Category Archives: Forms

Please Fill this Form or How to Get a Nervous Breakdown

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The world economy is in trouble and as a consequence of the lay-offs many people have been forced to jump into the uncomfortable task of looking for a new job. Unfortunately, some companies seem not to be willing to make applicants’ life easier with simple web and job application process designs.

Internet should make job application easier, not harder. Last weeks I have been hearing complaints from people about how tedious online applications are. Websites like CareerBuilder have good intentions as they try to simplify the process giving the possibility of uploading the CV once and send the same copy to all companies.

Unfortunately, many companies require applicants to send the CV and to fill a web form with the same information. This process could make applicants go crazy if it is not well design.
 

 Web forms could have been part of the plot of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a film by Almodovar

 

Sorry, there was an error, would you please fill the form again? A friend got that message a few times last week, but even once is enough to make people feel worse in a particularly bad moment. These are few things companies should keep in mind when creating a web form for job applicants:

- Make sure your web form continuously saves the information the applicant is uploading.
- Display a message confirming that the data was saved successfully.
- Make the web form simple and short.
- If the web form has to be long, divide it in steps.
- Maybe the best option is to avoid using web forms and let applicants send the CV per email.

 

Why a company should have a well designed application process?

- Yes, everybody wants to work at that company, but if data is lost during the saving process I’m sure not everybody will take the time to fill all that info again. That company might be missing the right applicant.

- It’s about the company’s image. Make the process simple and easy and applicants will love you and your website. 
- Applicants might think the company is playing with their time. Can you imagine the rage a company can flame if the data is lost after several minutes in front of the computer?

- Think in the moment applicants reach the company’s website and their mood. Many people apply during weekends when others are having fun or late at night after work when they are tired. This could affect the perception they get about the questions a company makes on web forms, it’s better not to abuse. 

 

If a company wants to hire the best ones, a good selection process might be needed to improve the whole user experience, one thought as a whole process design. These are a few questions a company should keep in mind at the moment of designing the application process: How applicants will get to my website? How are they going to apply? Do I really need a web form or should a CV upload be enough?

Preventing Errors Filling Forms

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On way of encouraging users to fill in the web forms is making them easy to fill. Give users hints about how to input information in forms and prevent errors before they happen. Errors could be avoided specially if you give examples about the data you are requesting.

"…prevent errors before they happen."

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia website has several usability flaws. They let customers to introduce the email address and telephone numbers in whatever format they want. Would this be alright?

Commonwealth Bank Contact Form

 

If we care a little bit more about our website usability and user experience we could do a form like in this example.

Good Usability on Contact Form

 

Banks target customers are usually the whole adult population, so they should expect having website visitors that are not very comfortable using the internet or computers. Unfortunately, banks are usually good examples of bad usability.

 

Simple Forms Improve Usability

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Make your forms short and simple if you really want users to fill it. That sentence is a mix of common sense and usability principle. Lets see an example.

Live Documents is a new web based office suite, so it has already many competitors. Why making the sign up process complicated. Don’t ask for too many details, why would you need people’s names for a try out of your product?

They use improper wording too, asking the people for an “Email Id”. What is that? My email address or what?

Live Documents 20071126

They also placed a nerdy and unnecessary comment at the bottom of the form, telling users that passwords are protected by the “SHA 256 hash algorithm”. Who cares?! You don’t have to include in your interface comments about how powerful your application is, at the end that’s going to confuse users.

Mojaz, a feed aggregator, has a better usability approach making it simple. Just enter your email.

Mojaz 20071126

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