[webproducers] DCIA InfoSlam >> Designing Useful Forms

Here's info on the upcoming DC Information Architecture meeting.  By the
way, in case you haven't been there, Teaism is a cool place to meet - a kind
of pan-Asian teahouse with light meals and a peaceful ambiance.

And if you can't make it, the links in this message can be useful all by
themselves.

~Stacy

**************

WHEN: Tuesday, August 7 from 7-9 PM

WHERE: Teaism at Penn Quarter, 400 8th St. NW, Washington DC

THIS MONTH'S TOPIC: Designing Useful Forms

YOUR MODERATOR: Claude Steinberg of UserWorks

GETTING THERE BY METRO:  
Red Line, Judiciary Square station.  _OR_
Red, Yellow, and Green Lines, Gallery Place station.



Ever get frustrated at the paltry 5 minutes for Q&A at the end of a
speaker's address?  Ever long for those engaging discussions like you had
in college?  Wish you could continue an interesting conversation started
on a listserv?  We do, too.

So we bring you the InfoSlam -- DCIA's premier forum for the latest IA
trends and topics.  It's like college without the grades.  It's a
face-to-face listserv.  It's how IAs keep current.

Join us!


SUGGESTED READINGS
Understanding that you are a busy professional, we offer you a selection
of reading materials that caters to various attention spans.  Below you'll
find the suggested titles and links to those documents as well as "things
to think about" for each reading.  Indeed, reading the materials is
voluntary and is not mandatory for participation.   So, choose one, all,
or none, but come to the InfoSlam ready to share your own experiences!


Suggested Bedtime and Poolside Reading:

1) Effortmark's Open University Case Study, particularly the registration
form itself
http://www.effortmark.co.uk/dhtml/form.html

To think about:
Before looking at Effortmark's solutions (the after pictures), think how
you might redesign the form to overcome the objections listed in the
comments.  How do your improvements compare to theirs?


2) "The U.S. Ballot Maelstrom" by Robert Barnett, especially part 2: Form
Filling Habits, Reading & Consistency
http://www.bfma.org/fcn/features/articles/ballot2.htm

To think about:
a) What problems have people had with forms in your organization that
might result from particular habits (for instance, doing questions in the
numbered order even when asked to skip certain questions)?  How would you
overcome or work within the confines of such habits?
b) How would concerns about people's field of peripheral vision influence
how you would place questions, instructions, response fields, and 
navigation tools on a form?
c) Are there situations and requirements where one would NOT want the
format of a form (font size, bolding, color) to stay consistent?



Suggested Readings for the Coffeeshop or Plane:

1) "Should I use a drop-down?  Four steps for choosing form elements on
the Web" by Miller & Jarrett, concentrating on Step 2:  Six Questions
http://www.formsthatwork.com/ftp/dropdown.pdf

To think about:
a) For questions that let users pick more than one option, is there a way
to let users know this?  Is having radio buttons with an "any" option the
best solution?
b) How would you design similar options to help users distinguish among
them, for instance, 3 different "Marriot" hotels in the same city or in
different cities?  Would you just call them by their official names, i.e.,
"Marriott Regency, Marriott on the Lake?"


2) "Visual Design Effects on Item Nonresponse to a Question about Work
Satisfaction That Precedes the Q-12 Agree-Disagree Items" by Dillman,
Caldwell, & Gansemer, concentrating on "The Issue from a Questionnaire
Design Perspective," pp. 1-2 and the pictures in Figure 2, pp. 7-10.
http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers/Gallup%20Caldwell%20Q12%20paper.p
df
or, if the direct link doesn't work, look for the title in:
http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers.htm

To think about:
a) How would you reword the title of this article so people would realize
it's of intermediate difficulty and contains just percentages, no heavy
duty inferential statistics?;-)
b) What do you do to differentiate an element of information that shares
many properties with surrounding information?  Is it harder to highlight
the unique properties of a visual or information element when people are
performing a task than when they're simply browsing or viewing a
page?  From the nonresponse patterns in the article, it seems that setting
up a new response pattern (Format K) gets more attention than disturbing,
delaying the onset of, or departing from an established pattern (Formats I
and J)Does this have to be the case?
c) Have you ever found that giving people written instructions actually
causes them problems that might prevent them from completing a form?  Do
people tend to treat anything with instructions as something
they can ignore?



Extreme Power Challenge:

"Navigational Issues in the Design of On-Line Self-Administered
Questionnaires:  The Effect of Training and Familiarity" by Norman,
Pleskac, & Norman, concentrating on the section entitled "Survey 
Design" (pp. 8-10 on my printout, though they're not numbered) and the pie
charts in Figure 8 (page 19 on my printout).
ftp://ftp.cs.umd.edu/pub/hcil/Reports-Abstracts-Bibliography/2001-09html/200
1-09.htm

To think about:
a) The authors compare "item based" questionnaires--ones which display
each question on a single page-- to "form based" questionnaires--ones
which allow users to scroll through the entire form on
a single page. In both formats, users can choose which questions to answer
first, but in the "item based" format, they are encouraged to feel as if
they have temporarily "skipped" questions because they have to click a
button to jump ahead.  The authors suggest "item based" questionnaires may
slow people down, since when users are discouraged from jumping ahead,
it's harder for them to identify and answer questions in an order that
matches the organization of the database they're using or their own way of
organizing information.  Can you think of any good reason to create "item
based" questionnaires rather than  "form based" questionnaires?

b) Have you ever found that people respond to a document you've designed
one way when it first appears, but that their reaction changes once
they've become familiar with the document?  If a feature that is
eventually shown to be valuable elicits an initially hostile reaction,
when is it better to be concerned with the initial reception and when with
the retrospective judgment?



For more information, email us at dcia_info@xxxxxxxxxx

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