An email came into my inbox and I stared at it with trepidation. It was a reminder to apply for my student loan for my second year at university. I remembered last year: it took ages; I couldn’t find the information and then it timed out as I was too slow. Next I thought, where did I put the record of last year’s application? What did I say? What if I am not consistent? Is any of the information here (at Uni) or is it at home? I put it off applying as long as I could but felt that if I didn’t tackle it soon, I wouldn’t get a loan. So, I set aside a whole afternoon and logged in. But, what was this I saw? All last year’s data was already entered! All I had to do was go through each page confirming that is was correct: place of study, course, course code, address (term time) and so on. The only additional data I needed had been sent to me by the university in plenty of time – that was the annual course fee.
After half an hour, the whole application was done. The only tricky part was when the form had an ambiguous question on “Did I want to apply for disability allowance?” Contrary to my instincts, the right answer was “No” as I had already applied the previous year and disability allowance is for the full 3 years and doesn’t have to be reapplied for. So, 9 out 10 for the people who designed that form, making it easier for people like me and, as a wider benefit, easier for everyone else as well.
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James commented on 2 March 2010 at 11:52 pm
Having just submitted a claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority using their online form I’d suggest you send them a proposal for some usability testing on it!
The online form itself and then that is followed up by more paper forms asking very similar questions!
Rhodri commented on 8 March 2010 at 2:45 pm
You’re right its very frustrating when they send you the paper forms after you have filled in an electronic form. Surely the whole point of the electronic form to cut down on physical paperwork and save time. Obviously not in this case! It is particularly irritating as I can’t fill in physical paper forms legibly.