[Sigia-l] (UXD) examples of good process for class registration?

[Betsy Martens]

[apologies in advance for cross-posting]

Hi all,

I'm trying to design a good user experience for what will essentially be a
class registration process, and I'd love to get links to any good models you
know of. 

THE DETAILS (OK to skip)
The user will be starting on a page that lists multiple classes, each of
which is followed by a "register now" button. Once the user clicks that
button, he or she will go a form page that is pre-populated with information
about that particular class. I'd like to include spaces for multiple
participants to be registered, with a data field for their ages. As each
class fills up, we'd like to be able to do a behind-screen countdown and
announce that the class is full once the limit has been reached.

THE SUMMARY & POINTED ECONOMIC COMMENTARY (OK to skip)
This is our starting point of a wish list. I've been looking for good models
online but so far have found only dreadful ones. I suspect that education
signup processes are the orphan child of e-commerce transactions, for more
or less the same reasons that librarians make a lot less money than
information architects.

Still, I'd love to get your best-case examples of class registration forms.
I will be most grateful for any links you can share with me.

Thanks very much,

Betsy Martens, Communications Coordinator
Lake Forest Open Lands Association
272 Deerpath Road
Lake Forest, Illinois 60045
847-234-3880, x12
http://www.lfola.org