionaire. That’s her real name.
The Nerd with Angie 2.0 before Elizabeth stole his funny.
Kristina’s book, Content Strategy for the Web, arrived in the Brain Traffic office this week. (Psst: You can buy it here.) Watch the unveiling:
So, what are we going to do now that Kristina published a book? The same thing we do every day, of course: Try to take over the world! Congratulations, Kristina!
Web writers have to adopt appropriate voice and tone while remaining pithy. Fake celebrity Tweeters have to adopt appropriate voice and tone while remaining super pithy—and telling pudding jokes. It’s a hard job.
“Even though he looked like a wax figure, Mr. Jackson could do a strange backward jig, the likes of which I’ve never seen. He will be missed!” @HalfPintIngalls
“zippity hippity dop! zooba shawow! with the people, and the places, and the ohhh try some jello pudding. it’s such a good snack SHEBOP!” @JelloPudding
We just scored some sleek new business cards at Brain Traffic. They are totally awesome, or as I like to say, "tawes."
Here’s the thing, though …
We have a ton of old cards. And I simply cannot stomach the idea of throwing them into the recycling bin. So I’m trying to think of creative ways to use them.
At Brain Traffic, we’re serious about fun. And coordinating outfits. That’s why we couldn’t pass up competing in Popular Front’s Foosfire tournament last month.
Office politics and a couple naysayers couldn’t stop the Brain Traffic team from representin’ – so what if we lost in the first round. So what, we say!
We got it all on video thanks to our good friend Nate Kadlac.
Prepare to laugh. Also cry. And perhaps appear dumbfounded and confused:
At Brain Traffic we care about content
When it’s bad, we so often lament
If you let us write
Like a thief in the night
We’ll rock it and you’ll say we’re god-sent. – Meghan Casey
Oh crap. Our content is a mess!
It’s causing us pain, strife, and stress
If our content is shabby
Our boss will be crabby
It’s time to call BT, oh yes. – Melissa Rach
We bought ourselves just one more whiteboard
For our schemas and plans to record
I left a quick note
My ideas to promote
But as usual, I was ignored. -Kristina Halvorson
There once was a lass called Kristin-er
At conferences, you might have seen her
Now she’s on the hook
To write a big book
And, after that she should take a breather. – Melissa Rach
Here’s what a good schedule can do
It should stick to your project like glue
So when things might fall apart
Don’t take it to heart
Just point and say, “Hey, buddy: It’s Due!" - Angie (1.0) Halama
A Brain Traffic web writer
Is a trained word and grammar fighter
Who defends user needs
Until her pencil bleeds
On a quest to make the internets brighter. - Angie (2.0) King
Control + Alt + Delete
Boy, you sure are neat
You lock my machine
So my Microsoft screen goes aquamarine
Which prohibits my crafty co-workers from hijacking my machine to send a prank email or tweet. - Julie Vollenweider
Limerick-Off
Elizabeth is a girl I know
She has black hair like a crow
She’s fun to tease
And when I please
I respond to her stories with, “So.” - Meghan Casey
Meghan is a white devil lady
Her stories are always very shady
She swears like a man
And smells like fake tan
And one day I’m going to put hot pizza in her shoes so it burns her feet off. - Elizabeth Saloka
Bonus Limerick!
I dated a girl in high school
Sometimes I thought she was cruel.
She’d put up a fight
At the end of the night
She wasn’t from Nantucket, I’ll tell you that. – Josh Foldy
2. Our favorite lunch spot is the Bulldog NE. But we doubt we’re their favorite customers. (Maybe if we called ahead before all 15 of us stomped through their doors …)
3. We’re really, really happy about our new dishwasher. Magically clean dishes.
4. We’ve had a TV for 6 months that we haven’t taken out of the box.
5. All meetings involve snarky comments. It’s why we have meetings.
6. Hilarity is one of our core values. For real.
7. Our fridge is stocked with string cheese, English muffins, sparkling water, Diet Coke and V8.
8. Kristina thinks V8 is gross. David, Julie and Elizabeth strongly disagree.
9. We love the fake grass in our conference room table.
10. Meghan and Elizabeth hate each other. Elizabeth says Meghan eats kittens. True story.
11. We’re almost out of beer for Disco Friday.
12. For Amy and Angie 1.0’s birthdays, we ordered a Pride & Pegasus birthday cake (e.g., Jane Austen on a pegasus). Best birthday cake ever.
13. Our receptionist team includes Liberace, T Rex, and a cow. We had to fire Buffy the Vampire Slayer because she was dressed inappropriately.
14. Erin and Meghan are in a fight.
15. We really, really, really want to hire more guys. We love dudes. And equal opportunity.
16. We love it when dogs visit the office. Our favorites: Molly, Wahoo, and Sam.
17. Chunks of things fall from our ceiling.
18. Delivery dudes, please pay attention: No one named Brian Traffic works here.
19. But if you are named Brian, and you’d like to work here, please let us know.
20. We have very loud shoes. We are the loudest walkers in the history of anyone who walked.
21. Favorite shoes around here: Danskos (particularly favored by IAs), MBT shoes (the anti-shoes), and Fluevogs.
22. We made our own Christmas stockings.
23. We work in the old Banks building. Many clients and visitors remember shopping here before it was turned into office space.
24. We’re within spitting distance of the Otter, Popular Front, and White Castle. But we do not spit on any of them.
