Profile vs. Account
Profile and account are two areas that certainly overlap and are definitely not the easiest to sort out. Everybody seems to understand it in an unique way and provides a solution that makes sense to them. The users are even more lost on the matter which is normal giving the fact that even we, as designers don’t seem to understand it completely.
Let’s start with the semantics. A profile typically includes information about you that is displayed publicly. A person’s profile provides a “a concise biographical sketch” (Merriam-Webster).
An account typically includes information you need to share with the company for them to provide you services. Ex. An ecommerce site might store your name in your profile and your payment info in your account. An account usually contains details of transactions and the business relation with a customer.
A User Account is a representation of a user in an information system. It is literally the way a website, application, or even a computer connects a person (or group of people) to a set of permissions.
Instagram uses a profile —your feed and public information. When you click “Edit Profile” you can change not only your picture and public resume but also your Private Information. It seems that Instagram users have one profile and they can have multiple accounts. Or are they switching between profiles? Does every account have its own profile? Which one is the master and which one is part of the other if that’s the idea? Is it one profile with multiple accounts? Are you already confused?
User Account
User account should provide the following static, user-specific content:
- Personal Information / Contact Information
- Security Information
- Links to members-only content areas
- Settings
- Content users have uploaded to the site
User accounts provide users with a “command centre” from which they can administer their interactions on your site.
LinkedIn provides you with the ability to edit all your public information right away, right on your profile page. Under Account they give you Settings and Help. While Help is pretty much what you’d have expected, the other option presents a lot of control over your private information, and allows fine tuning all the features of your LinkedIn account. There’s no editing your public profile — they separated the two things almost completely.
Personal information should only be required in a user account if it is necessary for the site to function. Only ask for information sparingly. When a user sees information about themselves throughout the site, they will need help text or visual cues to understand what they can see, versus what is public information available to anyone. Always make sure this is transparent as it can make the difference between a trustworthy application and a sketchy one.
In addition to displaying and editing personal information, a user account is the place to display security information. Allow for the inevitable plea to undo mistakes, and make sure to leave the user in control of where there information is shared, erring on the side of privacy.
Sometimes the entire goal of creating an account on a site is to access information available to members only. If so, as a designer, consider: what is that content and how can we help members get there? Make sure the user knows what content or features are available to them as members of your site or service. The account section of a site should function as a sort of “member site map” — one which points users to parts of the site that they can access only via their membership.
The user should be able to control completely every single part of their account and interaction with your system. They should be in charge of all their private and public information, features, preferences, security data. They should be able to erase all their traces especially in the light of GDPR.
Content members have uploaded to a site. If users are able to upload images, videos, files, or anything else to the site, which is then associated with them as a user, they will expect access to that content. Depending on the sort of content, users will also expect to be able to delete, download, or edit their “owned” content as well.
What isn’t a user account
A User account is not a profile. A profile is a screen or series of screens where users expect to see their personal information, usually what they also share with everybody else. However, the user account is the system that allows them to both see and edit that information.
Information connected to a user account also isn’t session-specific. A user doesn’t expect to log into an account to find the contents of their shopping cart or viewing history. Thanks to cookies, most web applications can save that kind of information. It’s only if a user leaves their computer that they may want to log in and pick up where they left off later, from a different device.
The Takeway
As expected, there’s no general solution to this complex problem. Rather than searching one, try to focus on your platform and your users’ needs. Most importantly, makes sure your decision is based on what make the most sense to them. It doesn’t matter weather you chose to divide completely or overlap the profile and the account. Just make sure that does not confuse the users further.
