Re: InfoD-Cafe: Form improvement examples
Caroline Jarrett <caroline.jarrett <at> effortmark.co.uk>
2005-11-07 21:24:18 GMT
As well as Carolyn Bocella Bagin's excellent work with the IRS on
specific forms:
- Kleinman Consulting Group has also been working with them on
Notices, with some notable success
- I don't have any examples that I can share but the IRS was pretty
receptive to usability messages when I taught my forms design class
there a couple of years ago, and again they asked me back for some
refreshers over the summer.
With the IRS, progress towards usability is extremely slow. I
attribute this somewhat to inertia, but much more to other pressures.
For example, did you know that Congress took time out of its busy
schedule to pass a law that prevents the IRS from printing forms in
more than two colours? In our classes, we were using a current form as
an example. It was horrible, but it got that way mostly because its
design was greatly influenced by and had to be approved by an
enourmous committee of lawyers, policy people, etc etc. Many of the
features that I especially objected to had been included over the
explicit recommendation of the forms people.
And now back to the substantive point: forms improvement examples. I
have a case study on my web site that's now a little old but still
valuable:
http://www.effortmark.co.uk/casestudy.html
The crucial point about the case study is that the client saved enough
in printing costs alone in the first year to justify the entire
project. A much bigger saving arose because previously they'd had a
special team dealing with errors on forms, and they were no longer
required (they got deployed to other duties).
Hope this helps
Caroline Jarrett
caroline.jarrett <at> effortmark.co.uk
01525 370379
Effortmark Ltd
Usability - Forms - Surveys
----- Original Message -----
From: <CLEARLY <at> aol.com>
To: <infodesign-cafe <at> list.informationdesign.org>
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 4:22 PM
Subject: Re: InfoD-Cafe: Form improvement examples
> It may all come down to who in the organization is the champion of
> the
> project effort. The group I've been working with is a
> business-related group.
> Perhaps if the results they achieve are positive, others in IRS will
> be inspired
> to follow the same path. It's a long, slow slog.
> c
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Carolyn Boccella Bagin
>
> Center for Clear Communication, Inc.
> 26 Hawthorn Court
> Rockville, MD 20850-2028
>
> (301) 340-1747 phone
>
> (301) 340-1296 fax
>
> Clearly <at> aol.com email
>
> _For communication that's clearly better... information about our
> work_
> (http://hometown.aol.com/clearly/myhomepage/clearly.html)
>
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