Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
From Michael Andrews snip - recommendation The chapter on forms (chapter 20) is only 15 pages, but is very modern in its discussion of user centered approaches and graphic treatments. I understand that David Sless, an Aussie who is a major researcher of forms, contributed to the chapter. (I am guessing Caroline Jarret would approve??) I would certainly recommending reading and thinking about anything written by David Sless. It's just not all that easy to get hold of his publications. Much of his forms material was published by his Communications Research Institute of Australia, on paper, in the 1980s and early 1990s. His site is currently saying 'closed for maintenance' http://communication.org.au While we're on the topic of Australian forms persons, I can also strongly recommend Robert Barnett, who has also been writing about usability of forms for over 20 years (he uses the Australian spelling useability): http://www.rbainformationdesign.com.au/ If you're in the USA, it might be easier for you to get his books from the Business Forms Management Association (BFMA): http://www.bfma.org/bookstore/main.php And there's also Jessica Enders, who's business Formulate is just a year old: http://formulate.com.au/ If you're wondering why I'm mentioning several Australian forms people and none from the rest of the world, that's because there aren't all that many elsewhere. You can track some of them down through BFMA, but to be honest if you ask a question about usability of paper forms on their list (formspace), you're likely to get answers from me again, and/or possibly Jessica or Rob Barnett - the usual suspects, in other words. There are other people on that list who know a LOT about forms, but it's other aspects of forms e.g. the management of forms, the details of programming Acrobat forms, career progression of forms professionals. There are three heroes of the world of paper document design who have great things to say about forms: Patricia Wright, now at Cardiff University researching medical information devices. Published extensively on forms and information design of paper from the mid-1970s. Her bibliography is here: http://www.cf.ac.uk/psych/contactsandpeople/lecturing/wright-patricia-prof-p ublications_new.html but it doesn't mention her earlier stuff, such as the excellent paper Just fill in this form (with Barnard). I'm away from my library at the moment so I can't give the exact reference. Ginny Redish (Janice C. Redish), http://www.redish.net/. Ginny used to be director of the Document Design group at American Institutes for Research and they did loads of work on paper forms and indeed paper documents in general. If you are lucky enough to come across the AIR Guidelines for Document Designers, treasure it. I got my copy by persuading someone to let me photocopy his disintegrating version (obviously I made him a copy as well). (USA government material is not copryright, so this was legal). I wrote a brief summary of the guidelines here: http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article1224.asp These days, Ginny is concentrating on writing for the web and usability in general, and if you ask her about forms she's rather likely to refer back to me :-) Karen Schriver (long interview with her at http://www.informationdesign.org/special/schriver_interview.php) Karen is interested in information design in general. Her book is EASY to get hold of (hurrah), and it's called 'Dynamics in Document Design' http://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Document-Design-Creating-Readers/dp/047130636 3 Although it's not about forms as such, it does have a lot to say about the design of documents in general (and can therefore be applied to forms in particular. If you'd like a more comprehensive bibliography, then (shameless plug, again, I'm afraid), I've put a whole bunch of suggestions in the back of our book. Best Caroline Jarrett Out now: Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forms-that-Work-Interactive-Technologies/ dp/1558607102 http://www.amazon.com/Forms-that-Work-Interactive-Technologies/dp/product-de scription/1558607102 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
I would recommend trying to contact a statistican as they have done this sort of thing for years and they are a great place to start, but don't solely rely on their advice. I would suspect the large departments (census etc have this information on line in US) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36246 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
Rob, I sense you question isn't fully answered regarding paper forms, so I will offer a good, if difficult, recommendation. The best discussion I've seen of paper forms in is the Style Manual 6th edition of the Commonwealth of Australia, published by John Wiley Australia ISBN 0-7016-3648-3. The chapter on forms (chapter 20) is only 15 pages, but is very modern in its discussion of user centered approaches and graphic treatments. I understand that David Sless, an Aussie who is a major researcher of forms, contributed to the chapter. (I am guessing Caroline Jarret would approve??) Unfortunately, the books isn't widely sold outside Australia (I bought mine while living in New Zealand.) It is an example of wonderful book that isn't available globally (so much for the global village). It covers all kinds of graphic design issues with sensibility. Sorry to offer a recommendation that isn't easy to get, but if you are motivated, you might find the effort worthwhile. Michael Andrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36246 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
