The Login Barrier
Studies on conversion and onboarding consistently show that requiring account creation reduces completion rates by 20–60%. For attendance — a task that should take seconds — a mandatory login is a serious design flaw.
Who Gets Excluded
Login-required systems disproportionately affect older participants, people with accessibility needs, and anyone who has forgotten a password or doesn't use that email anymore. A frictionless system is also a more equitable one.
What You Actually Need
For most attendance use cases, you need to know: who was present, when they arrived, and optionally a note. None of this requires a verified account. A name and a device fingerprint are usually enough.
Security Without Logins
Concerns about fake check-ins or duplicate entries can be addressed with device fingerprinting (one check-in per device per session) rather than account authentication. It's simpler and just as reliable for attendance purposes.
The Organizer Needs a Login — Participants Don't
The right architecture is: organizers have accounts (they manage data, need persistence), participants don't (they just need to check in). This distinction is often overlooked in attendance software design.
Designing for the Participant
The best attendance experience is one participants don't even notice. They scan a code, enter their name, and they're done. That's it. Anything more is overhead — and overhead kills participation.