Linked In QnA Should Web Forms Be Designed To Look Like The Paper Form It Is Replacing

When the word “forms” shows up it can mean many different things especially when you take the medium into consideration. The 2 mediums in question for the purposes of this entry are paper and web. Initially, I saw little to no reason to make a web form look like the paper form even though the paper version of the form is the grand parent and has been used by users for years. My initial reasoning for this was that they were two very different mediums with different constraints and capabilities.

The professionals on Linked In had plenty of experience and advice for me that I found very helpful. This post will categorize and present those recomendations so that hopefully they become useful to you as well. To note unless I get an answer that is completely off topic and backwards I am usually very happy to rate it as a good answer because the person took time out of their day to respond to me. With this question I got twenty responses that really sent my head spinning with some of the insights and experiences. Lets get to it. To pick the best answer was tough so I picked the one that provided me with the most unexpected reasons and points that I did not consider.

Best Answer

• How the form looks is just one part of the overall experience of completing the form
• Most people are used to the web presenting things differently so user confusion is not much of a factor.
• The experience of filling out the form matters more than how it looks on initial inspection
• We should be designing web-based forms to make the most of the browser medium
• Legal reasons may require you to make the form look like the paper one
  • 1. If the actual form – and not just the policy it implements – is enshrined in legislation, then every version of that form has to be approved. Having a web form that looks different can mean a whole separate approval process (and therefore additional costs).2. In legal arguments around data, the design of the form that collected data in question – rather than just the data themselves – may be used. Therefore, having a web form that looks different from a paper form may muddy the waters in any legal argument that calls on the design of the data collection instrument.

The above points really show why this was the best answer to me because I never considered the chance of there being legal reasons that a form had to look like the paper version. For the rest of the answers that I received it was a split scattered bunch. Below are the major points that were given to me for making forms look like the paper version.

For The Paper

• People printing out the form, filling it in, and mailing it to the office rather than submit it online
• Users familiar with the form would not use the interview style, preferring the familiarity of their tried and true replicated form
• They’re trying to minimize is the cost of retraining the experienced staff
• At a minimum, the flow of the form (the order of the fields) should be preserved if the paper form has been in use for quite some time
• It will be easier (faster) for people to transfer information from one to the other
• Fewer mistakes will be made if the meanings and locations of the web form items match those on the paper.
• When someone goes back to reference the form, it will have a familiar layout

For Using Web Technologies

• Tightly packed forms that are designed for the constraints of paper can and will be improved by the spacing of a web interface
• The ability to provide on demand help as well as assistance text in places that it was not possible with the paper form.
• Paper reading and screen reading are different so the form should be adjusted for the screen
• The length and complexity of the form should factor into the decision to adjust it especially if completion rate will increase using web tools like auto populate.
• If web users are a different segment that paper users or don’t have a lot of interaction with the paper form redesign the web form.

For A Hybrid Approach

• Only adjust the form slightly where it can help then as users get used to the adjustments continue to ween them away from the paper form
• Start with the paper then roll out a web version along side it. This would provide both versions and keep all users happy.

From this interaction I have learned that the phrase “there is more than one way to skin a cat” truly applies to this scenario. There are definitely compelling reasons to consider when designing a web form based on an existing paper form. The top reason being the effect on the user population.

Linked In QnA, How functional must a prototype be if my goal is to get an investor or potential partner interested in the concept?

This question was asked by a gentleman looking to build something that he could start and wanted to start but would like to get help with finishing. This is the question for virtually everybody with an idea for a product. Essentially it is “How much of what I am thinking do I have to have built and have ready for show in order to attract people with capital to help me”. The Linked In Experts or at least people with experience and were not to scared or greedy to share weighed in and provided some good information.

There were 6 answers to this question total, of which 4 were chosen as good answers and 1 of the 4 was the best answer. Lets take a look as speaking points for the best answer in this case.

Best Answer

1. Convince them that the product could work
2. Mock up only trivial parts of the system but have enough wow parts working to keep interest
3. Allow investors to play if they would like
4. Research attendees and know your audience (If you have ever read “The 48 Laws of Power” this is of major importance for anyone looking to sell anything)
5. When demoing to developers make sure you show the challenge in the application

This is a nice set of rules to go by based on 2 preconditions of having the prototype ready; and having found people that would want to get on board with you. However, those issues to me seem to be of greater importance because you can’t really do any of what is stated here unless those conditions are met. So lets take a look at the other answers to see if someone piped up about ways to find those willing to help you.

Good Answers

1. Functioning product (2 Nods)
2. Get it used by actual users (2 Nods)
3. The other 1 that answered really just pitched their services and piggy-backed.

Answers Note Rated as Good

The strangest thing is that I think that both of these answers are actually much better than the answers of the 1 that was selling. Points from not good answers.

1. Know what your VC is looking for
2. Have a working scale at least
3. If it is a physical product have a working scale version
4. Make sure that it shines (people don’t get under the hood if the body is garbage)

for not rated as good answers these 2 guys actually provided some good insights. For instance number 4, where the the statement is ” Your GUI must rock..” is very true. I have seen many products where the part that the customer, investor, user sees is not appealing and the product fails because they can’t get past the look. So when you go looking for investors make sure they can get past the first impression so that you can sell them on the real meat of the thing. The other points of the not good answers all mimic what had been said before just with different examples.

Well I hope this was a nice little look into this Linked In question and answer. Will have another one next week.

Link to the actual post:

Linked In QnA about Annoying Ads on weather.com

Weather.com has to have some of the most intrusive and annoying ads on the web. Seriously being a web and marketing lover I think done correctly the web has the potential to be the perfect marriage of targeting and convenience. However, I recently got fed up with the bold in your face continuous annoyance of the dancing, moving, jiggling, content covering, bigger than the content ads. I decided to poll the linked in community to get a sense of what others have found as replacements to the annoying advertisement ladened weather site. I promptly received 12 responses to my query from web users that have had it with weather.com. Below are the recommendations of the answerers.

1. Fire Fox with Adblock https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4042 this tool got much praise and for good reason. Currently has over 200,000 downloads and that number is growing by the second.
2. http://www.wunderground.com/ got plenty of nods as well. There are ads there but not the jiggling kind.
3. weather.mobi the mobile solution from weather.com got a few nods as a suitable solution for those that are on the go or would rather use their phone to check the weather. It gets specific and removes flashy stuff.
4. http://www.weather.gov has no ads and has a lot of functionality.
5. http://www.accuweather.com got a nod but it also has ads in a few places

Interesting enough no one mentioned weather bug. I am thankful to all who helped me on linked in with this question and now I pose the same question to you. Please let the rest of us know about your low ad profile weather solution.

Hello unsuspecting world!

We are links and buttons because that is what we deal with day in and day out.  How does it link and how do you get there.  All things web is our domain but mainly focusing on information and knowledge gained from linked in users who are usually professionals with varying experiences and views on the question.

Enjoy.