Here’s the most streamlined signup process I’ve seen yet. Stripe, a really cool new payment processor, has your standard demo button at the bottom of their landing page. Clicking on it takes you right into the admin dashboard for the app. Now…other apps have a demo function, that’s nothing new, but what’s interesting about Stripe is that they actually create a fresh account for you when you try it out, so you’re not just browsing with a demo account, you’re already using the app.
Of course if you’d actually want to use the service in the future you’ll need to provide your credentials, so there’s a box in the sidebar for that:
Fill in the email and password and your account gets saved with AJAX, without ever refreshing the page. I also like the language used on the button, which just says “Save”, not “Sign up”, “Join” or “Register”. The label reinforced the point that you’re already using the service.