Come on, Ofoto, You're Better Than That

24 Oct 2003 by Jason Fried

Ofoto is a great service and a very well-designed web-based application. Their copywriting is clear, design is crisp, and their forms are refreshingly short and to the point. For example, to register all you need to do is fill out 4 fields: first name, email address, password, and password confirmation. This is a Good Thing. But, the registration form is deceptively sneaky. Take a close look (above, red boxes are mine)… On the left you have the purple section with the form fields and the “I agree to the terms of service” checkbox. You’d think that was it and you’d click the “join now” button to continue (which is exactly what I did). However, if you look in the upper right corner, you’ll see an additional checkbox that signs you up for their mailing list (and this checkbox is checked by default). Pretty sneaky detaching that sign-up checkbox from the rest of the form. Come on, Ofoto, you’re better than that.