The WordPress sign-up process has some excellent features that are worth noting and incorporating into your own forms.
1. It highlights the email address to which the email activation code has been sent with a bright yellow background. This is a great way to draw people to the email address as the person may have input a mis-spelt email address. They can check it and correct it if it is wrong.
2. It lets you update your personal profile while you are waiting for the activation code. There are numerous benefits here:
- The user is kept occupied so does not waste time.
- The user is less likely to forget and go and do something else.
- WordPress gets more information on the user which gives them more data to work with (e.g. personalise any emails they send you with your first name).
- It helps keep the signup form (on the previous page) really short and then gets the extra data they want (e.g. first name) afterwards. This will lead in a higher conversion rate for the previous form.
3. The page uses very large form fields. They look a bit ugly but they it is very obvious what to do as a user. This is more likely to get people to fill in the form than having standard small fields.
4. If the user has still not received the activation email, they are given instructions on what to do. By now, the user should have been kept busy for about 1 minute so this has given the email more time to arrive in their inbox. This should reduce the number of support questions sent to WordPress saying "I havn't received my activation email yet". It also helps people proactivley find out likely reasons for not having received the email.
More examples of fantastic usability from the masters at WordPress!