In the beginning there was a boring, boiler-plate signup form with way too many fields. Some brave souls suffered through it, but complained about the complexity.
The next iteration was an attempt to simplify the process by reducing it down to just email & password fields, but there was still some confusion. It was trying to be too clever by generating a login user name automatically, when it could have just used the email address, and it wasn’t clear from the signup page what was happening now, and how much of it would be customisable later.
Sign up in seconds, and then what?
In a 37signals blog post titled “Sign up in seconds” … and then what?, Ryan pondered what would happen if you made it clear what happens next. I liked the idea, and decided to put it into practice and find out!
Clearer progress, customisable fields explained
The WikiPack signup process now clearly shows where you are in the signup process, and what’s going to happen next. It also shows the actual values of fields that are generated automatically from values entered into the form on the fly, and indicates when they can be customised later.
One issue in particular that I’m trying to address with this update is removing any ambiguity about the Dropbox integration by presenting as much information up-front as possible to save people from getting half way through the signup process and then bailing out if they decide that they don’t want/need Dropbox sync. The privacy policy is presented clearly, and the option to use the Lite plan without Dropbox sync is made readily available.
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As always, please direct questions & comments to:
- Email: info@wikipackit.com
- Twiter: @wikipack
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