Comments on: How did you hear about us?

By: BowIT_Charlie

BowIT_Charlie — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:42:23 +0000

Very insightful, I agree with keeping the form slim (I am a self confessed first option chooser in these circumstances!) but sadly……I know my client just won’t get it:-(
Brief option list it is for me then….now back to the spec.

By: J

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:25:41 +0000

What a great article, I’ve just been speaking to a client about leaving out this field on a ‘contact us’ form.

I have sent him a link to this page.

Thanks

By: flatfeet

flatfeet — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:39:53 +0000

I find the question ‘how did you hear about us?’ as annoying as music on a website. If filling the form is not a matter of life and death, I simply abandon the form. If I really need to fill the form, I lie – what are they going to do me, deny me the service for which I have paid and deserve not be treated like or handled by a moron?

By: O2 website usability: beating the user up « James Christie's Blog

O2 website usability: beating the user up « James Christie's Blog — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:09:28 +0000

[...] recommend this blog piece by David Hamill on the subject. His blog has lots of other good ideas and [...]

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:29:53 +0000

Hi Michael thanks for commenting. There are a couple of reasons why the email address is collected but now you mention it I don’t understand why it should be a required field. The comments use email in order to reference the icons at the side of the comment. Also, I moderate every comment and I sometimes (but very rarely) email the commenter to clarify something before I’m willing to approve the post. If you provide a bogus email that will be impossible and I won’t be able to approve it.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:49:36 +0000

Great advice. Relevance is so key. If you don’t have a good answer to the question, “How will we use this data (assuming it’s correct) to drive decision making in a profitable direction?” for any given field in a form you should probably consider getting rid of it.

In this form, for example, I put in a bogus email address because I don’t see the use in it being collected (hopefully the powers that be will still allow this comment to be posted). Now if next to the email address field was a check box stating “click here to be emailed when new comments are posted” I would probably have considered it worthwhile because I like the discussion here.

By: Dan O

Dan O — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:33:13 +0000

Okay well …I came here looking for ideas of items to add to the HDYHAU drop down from our site.

After reading this article I have cut the HDYHAU drop down completely.

I gave the marketing guy two sets of numbers: the first set was the *actual* stats from the HDYHAU drop down, and the other set was randomly generated.

So … What will we change or resolve not to change based on either of these two sets?

Once he can give me a reasonable answer to that question, he can have his HDYHAU back.

By: John Hyde :: York

John Hyde :: York — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:28:46 +0000

OK here is a real example from LearnDirect – its a drop-down with 24 answers:

Please select
0800 100 900 Adviceline
At Work / My Employer
College / Education
Event / Exhibition
Existing Learner
Friend / Relative
Leaflet picked up elsewhere (eg in Doctors)
Jobcentre / Employment Service
Leaflet through door
Leaflet picked up in learndirect centre
learndirect Centre staff member
Local Newspaper Advert
Local Radio
Magazine
National Newspaper Advert
News Feature / Story / Article
Other
TV Advert
Personalised Mailing
Posters / Billboards / Bus ads
Internet Search Engine
Internet Banner Ad
Yellow Pages
Childcare Portal

24 is too many and the drop-down will misbehave for many users.

The answers are in a confusing order – why is “Leaflet elsewhere” before the other leaflets? How many people know what “Internet Banner Ad” means ? Or “Personalised Mailing”?

It’s not good – they should already know all of the online traffic sources with full tracking. Do they really run banner ads and not know the results?

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:19:41 +0000

Hi Rose. Yes at the very least you’d want to make it optional. I had the same debate with a client a few years ago. I really must look back and see if they changed it. This is where video clips from usability testing come in to their own. When you have someone ranting on a video about something your colleagues think is an innocent question, it can be quite persuasive. Especially when the company’s TV adverts feature usability as a key selling point ;0)

By: Rose Matthews

Rose Matthews — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:19:32 +0000

I’m constantly having this debate… the “cost” angle unfortunately isn’t a great one because the question comes at the end of a very long, multi-page form. Customers are so invested at that point that they don’t drop out of the process.

However, it is irritating them, it is lengthening their journey and they are entering false information in order to get through.

All I want to do is make it OPTIONAL instead of MANDATORY. Then the minority of people who are willing to answer the question can do so accurately, while the majority are allowed to continue uninterrupted.