Simple Sign-up/Log-in Ideas

Hey Perch

This is a really, really bad idea. Honestly the stuff of security nightmares! I don't recommend it at all, even though it'd be more simple for your users. That said - there are options that may be just as secure, but a little more user-friendly. Javascript, for example, can put a more friendly face on having to enter a password, and it's been used very successfully for variations on CAPTCHAs, for example.

Here's one idea:

Your users enter their email address first, then they're presented with a set of clickable pictures of cats, then the same of dogs, then a little number pad. Their password consists of one picture from each list, and three numbers from the pad.

Javascript can turn each of these elements into chunks that become a password, say 'tabby-terrier-958'. This is still stored normally in the database, and all you have to do is add some more code to the front end to generate the text string from the user's input. That then gets sent to the server as normal.

So there are a lot of options for graphical password entry that could be easier for your users, while still being almost as secure as a regular password.

Hi, Claire -

Tanks for this. What you propose sounds perfect. Can you point me to a working example?

Perch

I actually can't, sorry. Graphical password authentication using images is still more or less theoretical, and what I described above is a sort of halfway between that and regular password entry. I could build it, but I don't know of any existing examples of it.