{"id":3307,"date":"2022-06-20T20:15:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T03:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/?p=3307"},"modified":"2023-06-07T10:47:23","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T17:47:23","slug":"oh-contact-forms-how-i-dislike-thees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/oh-contact-forms-how-i-dislike-thees\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh Contact Forms, How I Dislike Thees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People like putting contact forms on their sites. Some people have no way of contacting them except thru the form. It seems to be a way to get visitors to comply and give us the exact data that we want. Then, the hope is we can automate the relationship so we can work with a million clients at once… or at least quickly eliminate people who aren’t gonna be clients. Or, maybe they’re afraid of giving out their email address? I don’t understand the threat there, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to figure out the balance of what serves us and what serves our visitor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ONE: Users are seeking a relationship, <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

so the more we seek to streamline the interaction — make it mechanical and assembly line — the more everyone suffers. The relationship and the conversation give us value as service providers. Humanity is worth something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TWO: wasting time <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many people have autofill in their browsers now, so if a form is set up correctly (I’d say less than 20% are) the browser will fill in the user’s details for the really repetitive stuff. But there are often additional form fields that take some thinking and typing and I don’t want that as a user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how normal a form is, acclimating to a new interface takes mental power and commitment from a user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THREE: something’s gonna break<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Imagine this: you fill out a form, you submit it, nobody receives it, you have no idea. This happens all the time. This is not a nightmare. This is very common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact forms are another layer of dependency for communication. They are another part that can break. They can break on the backend or the frontend, or there could be user error (eg: I thought I hit the ‘send’ button). Email is already not totally dependable. There are spam filters on sending and receiving ends, black lists, weird things and whatnot like email server downtime. These things break in just pure email sending from my gmail inbox to yours. If someone thinks they sent me a message and I don’t get it we’re all screwed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOUR: taking away tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I fill out a form on a website instead of using my email app, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. I can’t CC or BCC anyone else who’s important.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I don’t have it in my email history.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. I don’t have formatting options or other tools I might have in my email app that I use regularly.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    FIVE: asking too much \/ wrong<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    So many forms ask for stuff that might not matter. I might just need a person to call me, but I am suddenly required to fill in the date of the gig I want to book them for? I don’t want to book them. I want to talk to them and I don’t know the dates of my very high-budget project. Again a waste of time and headaches trying to fill out the form most honestly and least confusingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The solution is skip the form<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The solution is just don’t have them. Have an email address visible on a site, have it clickable to open up the user’s mail app or selectable so they can copy and paste. Have a phone number too, if possible. Start a real conversation. Figure out how to make it easy and be responsive. This is the answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    People like putting contact forms on their sites. Some people have no way of contacting them except thru the form. It seems to be a way to get visitors to comply and give us the exact data that we want. Then, the hope is we can automate the relationship so we can work with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158666434799935_26707174888":"","twitter_aToyMjM4MTQzMDs=_22381430":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/pexels-craig-mckay-842980-1.jpg?fit=2000%2C1197&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc33gc-Rl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2490,"url":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/enter-tain-exit\/","url_meta":{"origin":3307,"position":0},"title":"Enter, Tain, Exit","author":"scot","date":"April 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A great comedian knows when to get off the stage. 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