

Designing your sign up page? Read this. - destraynor
http://www.contrast.ie/blog/designing-your-sign-up-page/

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davidu
It's great -- Unfortunately I run a professional office with woman who work
for me, and while they'd probably not care if I sent them an article that says
"Suck Balls" at the top, _I_ care enough not to send it.

Couldn't you be just as snarky and instead say "We do everything PayPal does
except Suck?"

Just some feedback on an otherwise great post.

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destraynor
Hey David, I've updated it to say "Suck". I was correcting a typo so I figured
why not :)

Share away now!

Regards, Des

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davidu
awesome. shared!

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reneherse
Respectfully, the letter spacing of your main font is so wide and the word
spacing so comparatively narrow it's making for slow and difficult reading for
me. I can see how you may be going for a kind of spacious theme for the look
of the site, but there is probably a way to do it without impeding the visual
flow of the text...

None the less, I'm quite eager to get through this very interesting article,
I'd just rather do it without using Readability.

(MBP/10.5.8/Safari)

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primigenus
I found that using webkit inspector to set the paragraph style to normal
letter-spacing, 1.4em line-height helped the readability immensely. Something
to consider, perhaps?

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joshfraser
What is this PerfectPayments company you speak of and where do I sign up?

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simonsarris
I'm pretty sure it was an allusion to WePay.

Their current website doesn't say _that,_ but it does look similar, and their
past antics have certainly snubbed PayPal.

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destraynor
Hey Simon,

It wasn't really an allusion. I needed a cover image, I wanted something a bit
striking or funny, so I went with a sketchy version of the frame I used in the
article. I just picked payment, cause I was giving out about Paypal earlier.
Thanks for reading, Des

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russell
I had the same reaction, so I took a look at the style sheet. Two things
struck me: line-height is 35px which is way more than the normal 16px, making
it look like double space typescript. Second letter-spacing is 1.6833 which
makes it look almost like a mono-spaced font. I would change fonts rather than
mess with letter-spacing. The lines can be more open than 16px, but double
spacing is too much. Apologies if this is too rantish.

EDIT: that aside, the content is spot on for me.

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dchurchv
Thanks for the article - it's nice to see a counterpoint to all of the advice
that focuses only on a "call to action" on the homepage and trying to get
people to take it (yes, like like the rotated angled screenshot that points to
the signup button :-)

Seems like the ultimate home page would provide everything a prospect needs to
decide before clicking "Signup". Basically no funnel at all - Home Page ->>
Signup. Nice.

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michael_dorfman
_Seems like the ultimate home page would provide everything a prospect needs
to decide before clicking "Signup". Basically no funnel at all - Home Page -
>> Signup. Nice._

That's the premise behind the (in)famous "long form", and also why they are so
successful (even if generally despised.)

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destraynor
Yup - Ogilvys book "On Advertising" talks about this, exclaiming that good
content sells better than over-simplifications.

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binksty101
Why the confusion? Why all the cramming of information? Yes! Good
Content/Service, but also keep it simple. If I have to read a "chapter" on
what you do, or play with four widgets to "learn" more, or visit your blog and
troll for topics of interest, then I'm already turned off. I want to know if
it's a product I can use/sign up for in less than 30 seconds -- speaking of
which, there's a good chance you'll snag me if I'm 30 seconds in and still
with you.

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astockel
I'll tell you what doesn't work: changing a simple design and burying things
in layers. Facebook and now Google Mail is guilty of burying "logoff" in a
drop down box. Give me a break, putting it in a drop down box doesn't keep me
from logging off, it only annoys me.

Make it obvious and easy to use and resist the urge to f __k with it. I can
name many other examples. Central Desktop also comes to mind.

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Nathan_Lujure
Des- this thing was spot on. I just got done reading "Made to Stick" and think
their point about being concrete vs. generic directly relates to your ideas.
Ex: "Its very easy" vs "It's easier than tying your shoes"

Thanks for this!

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bowmande
Great article. It is easy to get caught up in the chasing the best
presentation, but if you don't have a great product and the information to
support it no one will listen.

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maxer
interesting Des, your presentation on tuesday at DWS was thought provoking

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destraynor
Cheers Maxer. Good clean useful thoughts I hope :)

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maxer
always love your facebook slide :)

