It’s been a little while since I created a trial account as if I were an end user (by clicking Free Trial on the Microsoft Office page), so I hadn’t seen the new setup page before – they’ve updated and streamlined the sign-up process, making it even more painless! I’m a huge fan of end user usability, so I’m the kind of guy that really gets excited about this kind of stuff 😀
At any rate, clicking on Free Trial off the Microsoft site gets you a simple, streamlined sign-up form: very clean, very nice:
Once you add your first level of information and click Next, you’re on the ID page: pick your user ID and password, and of course, be very careful naming your tenancy! (there is still no option to change this later)
Microsoft continues to improve their user friendly wording in Office 365 – (mostly) gone are the confusing sign up or error pages! Prove you’re not a Robot, and continue:
Input your verification code:
A few short minutes later, and you’re done! If you got impatient like I did and refreshed the page while the little wheel was still spinning, you’ll probably have to start over – be patient (unlike me ;))!
I also did this process as a Small Business Premium trial to see how it was different – apart from the accent color being blue instead of orange, the final page of your signup process takes you to a nice splash page where you can see the components of your tenancy being set up as they’re provisioned:
And then at the bottom, the admin button to start configuring your tenancy.
You’re definitely not going to need my walk-through as a guide to go through the setup process – Microsoft did an amazing job of putting together a clean, simple form that walks you through the process quickly and easily.
Well done, Microsoft!
Master & CmdR 