Robert | 12.23.2005 @ 10:32 AM
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Remember the Milk, a to-do list tool, has a very intersting registration form that gets some things right and other things equally wrong.

On the positive side, it provides immediate feedback in the form of little checkmark icons to let you know whether a field has been correctly completed as soon as it loses focus. This is very nice, because it means I won't see any error messages after clicking the Signup button, instead seeing positive feedback all along the way. On the downside, however, it also offers negative feedback as soon as an input field gains focus. As in, I tab to the email address field, and because it's empty at first, I see an error message telling me that the email address is invalid. (Thought bubble: "How can my email address be invalid if I haven't yet entered one?")

Again on the plus side, the form tells me immediately whether my preferred username is available for use via a message to the right of the input field. But then it asks me to confirm my password, which is something I never want to do. I entered it once already - please don't ask me to do it again.

For everything the form does well, it does another thing ... not so well. Remember the Milk is definitely on the right track, and I like the checkmark icons so much that I might steal the idea and use it myself, so I have great confidence that they could make a few adjustments and produce a really smooth registration process. But for now, the experience is askew just enough to make it an interesting topic for Inc Blots.