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It's not just about how long the signup form is, I believe it's simply the language "account" or anything that connotes joining something. The form can be thre

It's not just about how long the signup form is, I believe it's simply the language "account" or anything that connotes joining something. The form can be three fields, and people still hate it. The language "save my info for later", and versions of that, are much better. It flips it around in the user's mind: "oh, now they're not asking me to give something up, they're helping me out"

rmc00 17y ago
I believe language and effort are the two main factors for a good signup form. Language means clarity, which makes doing the work easier. Minimizing the amount of effort that actually goes into filling out the form is really important too though.
chacha102 17y ago
I think if the user thinks they are suddenly being tied to a service may push them away. The services that use the 'save my info for later' technique are most likely seen as easier because it is similar to how you use your local computer. You don't have an 'account' on your laptop. (Well, technically you do, but most people just believe that is just a password) You simply save something in your documents for later. By making the user believe that they aren't tied to anything, but just saving data for later, you can make them more likely to store their data on your servers.
lucumo 17y ago
> The language "save my info for later", and versions of that, are much better. While I understand what you're saying, I believe that would trip me up. I'm very much used to scanning for "Register", "Sign up", "Join" or "Create account". I'm also unsure how much people really hate giving up their information. If anything, people are looking for places to hand over their information: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. I think the problem is really that the more steps needed to convert your users, the more likely it is a part will give up before the end.
- c3o 17y ago
  At Soup.io (tumblelogging/lifestreaming) we initially had content creation buttons right on the front page. We figured that the best first action for new users would be to actually post something, not filling out a sign-up form. But we had exactly the problem you're describing: People are so used to scanning for "register"/"sign up" that some even assumed we were in invite-only beta. We eventually changed that to a "Try it now -- no sign up required" button, which works better. The wording and UI is still tricky though: "Try it now", "trial account" etc. carry the connotation that it'll cost something later. We've been meaning to A/B test a straightforward sign-up form for a while and measure effects on both conversion & retention, but unfortunately haven't gotten around to it yet.
Hexstream 17y ago
The signup form could have only 2 fields, too: Username and Password. You don't need to demand an email address if your site can give some functionality that doesn't require interacting with others. You could make it so that a username is only "called out" once the email address is confirmed. So nobody can register all desirable names just to prevent others from having it (and of course have some throttling of registrations).

rmc00 17y ago

I believe language and effort are the two main factors for a good signup form. Language means clarity, which makes doing the work easier. Minimizing the amount of effort that actually goes into filling out the form is really important too though.

chacha102 17y ago

I think if the user thinks they are suddenly being tied to a service may push them away. The services that use the 'save my info for later' technique are most likely seen as easier because it is similar to how you use your local computer. You don't have an 'account' on your laptop. (Well, technically you do, but most people just believe that is just a password) You simply save something in your documents for later. By making the user believe that they aren't tied to anything, but just saving data for later, you can make them more likely to store their data on your servers.

lucumo 17y ago

> The language "save my info for later", and versions of that, are much better. While I understand what you're saying, I believe that would trip me up. I'm very much used to scanning for "Register", "Sign up", "Join" or "Create account". I'm also unsure how much people really hate giving up their information. If anything, people are looking for places to hand over their information: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. I think the problem is really that the more steps needed to convert your users, the more likely it is a part will give up before the end.

c3o 17y ago
At Soup.io (tumblelogging/lifestreaming) we initially had content creation buttons right on the front page. We figured that the best first action for new users would be to actually post something, not filling out a sign-up form. But we had exactly the problem you're describing: People are so used to scanning for "register"/"sign up" that some even assumed we were in invite-only beta. We eventually changed that to a "Try it now -- no sign up required" button, which works better. The wording and UI is still tricky though: "Try it now", "trial account" etc. carry the connotation that it'll cost something later. We've been meaning to A/B test a straightforward sign-up form for a while and measure effects on both conversion & retention, but unfortunately haven't gotten around to it yet.

Hexstream 17y ago

The signup form could have only 2 fields, too: Username and Password. You don't need to demand an email address if your site can give some functionality that doesn't require interacting with others. You could make it so that a username is only "called out" once the email address is confirmed. So nobody can register all desirable names just to prevent others from having it (and of course have some throttling of registrations).