
Ask HN: Have you ever enjoyed completing a form? - julienreszka
Why are forms so annoying to complete
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pattusk
Because they usually ask for one (or several) of the following: \- Basic
information that could be retrieved automatically (say from an ID card or a
driver's licence) but that you have to input on every form: name, address,
date of birth... \- Questions that are unclear or have no good/definite
answer: race (for someone with a very diverse ancestry or who's not American),
state (when your country doesn't have any), questions about administrative
categories you know nothing about.. \- Questions that ask for information that
is hard or unpleasant to retrieve: passport expiration date (you need to take
out your passport and check), amount of taxes paid last year, zip code of
parents' place of birth, list of countries visited in the past 10 years with
dates of stay. \- Questions that are repetitive (on psych /HR questionnaires
for instance)

I don't think forms are naturally boring (I tend to like questionnaires from
marketing surveys and the like for instance). Asking people about themselves
and letting them answer somewhat freely will be fine.

