Signup Forms

Signup Forms are one of the first interactions a user will have with your site therefore you'd better get it right.

"You never get a second chance to make a good first impression."

So what makes a good vs. bad signup form?

Good:

• Clear indication of where to go to signup
• Simple signup form

Examples

Facebook has a simple signup form...


Bad:

• Too many fields!
• Unclear instructions
• Losing user data if they fail to complete all details
• Pre-checking any option to send spam to the user
• Forcing a user to check a "Terms of use" checkbox without providing a link to said terms
• Not providing a privacy link
  

For example this signup form is way to long... 90% of these questions can be asked after the user has created an account.




On the other hand, this site needs to work on ensuring that CAPATCHA tests are actually usable... can you read those 6 letters?


I'll link in some more specifics in a bit.