Proposal to re-design the CiviCRM Mailing, Unsubscribe form to be more in-line with what users experience on other mailing / newsletter systems
This request is to initiate an discussion on the re-design of the CiviCRM Mailing, Unsubscribe form so that it is more in-line with what users experience with other mailing / newsletter systems.
If you are subscribed to a CiviCRM mailing list and click the Unsubscribe link, the user experience flow is:
- The Mailing Group Title and Group Description are shown, or if set, the Mailing Public Title and Public Description are shown
- You are directed to a page where a masked email address is shown.
- You need to enter the subscribed email address.
- Click Unsubscribe.
- The system then confirms the unsubscription, but in a way that also is not clear as it re-loads the unsubscribe form again.
The requirement to enter the subscribed email address is problematic for a number of reasons:
- It is masked, so if the user cannot tell exactly what it was sent too. In some cases, the user may not know what address it was when they click on the link - perhaps the email is forwarded internally from a mailbox that has since been archived or the mailbox is unmonitored, team mailbox etc.
- Re-entering the email address is another action the user has to take, if they want to unsubscribe and have clicked the link then that's all the confirmation that should be required at this point.
The improvement I would really like to see is clearer messaging and no user input, quicker process. For example:
- Click unsubscribe.
- CiviCRM Unsubscribe page opens, confirming the unsubscribe has been done. That's it.
- Optionally, a feedback form can shown for a quick survey or reason for unsubscribing (good use of a Profile). User may just close the window at this step.
You could include a link on the Unsubcribe form to say, "Click here to re-subscribe, if you made a mistake" or something similar. I've seen this on a few other CRM Unsubscribe forms.
What do people think? Do we at least agree the current user experience needs to be improved? Ping @bgm @artfulrobot @mattwire - you guys seem to care about user experience too
Screenshots of the current user experience in CiviCRM, Unsubscribe page
(Copied from Matt's recent PR)
By comparison, here's what other mailing systems have on their Unsubscribe page
Mailchimp
Another CRM
Agileware Ref: CIVIBLD-271