Mobile Design Pattern Gallery, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Social Patterns

Patterns

Social Registration, Connecting, Following, Profiles, Groups, Gamification

Services that provide social connections have continued to proliferate and specialize. Now we can connect with other people through our shared affinities for food, shopping, fitness, and much more. In this new chapter, we’ll examine patterns that can help your users make these connections through their mobile devices.

Social Registration

In Chapter 2 we looked at Registration form patterns. Here, we’ll take a look at Registration user flows specifically for social apps.

MapMyFitness Compared to We Heart It

MapMyFitness offers Sign Up with Facebook, and uses the Facebook API to show a single authorization screen. If authorized, it pulls pertinent registration information from your Facebook profile to create your MapMyFitness profile for you.

Figure 8-1. MapMyFitness for iOS streamlines Registration with Facebook and an optional personalization screen

Unfortunately, We Heart It, like many apps, has implemented the Facebook API incorrectly. After I authorized the use of my Facebook identity to register, it asked me to sign in to Facebook (I already had), and only then told me that if I wanted to use Facebook to register, I needed to adjust my Safari settings. What the heck? And to top ...