How do I avoid users having to create an account to change their profile
Hello indies,
I am about to embark on a new project and I want to avoid users having to create an account to create / change their profile. I need to allow only that particular user the ability to edit their profile but I don't want them to go through the hassle of having to create an account, verify email, phone verify or use any of the "open" authentication frameworks like Facebook, Google, Twitter etc.
I want to make this process as friction less as possible but at the same time protecting their profile from being changed by anyone.
Does this make sense? Is this even possible?
What are some good examples of sites doing something like this already?
Social logins as @MrJustinF mentioned would probably get you the most bang for your buck in terms of security and frictionless user experience. The downside is that you are at the mercy of the social platform in some ways. Depending on your customers, this may or may not be palatable.
It sounds like the user's profile is almost like an account already.
At least when I think "profile", I'm thinking a name, email address, avatar/photo, etc.
If that is the case, and the profile information contains an email address, you may be able to do something like sending an email with a "magic link" URL that allows them to "log in" and edit their profile.
Email logins + magic links are usually used for email password recovery. I know some sites use that as authentication as well (for better or for worse).
If updating their profile is a relatively rare event (much like email password recovery), it might be a useful option.
Best of luck!
I would recommend social log-in. Simplifies the process, and it's been reported that conversions go with that (see the article written by @jkchu)