[Sigia-l] [IxDA Discuss] Design of forms on web vs paper

[Jared Spool]

On Jul 27, 2008, at 1:34 AM, Jessica Enders wrote:

> "As a matter of best practice, should forms on the web be designed  
> to look like their paper equivalents? Why/why not?"

My take is simple:

The question is irrelevant.

In fact, you could as a similar question that would be equally  
irrelevant: "Should forms on the web be design to look like other  
forms on the web?"

The real question is "Should each form on the web be design to best  
support the user's experience?" The answer would, of course, be Yes.

And the next question is the one that's important in your case: "How  
should you best support the user's experience?"

That's where I'd start.

Hope that helps,

Jared

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
e: jspool at uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks