[NCLUG] html form to email cgi advice

[Alan Silverstein]

> Do you, then, also believe that web forms are necessarily evil as
> well?

I dunno Chad, are cell phones necessarily evil?  What about
touchscreens?  :-)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question but it seems overly broad.  Web
forms are appropriate for some GUIs and not others.  My reaction to the
idea of using them for offering feedback and requesting support is based
on seeing the majority of cases be more frustrating to me (as a user)
than efficient.

The creator of email-like or email-generating forms is too often too
focused on their own language or context, too clever ("is dumb" -- Ogden
Nash), too ignorant of human factors principles, too unaware of how
poorly their GUI will run on foreign clients, etc.  And their employer
is usually more concerned about cost-cutting (short term results) than
about real customer service (long-term customer loyalty).

Two human factors models come to mind:

- Don't ask the user a question they don't know how to answer.  (Never
  mind skipping the IRRELEVANT ones, which are REALLY annoying.)

- Make simple things simple for novices, with a natural and painless
  growth path into expertise.  Menu-like UIs are better for novices (who
  don't know what they are doing and maybe shouldn't even have to learn)
  and command-like are better for experts (who know what they are trying
  to accomplish and you're better getting out of their way).

If an entity really wants to hide its email address and standardize its
incoming email, it should keep the form as simple and generic as
possible with the fewest choices or widget visits required by the user,
and the most freedom to just type in their text and send it.  (Assuming
the entity can even stand providing a text box that renders bigger than
say 10 chars wide by 2 lines tall!)

Cheers,
Alan Silverstein