Don't Judge a Form by its Cover

When it comes to something interactive - like a video game, a website or a form - there are two ways you can make an assessment of its fitness for purpose: by looking and by doing.

Looking at such things can only tell you so much - the cover of the CD might be very pretty, but the death metal music inside not nearly as pleasing. Similarly, looking at a form can only tell you so much about whether it is going to work well 'in the wild'.

Yet people judge forms by how they look all the time. A form with lots of nice white space and some attractive graphics gets a big thumbs up, but what about the questions that don't make sense, or the lack of instructions about what to do with the form when it's been filled out?

A better approach is to 'do', which means trying to complete the form yourself or having others - especially representative users - try to complete it. Only then are you likely to find out whether the form truly works.

Associated Link: More on Judging Forms

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