William Brall snip - explanation And if your book goes even one step beyond rote rules and delves into the spirit and philosophy behind why you should design such and such a way, it should be directly translatable to any sort of form. Fair enough. We've tried very much to concentrate on ways of thinking about forms, so it seems like we've written the type of book that you're interested in. Best Caroline Out now: Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forms-that-Work-Interactive-Technologies/ dp/1558607102 http://www.amazon.com/Forms-that-Work-Interactive-Technologies/dp/product-de scription/1558607102 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
I disagree with #5. Picking controls is VERY important. Why just today I had to fill in a form to get my flumist inoculation. The last item on the list was: The Cost is $25. Cash___ Check__ Elsewhere on the form I had this option: Male [_] or Female [_] So what was I supposed to fill in? Was I supposed to check one? Was I supposed to write two numbers, like Cash $15, Check $10? Was I supposed to write in the Check number... and if so, what if it was Cash? I'd say any book worth its salt about form design would answer this question for an online form, and thus a paper one. Will . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36246 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
That was: Cash_._,_._,_._ Check_._,_,_,_,_ For those who saw that collapse into 1 line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36246 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
From William Brall I disagree with #5. Picking controls is VERY important. snip - example I'd say any book worth its salt about form design would answer this question for an online form, and thus a paper one. (Aside: sorry that the formatting of my previous email on this subject came out so badly) We do have a whole chapter on picking form controls, chapter 5. It's just that the original post asked for material on paper forms, and I felt that the chapter wouldn't be useful for paper forms. There are different considerations for designing the boxes that people write into compared to the controls that they interact with online. One day, I'll get around to writing something on choosing response spaces on paper but I haven't yet done so. As it happens, this chapter in the book is very much based on the paper that I wrote with Sarah Allen Miller called 'Should I use a dropdown?'. The paper is available at: http://www.formsthatwork.com/articlespapers/dropdown.asp During the editing process, the acknowledgement of Sarah's contribution to the book chapter got overlooked and I'm glad to be able to remedy this now. Hope this helps Caroline Jarrett 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
[IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
Can anyone recommend best practices and guidelines for the design of paper forms - not printed online forms, but stand-alone paper forms, filled in by hand. Best Regards, Rob Tannen, PhD Director of Research 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Paper Form Design Usability
Rob Tannen Can anyone recommend best practices and guidelines for the design of paper forms - not printed online forms, but stand-alone paper forms, filled in by hand. Hi Rob I would have loved to include paper form design in our recent book but was persuaded that a shorter book would be a better idea. However, many of the ideas in there work just fine on paper forms. The book is: Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier Available from Amazon and most other bookshops. Here's a guide as to which chapters are applicable: Introduction: what is a form - works for paper 1. Persuading people to answer - works for paper. 2. Asking for the right information - definitely works for paper, and some of the things we recommend such as watching people deal with the incoming forms are a lot easier to do with paper 3. Making questions easy to answer - definitely works for paper 4. Writing instructions - definitely works for paper 5. Choosing forms controls - irrelevant, no help for paper 6. Making the form flow easily - not much that's relevant to paper 7. Taking care of the details - works for paper 8. Making the form look easy - the sections on grids and grouping are relevant 9. Testing - definitely works for paper. If you'd like some online resources, then try two papers (I wrote both of them about paper forms): Designing usable forms: the three-layer model of the form http://www.formsthatwork.com/articlespapers/form.asp Understanding the costs of data capture http://www.formsthatwork.com/articlespapers/datacapture.asp Hope this helps. Best Caroline Jarrett 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
