In my application, the users have no choice but to go through the system, so I don't need to worry about driving off customers, but I certainly don't want to complicate the user experience any more than I have to. I see the problem with presenting form after form to a user who thought it would only take a few minutes to go through. In my own experience, I've always appreciated the wizard style forms that indicated what step I was on with tabs or something. Even if it just says "Step 2 of 4" or something, I think it gives a cleaner idea. Since my steps are each very simple, I think that I'll avoid irking the majority of the masses. At least I hope so. Gulp.
Thanks again for your input. Matthieu -----Original Message----- From: Matt Robertson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 1:27 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: multi-page forms Matthieu penned: > It does seem logical to me that the completion rate for a long > single-page form would be different from that of a multi-page form. > I am a little confused, though, because the long form that you > propose, Matt, even though it is actually one long form, appears > to the user as though it is a multi-page form. So the difference > in completion rate cannot fairly be attributed to difference in > user experience. Does that sound right to you? If not, please > let me know. I may have misunderstood something. The long form I referenced was the one found at http://64.37.102.68/online/onlinequote.html. The designer took my big single form and broke it up. When I saw the designer's work I objected to it, and wanted to prove it was a bad idea, though I thought his method of accomplishing the job -- the single long hoppity-hopping form bit -- was interesting (he did this, BTW, to make his multipart concept work with the existing CF coding). The form was running on several sites. I built a multipart ver and put it on some of them. Completion rates promptly collapsed. Your users may not object to this the way mine did. I don't know what your application is, but for my particular one being up-front about all the info required to get a result was a better idea. If you *want* a multi-page form, that method may be a simple solution as long as your needs are also simple. As Andrew pointed out, field validation and user confusion are issues you have to consider as well. It may make more sense to validate at each step, and that means this long-form bit won't work. --Matt Robertson-- MSB Designs, Inc. http://mysecretbase.com ______________________________________________________________________ Get Your Own Dedicated Windows 2000 Server PIII 800 / 256 MB RAM / 40 GB HD / 20 GB MO/XFER Instant Activation � $99/Month � Free Setup http://www.pennyhost.com/redirect.cfm?adcode=coldfusionb FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
