while i appreciate this from an aesthetic perspective, this fails multiple usability tests:<p>1) "across the room" -- stand 10 feet away from your machine and see if you can tell what you're supposed to do<p>2) "don't make me think" -- i'm sure anyone who has ever used a website has to think about this one.<p>if you actually want people to sign up, make it easier, not harder. save your creativity for your content.
I like the idea. It seems to take up a lot of space though to get a lot of simple information.I think a little color contrast for the form fields will help. I would be interested to see how this for would compare to other forms. You should test it with Google optimizer to see which people are more likely to convert. Always test, the data won't lie. You got to go with what gets you more users.
I do believe that design patterns in design and usability are really helpful and are penned after a lot of consideration, usage, observation and tuning.<p>When the ipod launched with the click wheel feature all the usability experts were busy looking for the good and bad.<p>If you stuck to rules it is hard to come up with new stuff.
I appreciate the thought of bring old-school wisdom here, who knows this can possibly lead to some better sign-up forms.<p>On the iPod incident Steve Jobs responded by redefining Design with a very simple meaning - "Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,...That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. <i>Design is how it works</i>."
I am <i>very</i> uncomfortable typing in a passwsord without any security on the page. Why not secure the sign up page? So many sites makes this same mistake of not taking people's password security seriously. I like the approach of the form though.
Nice idea but as everybody says, it breaks away from commonly expected usability standards.<p>But when compared to the linear form design. The linear form design seems much more suable since I can quickly recognise what I'm supposed to type in.<p>"Email address:" is quicker than "My email address is". The same applies to all the fields.
A lot of the comments here assume you can see truth at a glance, but intuition is fallible. I'd be rather curious to know if Huffduffer did A/B testing of this form vs. a more traditional signup page. Doing that test, and gathering real data, is the surest way to know if this alternate design is any good.
I hate this form. I know a lot of people like it, but I hate it. It goes against all the standard for design techniques that users are used to - even as a designer and full time employee at an internet company I was confused for a half second when looking at it. That is bad.
This form reminds me of <a href="http://www.wolfslittlestore.be/fear-of-looking-like-a-copycat" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolfslittlestore.be/fear-of-looking-like-a-copyca...</a><p>This signup form is playful, but awkward to use as a result. Conventions exist for a reason.
I like the idea, but some simple CSS changes would certainly improve it. I'd consider an offwhite background color, and a subtle border for your form fields.