On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:47:29, pauric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > While I dont disagree that its not the best form in the world and > would be better suited with a traditional multi page wizard. In your > view, if someone was actually entering text in to this.. is it really > so bad? whats the fundamental interaction flaw?
When I went to that link and followed Robert's instructions and more and more fields kept popping up I, who was not even filling it out, started to get impatient. "How much more is there to this?" I asked myself. And it kept coming. And then a song popped into my head: "This is the form that ne-ver ends La la la la la la This is the form that ne-ver ends Etc." And now it's stuck there. Argh. Anyway, what's wrong with this pattern is that it is inappropriate for the audience the form is meant to serve, senior citizens (it deals with medicare and medicaid). Anyone who has tested with users 60+ years old will tell you that a common trait this group has is that they read EVERYTHING on the page before taking an action. So when you have all this junk on one page it's going to take them forever to complete it. Here's an example of how a designer (yes, a graphic designer!) at my previous place of employment solved a similar problem: *sigh* Someone redesigned the site and really made it awful. And they removed this interaction I wanted to show. Anyway, the old "Medicare Physician Directory" on UHC.com was a physician finder that asked seniors about what they were looking for one question at a time. All that was on a page was question text, a form field, and continue and go back buttons. Yes, for most of us that would be very tedious, but it tested incredibly well *with its intended audience.* The designer's original design was more like a simple wizard (with several fields for each of just a few steps), but observing the "comprehensive reading" behavior led him to this step-by-step approach. It's all about context... - Fred ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
