While I love the process outlined in the last sketch (and think many people will try it out), 37signals discovered back in 2009 that adding a similar tagline to their headline boosted signups by 30% so the confusion over its popularity surprises me: <a href="http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1525-writing-decisions-headline-tests-on-the-highrise-signup-page" rel="nofollow">http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1525-writing-decisions-headli...</a>
"I’ll bet that the time-to-signup isn’t an important anxiety factor."<p>It is for me. When I'm looking to try out a product, I hate having to jump through hoops just to get to the download link. Fill in 5 pages of information (generally with fake data), making sure I'm not opted in to a mailing list, waiting for that confirmation email etc etc. What a pain in the butt when I'm not even sure I'll use the product for more than a few minutes.<p>I have skipped trying out a product on several occasions because I simply couldn't be bothered going through their signup process.
Another kind of evil (but effective) approach is to allow the user to do all those post-signup activities (like set up a dashboard or create some content), and then say "now sign up" at the end.<p>They're already invested, so you get better conversion.
'When’s the last time you shopped for a software product under intense time pressure, where every second counts?'<p>Analytics could definitely be one of those times. If your site is being Slashdotted, your priority is going to be getting quick access to real-time data about traffic flows, and not messing about with Google Analytics (which until recently, didn't even cover real time).<p>I'm guessing the site in question is GoSquared (the sign up process matches, at least) - and I've worked on a couple of sites where I've installed GoSquared precisely because I knew how quick it was to install.
I think Groupon kinda does this for new users (ie, you enter your email, hit next, it scrolls to the left, you pick your city, etc.)<p>One thing I've found is that if the purpose/value proposition of your product isn't already fairly obvious when a user comes to your site, you should spend more time in marketing the product and educating potential customers instead of trying to attract people who are pretty much clueless about what you do. On one of my web apps, having to sign up was the single most voiced complaint about the site, even though signup literally took less than five seconds.
While there's some quality fodder there, I couldn't get beyond this line:<p>"I’ll bet that the time-to-signup isn’t an important anxiety factor."<p>This isn't the only reason that sign-ups have been pared down; the current trend of thought on the matter is that it also reduces barriers to conversion.<p>Engaging your audience without making them jump through numerous hoops is a great practice, even if that means the occasional company adopts the practice a little too quickly before the rest of their process is fleshed out. I'd certainly prefer that to the alternative, where I've invested a great deal of time with a long form, just to have the same end result, 'and then what?'