Jayne Blog on nonprofits/ngos, communications, community engagement, volunteerism, aid & development, women's empowerment, & random thoughts

Is your online form dreadful or delightful?

01:24, 17 February 2009

.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt


.. Link

If I wasn't an expert before in user-friendliness regarding online forms, I am now.

I'm moving back to the USA in April, and I've been applying for jobs (consulting is fun, but I'd like to be more singularly-focused and in continuous employment for a change, and for a long while).

I'm gobsmacked at how awful some online forms are, with

• pages taking too long to download (I have broadband!),
• all of the details of a CV having to be inputted individually into whatever online form the organization has come up with (this has taken me up to three hours for one form sometimes, and I've done it probably two dozen times in the last three months),
• no way to submit an individual cover letter with each job application (just a generic one for all jobs applied for via the web site),
• hard-to-understand written directions,
• button functions that aren't clear (am I just saving this form, or am I sending it now?), and
• a clunky visual design.

Twice I've abandoned the process, thinking that, if this organization has such a lousy web site, what must working for the organization be like?

By contrast, many online application systems are wonderful:

• quick-to-download pages,
• great use of white space,
• well-written directions,
• a way to go back to different parts of my application without losing what I have already inputted,
• a way to save the form but not send it, in case I cannot complete the process in one setting
• a way to upload a personalized cover letter for each job, and
• questions to be answered specific to the job in lieu of having to input my entire CV into an unwieldy online form.

If your organization has any kind of online form, have you tried to use it yourself? Have you had people outside your organization try it and give you feedback about their experience? Have you looked at online forms by other organizations, to see if perhaps others have features you should consider as well?

Greetings from Berlin.