[On writing] Please type DNA Aug 13
15 comments Latest by tommy
I recently tripped over some fields on this sign-up form:
“If no, please type DNA” so naturally I start typing ATCG AATT CCTC TATT GTTG GATC ATAT… (rim shot!)
I figure DNA means “Does Not Apply,” but it’s also strange that answering “No” to the form question above still requires manual entry into the field below. This “No” then “type DNA” sequence shows up twice on the form. It’s odd, unfamiliar, and confusing. If anything, “n/a” would probably be recognized by more people than “DNA.”
When you build your forms be clear. Think about what you’re asking, why you’re asking, how you’re asking for it, and where you’re asking for it. All these little things matter—especially on long forms. Minor issues on long forms begin to stack up pretty quickly. Remember, copywriting is interface design.
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15 comments so far
Aaron Blohowiak 13 Aug 07
might this be a case a misguided legalease?
my intuition suggests that the forcing of user behavior was intentional, akin to initialing at the 393 x’s on the page.
Don Schenck 13 Aug 07
LOVE Jason’s original idea. My thoughts exactly.
FDA regs require “N/A”, so DNA is really odd. Go figure.
Percy 13 Aug 07
FYI , DNA is NSU (Non-standard Usage). I just made that one up.
But, the form monster strikes again. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve wanted to wring the form designer’s neck (a la Homer and Bart) when I’m faced with badly designed forms.
Maybe one way to make designers of forms improve is to make them fill up reams of forms as a punishment.
TomC 13 Aug 07
My guess is the developer probably does not speak English, and had no clue that this form would be confusing.
Todd 13 Aug 07
“FDA regs” ? ?
The Food & Drug Administration makes regulations for acronyms?
No wonder McDonald’s can get away with using fake beef.
Mike Linnane 13 Aug 07
I would place the onus of this poor design squarely on the shoulders of the client, not the designer. Non-profits – who do excellent work, please don’t misunderstand me – are some of the worst design offenders.
Judson 13 Aug 07
It’d be best just to LIA (Leave it blank).
yes. we’re all making out own acronyms. hehe.
Aaron 13 Aug 07
I speak from personal experience when i say that it’s not Habitat’s fault – it’s Kintera (the service provider that hosts their forms). They are a hulking, slow, monolithic database service provider that does not respond to user requests, is not interested in customer service, and does not seem to care about research or development.
I have spent many a late evening hacking through their content management system to include javascripts to address issues like this that simply could not be solved server-side without “custom programming”, ie. $$$.
The state of Kintera and other nonprofit oriented database hosts like Convio and BlackBaud’s NetCommunities is PATHETIC . It would be great to see a 37signals solution for nonprofits…
David G. Paul 13 Aug 07
Now if only they’d used the acronym tag, somewhere to explain what it meant it would have helped ;)
(yes I’m saying use the deprecated acronym tag instead of abbr because at least it works properly in IE6 :P)
Ben 13 Aug 07
I’m assuming they wanted to make the Where? field required, but the form builder they were using didn’t support validating one field based on another.
n/a is more familiar to you, but you are not them. Funny thing about human culture.
Guan Yang 13 Aug 07
If you were actually typing in your DNA , wouldn’t the sequence start with five prime (5’)?
tommy 13 Aug 07
@guan-
Why would it? It’s raw sequence, so it doesn’t have to encode at all points, even the beginning. I think your confusing this with an open reading frame.
Dave Rau 14 Aug 07
Eeew, far too cryptic.
If you answer no to the first, you shouldn’t need to answer the second. I don’t get it, there’s a logical flow that should be handled programatically.
Bentzurm 14 Aug 07
Sorry, can’t resist:
Am I the only one who read this and wondered why the sequence is not in triplets? why 4?
tommy 14 Aug 07
@Bentzurm-
It’s an arbitrary method of breaking up the data. Blocks of four, five, six, whatever. Triples are expressly avoided because they would be indicating that each triple encodes for an amino acid, whereas you perhaps only want to show the nucleic data and not any sort of metadata on frame.
http://www.google.com/search?q=dna+reading+frame
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