Churchill teaches us how not to build web forms
It’s bad enough when forms are over-long and boring, but when a web form is actually completely unusable, frustration is an understatement.
This example of a web form by Churchill (whoops, actual link is https://churchillpet.com/ but beware, the secure certificate is out of date!) shows us the worst example of poor web standards and testing procedures. The form is so confusing and mind-boggling, it is actually impossible to finish it. Take a look at the check boxes to answer the all-important criteria questions:
Now without looking at the source code, is there any way to be absolutely sure whether you are selecting yes or no? Most visitors would be confused.
Admittedly, this was in Firefox. I haven’t checked but I am sure it works fine in IE6 but that is hardly the point – Churchill are one of the big insurance providers and should be considerate about usability and standards. 10% of the market is alot to lose.
I got my new pet insurance elsewhere.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:37 am
Haha. Brilliant! Seems like poor cross browser testing is the culprit here. Resizing the popup window (!) sorts out the alignment, but that’s just rubbish if you have to do that especially for such a simple form. Doh!
[the Churchill link in the post doesn't work]
January 31st, 2008 at 11:24 am
You know what, that URL for Churchill Pet is what was displayed in the pop-up. If you actually follow it it redirects to https://web-alton-03/eligible.aspx
Oh it’s all so clear isnt it.
Maybe they should have “resize this window” instructions
January 15th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
If only more people could see it this way. Would make things a lot better for sure!