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posted by hubie on Thursday May 09 2024, @02:26PM   Printer-friendly

https://adamjones.me/blog/dont-use-contact-forms/

Contact forms are almost always worse for users than just putting an email on your website. I explore why they're terrible, why you've done it anyway, and what to do about it.

Why your contact form sucks

Your contact form is completely broken

It's remarkable how many contact forms are just straight-up broken. A WordPress upgrade here, a change to your CRM there, and your contact form silently breaks.

At time of writing, B&Q's contact form just plainly doesn't work1. I am fairly amazed that a retailer with revenues in the billions doesn't notice written queries have stopped coming in.

[...] Contact forms are hard to get right, and often just a worse experience for everyone involved. Go forth and remove your contact form and list your email on your website now!

[Ed. comment: click through and read the lengthy, but hard to argue against, complaints about web-based contact forms]


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by VanessaE on Thursday May 09 2024, @04:24PM

    by VanessaE (3396) <vanessa.e.dannenberg@gmail.com> on Thursday May 09 2024, @04:24PM (#1356341) Journal

    If your "contact us" form needs anything more than my email address, a subject line, and the message body, your form sucks and whoever came up with it should be flogged, or at least fired. If you want more details than that, ask for them in your follow-up, and don't be shocked if I tell you to get bent.

    -----

    Speaking of forms, THIS one overflows the right margin on narrow screens at higher zoom levels, even though there's no reason for it to do so.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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