At the Future of Web Design, Ryan Singer of 37 Signals, the producers of acclaimed Web 2.0 applications such as Basecamp and Highrise, offered some useful tips for making signing up for a new service as simple as possible.

Making things up is hard. Asking people to use their imagination or think very carefully, to come up with a username and password, for example, or to fill in a box asking them to state their interests, introduces an unnecessary moment of hesitation. It's better to begin with easy questions - first name and surname, for example - so that users get a quick start to the sign-up process.

Rockstar2084 is taken. Since the birth of Hotmail back in 1996, users have not been able to have the user name that they want. Typically, this involves considerable frustration. You press 'submit', wait for the web server to do its thing and then get a rejection message. You try another name and press submit again. Nowadays, though, it's not necessary to inflict such pain, since you can have a Javascript check the user name and other possible sources of error live as the form is being filled.

Ask only as much as you need to. You shouldn't have to fill in a lengthy series of questions in order to get started. It's better to ask as little as possible so that people can start using your product as quickly as possible. In Highrise, for example, you only need to enter a new contact's name and email address to add them to your database. More details can be added later if you want to. Singer suggested that users just want to be given the keys so that they can get started as soon as possible. Keep any email confirmations as short as possible - if you want to give any extra advice or instruction, then this can be done within the application itself.

Words are your friends. For some reason, the language used on sign-up forms is often extremely terse and unfriendly. There's really no reason to talk to potential customers like this. For example, rather than "ROOM OPTION:" on a hotel booking form, what's wrong with, "What sort of room would you like?" Similarly, error messages are often written along the lines of WARNING ERROR ALERT. When web forms are filled in incorrectly, it sometimes seems that users are treated as though they've committed a major crime, which is extremely off-putting to potential customers. Again, AJAX scripts that check input as users type can help and, in any case, it's a good idea to treat your customers with courtesy.

(44) 204-8929 is the same phone number as 442048929. Forcing people to enter such numbers in your particular way is annoying to people who don't normally use the same formatting as you. Make sure your form can adapt to the preferences of the people who need to use it.

Muse me. Give examples of the correct answer to your questions. You might consider extending this to even very basic questions because it can smooth people's path through your form. For example: "Company Name e.g. IBM, Yahoo!, 37 Signals".

Welcome. Signing up for a new service is a process with a beginning, middle and end. Let your users know that you are on top of what's happening. Acknowledge what they have given you and tell them what they're getting in return. This helps users have confidence in the process and feel that the end result is likely to be worth the effort.