I have a writer -- @carolpinchefsky -- working on a how-to guide, itemizing the steps in redesigning a form/process to move from paper to a digital workflow. “A lot of processes duplicate ‘the way we’ve done it’ without rethinking the problem. I want to collect useful expert advice from industry authorities and people who have learned lessons the hard way.”
What should she include?
@corlin @estherschindler @carolpinchefsky yesss. Also make sure your filters work well.
@estherschindler @carolpinchefsky
Off the top of my head:
— Use the paper form to make a list of the data you need to collect, then THROW IT AWAY.
— Figure out what input can be avoided by leveraging other inputs: a zip code gets you a city and a state, ask for that FIRST
— Look for opportunities to do responsive searching on fields, where you can. If someone types enough of an option to enable a unique choice, you're done.
— Don't flag EVERY error at once, just the FIRST one. FOCUS there.
@estherschindler @carolpinchefsky
don't assume all data needed to process a form or transaction is available at time some data needs to be recorded. Save, park, search capabilities.
@estherschindler @carolpinchefsky
or, if like some designers of gov webpages, you prefer users abandon system & not file cases, build in the absence.
@estherschindler @carolpinchefsky
The first thing that comes to mind;
Autocomplete, Let's say you have a box to fill out country, and a huge long list of alphabetic names.... Use autocomplete so that user can type "U' and get only the country's starting with "U".
Use autocomplete often.