Forms That Work: Designing easy and accurate question and answer dialogues

Overview

If you want users to answer your questions easily and accurately, then you need forms that work. A form is the point where you stop giving information out to your user and start collecting information instead. A form asks your user to start to commit to your organisation or web site.

This tutorial will help you to understand how forms work, and what to do to improve the design of your form. The tutorial is conceptual not technical: we concentrate on the human aspects of good forms, not on programming.

We focus on these aspects of web forms:

• The user experience with forms and questionnaires on the web and in everyday life
• Investigating your existing forms, and bringing together the business and user needs when you design your new forms.
• The three layer model which describes how forms work at the relationship, conversation and appearance levels
• A six-step process of creating forms that works for the users:
• Define the information requirement
• Understand the relationship
• Write questions
• Create a conversation
• Design an appropriate appearance
• Test

Delivery Method

Lecture, with exercises and an opportunity to create your own action plan for the design of web forms.

Duration

1 day

Pre-Requisites

You will be familiar with the idea of usability, and committed to a user-centered approach to testing and web design. You may have some experience of form or questionnaire design. You do not need to have any programming experience.

Further information

Effortmark Limited is a usability consultancy based in the United Kingdom. Contact us.
caroline dot jarrett at effortmark dot co dot uk

© Effortmark Limited, all rights reserved. Last updated: 29 March 2004