Feeder
20-11-2005, 06:17 AM
<p>Tom Peters (from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1405305819/businessbrick-21">Re-imagine!</a>):<br />
“A form is never just a form. Consider the role that form design played in the US presidential-election “system” in 2000. A poorly designed paper ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida, may have cost Al Gore the White House. Think about it.” </p>
<p>Form design is unglamorous but critical work. Every man and his dog has a subjective opinion about the yellow and orange you use on your homepage, or if <a href="http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY/archives/000263.html">Yahoo!’s homepage is better than Google’s</a>. But who really knows (or cares) about form design? Who knows that marking required fields with asterisks loses significantly more sales than marking fields that are not required? Or that ugly error handling can cost you more sales than an ugly homepage? (Suggested reading: the distinctly unglamorous <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932226397/businessbrick-21">Call to Action</a>.)
</p>
“A form is never just a form. Consider the role that form design played in the US presidential-election “system” in 2000. A poorly designed paper ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida, may have cost Al Gore the White House. Think about it.” </p>
<p>Form design is unglamorous but critical work. Every man and his dog has a subjective opinion about the yellow and orange you use on your homepage, or if <a href="http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY/archives/000263.html">Yahoo!’s homepage is better than Google’s</a>. But who really knows (or cares) about form design? Who knows that marking required fields with asterisks loses significantly more sales than marking fields that are not required? Or that ugly error handling can cost you more sales than an ugly homepage? (Suggested reading: the distinctly unglamorous <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932226397/businessbrick-21">Call to Action</a>.)
</p>