Re: ?Form design -Reply

[Bill Sullivan <bsullivan -at- SMTPLINK -dot- DELTECPOWER -dot- COM>]

> Does anyone have a good resource (book or web page) that outlines
what
> consitutes good design of a form?  I know what I like on a form:
big spaces for
> my big printing.  But what else is key?

Perhaps you could get some help out of Katherine Shelly Pfeiffer's
Word for Windows Design Companion for Version 2 (Chapel Hill: Ventana
Press, 1992).  The trick might be to find a copy.  I bought this book
because I had to use Word (no PageMaker) to create some forms for a
job, and it was very helpful to me with page and paragraph setups.
The book also has chapters called A Brief Introduction to Design and
Design Do's & Donts.  There is also a bibliography.

On the other hand, a better resource might be to gather up a stack of
the forms your company (or other companies) now use and go down and
talk to the people who have to use them.  I mean visit the people in
word processing, and visit those who have to fill them out, wherever
that is.  Find out how the procedure works, and check  to be sure the
form works with it.  Make sure the order of the existing forms is good
and logical.  Look for readability problems.  Look for spaces that are
too small or gray or likely to trouble someone's astigmatism.  Go from
there.

Bill Sullivan
bsullivan -at- deltecpower -dot- com
San Diego, California

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