Death to sign up forms!

“Sign up forms must die,” proclaims Luke Wroblewski in his new book Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks.

I couldn’t agree more.

There is an emerging trend among Web 2.0 sites to employ a gradual engagement model as a way to give users a taste, often times a complete activity or experience, before asking them to sign up.

Virtual worlds and MMOs are quite possibly the worst offenders when it comes to forcing users through a registration process. Guests are often relegated to look at sample screen shots and read descriptions of a world before deciding to hand over their personal information for a closer look.

By and large, enthusiasts have populated online worlds to date. Whether they are hardcore gamers or early adopters of virtual worlds, they don’t need convinced to try a new service and they don’t care how easy or hard it is to use.

The design paradigm must change if the industry is to be successful in attracting and retaining casual users. If you are publishing a casual social or game world this year, even in 2008 there is a chance it will be the first avatar-based, immersive experience for your users.

In some ways, the Free to Play model that many world designers are using is addressing the monetary investment piece of the puzzle, but most worlds are still requiring a sign-up process before putting users into the world.

As experience designers we need to move the sign-up process from the download/sign-up page to a series of interactions in the world. The percentage of casual prospective users that are lost between the web pages describing a virtual world and the sign-up form is non-trivial. Equally significant is the number of users lost between sign-up and entering the world.

If you are still not convinced, an excerpt of Wroblewski’s book has been posted over at A List Apart.