User Loggins

Why would a user want to log in to application with their solid provider? Why would they want to pay to of pocket today for a sign in? What problems does this solve them them?

Now that I’ve jumped through all the hoops involved with setting up BankID, it’s a fantastic workflow. I appreciate having a single, interoperable account that I use to interact with web services. While password managers make the proliferation of user accounts – each one a special snowflake for its service – manageable at all, it’s nice to have one that I can use. Rather than filling out the same forms over and over and over again, I can just use the thing I want to use.

I want to use tools and apps just by arriving at a site and using them. I want to save my work and reference it later, but the constant stream of accounts and updates and product marketing emails and limited features is exhausting. I’ve been on Coolors a lot this week doing some brand design groundwork, and while it’s a great tool it typifies the format of gimmicky, gated, locked down web product. I don’t want to sign in. I don’t want to go pro for a monthly fee. I don’t want to hide ads. I want to use the tool, and I’m happy to pay my own commodity usage costs and the developer.

When I as a user can foot a bill that I have agency over, I’m happy to do so. I’ve paid for IA Writer, Sublime Text, RunJS, and Eagle. Why are good, solid tools that a user can just … pay for and use so rare?

I want an identity that is just, me. I want to pay for the resources I use. I want to pay the people who write the tools that make my life easier. I want this to be simple, the default, and uncontroversially boring.