Setting up a registration process is an essential step when creating a platform. A user-friendly and intuitive registration process can help to increase user satisfaction and reduce the likelihood of users abandoning the process. The registration form should be short, simple and easy to complete, with clear instructions and guidance. Thus, before you start setting up the registration form we recommend you ask yourself:
What, if any, demographic data do I want to require of users wanting to get registered/participate on your platform?
What, if any, demographic data is important that we have for all users in the platform, and what data will likely be only relevant for certain kinds of participants or projects?
Basic, general registration flow
The basic registration flow includes 3 steps outlined below. While the first step will always be mandatory, the 2 other steps can be completed at a later time to decreases the number of steps and allow users to browse the platform.
Step 1: filling in the sign-up form
This sign up form is not editable. However you can add a short description at the top of your sing-up form which you can edit in your platform "Settings", under "registration" tab
Step 2: Verifying your email address
After filling in the sign up form, a pop up will appear asking for a verification code which should have been send to your email. You can choose to do this later and press on the "X" in the right hand corner.
Users that have not yet verified their email, their account will appear like this:
Step 3: Answering registration demographic questions
After verifying your email, a pop up will appear asking for you to fill in some demographic registration questions. These can be set to optional or required.
You may also choose to have some general demographic questions asked of all users, and some project specific ones. (More on project demographic questions later on)
Users that have not yet given an answer to these registration questions can do so later by pressing on "complete profile" in their account:
Step 4: Selecting topics and areas to follow
If you have tuned on the "follow preferences" toggle you can select topic tags and area tags that will show up as the last page of the registration flow and which residents can select which topics and areas they are interested in receiving updates from. You can add topic tags in the "tag manager" tab of the platform "settings". You can add area tags in the "areas" tab of the platform "settings".
Any new project published/updated that has tags which residents are following, will trigger an email notification to residents following these tags. Residents can always choose to unsubscribe from these email updates whenever they want in their account "settings" under "Notifications". They can also choose to change the topic and area tags they following and unselect existing ones or select new ones, in the "following" tab of their account "activity".
Customising the registration demographic questions
Default registration questions
Your platform comes with a set of default registration fields that are relevant to ask in many contexts:
Gender: the built-in options are 'Male', 'Female', and 'Unspecified'; If you'd like to customize this, you can turn off this toggle, and create a custom field as explained under step 2.
Year of birth: when using this default field, the answers get automatically binned in age groups in the graph on your dashboard (cf. the bar chart below).
Place of residence: people will be able to pick from the options you've set under "Geographic areas". The 'Geographic areas' on your platform serve three purposes:
You can link them to specific projects so that people can easily find projects that are relevant to them. This will help people easily find the projects relevant to them on your home page. There they can filter on area, resulting in a selection of projects that have a link with where they live.
You can use the place where people live to grant them specific viewing or participation rights (e.g. "only people living in District A can vote on the suggestions to improve the district's playgrounds").
They provide insights on which neighborhoods are (under)represented on the platform, and how different neighborhoods react differently on specific projects or plans.
Do you want to turn off one of these default fields, as it's not relevant for your context, or you'd like to create a custom field instead? Simply disable it by clicking the toggle.
Do you want to make sure all participants fill in a specific default field during registration? Click 'Edit' and turn the option 'Make answering this field required?' on.
Adding custom registration questions
You can now also add any number of your own custom registration fields for your participants to fill in. These are the different formats you can choose from:
Multiple choice (select one): create a list of options, from which participants can only select one - e.g. 'Which household income range applies to you?';
Multiple choice (select multiple): create a list of options, of which participants can select one or more - e.g. 'What topics are you interested in?';
When you selected 'Multiple choice' as the registration field format, you will now be able to add the answer options people can choose from.
Yes-no (checkbox): ask a closed yes-no question, on which participants can answer 'yes' by checking the box - e.g. 'Are you interested to join our citizen panel?';
Short answer: ask an open question on which you expect short answers
Long answer: ask an open question on which you expect longer answers - e.g. 'What do you hope to contribute to this platform?';
Numeric value: ask a question on which one can only answer with a number - e.g. 'How many people live in your household?';
Date: ask a question on which one can only answer with a date - e.g. 'When did you first hear about this platform?'.
Using registration questions for analysis
Asking the right user information and aligning on the registration flow is important for three reasons:
User Access Control
Categorize users into groups (normal or smart groups)
Manage viewing and action-taking permissions based on those groups
Data Collection Consistency
Registration fields are shown to all new users
Cannot be retroactively applied to existing users
We do not recommend collecting user demographic data via mechanisms such as embedded or native surveys or input form fields. To collect user demographic data we only recommend you use registration demographic fields. It's the only way for us to guarantee your dashboard, report, etc. data is complete.
Demographic Analysis
Report generation
Data segmentation
AI analysis summaries
Dashboard insights
Community Representation
Enable demographic-based analysis
Access the Representativeness Dashboard
Compare participant demographics with census data
Tip: Align registration questions with census categories for best results
Need more help or support? Contact our Support Team via the chat bubble in the admin panel.