Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Psychology of Forms
On the one hand, whatever people are filling forms for — an application
for a license, an expense sheet, a medical background form — it has
associated with it all the tensions of the activity that the for m is the
beginning of — the driving test, possible questions or disapproval of the
expenses by the manager, the fear of what or what else the medical visit
will reveal. Forms also have an association with paperwork that is for the
benefit of someone else, not the person filling in the form, often a faceless
and difficult bureaucracy. Forms have become associated with bureauc-
racies, not processes.
Forms affect one's sense of control. You are responding to someone's
demand, and, yes, often it is a demand for particular pieces of information
about yourself or your transactions. There is some authority figure — the
boss, the doctor, the government — behind it. It is not a voluntary, friendly
sharing of information. Of course, you are free to walk away from the
process and not fill in the form.
Reveals the Organization
Forms are also edge points of not-so-transparent processes. This is obvious
when one has selected or filled in the “wrong form.” If it turns out that
the form for out-of-state persons is Form 456 — not Form 123, then there
was an implicit expectation that one understands that the way the pro-
cessing is organized is that out-of-state persons are treated differently from
in-state persons. It tells a lot about the organization. (This window into
the internal, often administrative, organization revealing itself through edge
items also happens on Web sites of large companies. If one sees the site
divided into products and services, it is likely that the company is also
organized with products and services as different departments.)
Forms Need Not Be Visual
Form design concepts are applicable to other channels. When one encoun-
ters “Press 1 for Billing, Press 2 for Technical Support” on the telephone,
it is also a form. Obviously, some of the design principles are different
but one is — through a mixture of audio and tactile (pressing keys) modes
— filling in a form. It is as if one is filling in a form that says, “I want
to talk to someone in Billing about my phone bill, my phone number is
XXX-XX-XXX….” When a customer enters an office and selects a line to
stand in, he or she is filling in a form: expressing an intention, making a
choice, requesting a service.
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