Typeform: Convertir formularios en conversaciones humanas

Making things a little more human

La chispa de Typeform surgió cuando los fundadores estaban creando un formulario para clientes potenciales que se utilizaría en un espacio de exposición. Ya sabes, esas cosas que captan tus datos.

They wanted to make it better than what they’d ever seen before. Instead of just building a standard form, they wanted to create something that would really jump out at people and engage them.

They detected a lack of empathy in the way most companies were asking for data. Going from face-to-face conversations to online forms seemed a very big step. People were still writing in boxes and clicking little buttons, which didn’t feel like a very human experience. 🙄

Inspired by the movie “War Games”, where the main character has a typed conversation with a mainframe computer, they figured they could create a form that feels more like a conversation.

Se propusieron crear algo más encantador que rellenar unas casillas. Querían eliminar la barrera entre humanos y ordenadores.

Years later, they summarized this in Typeform’s vision statement:

Make things a little more human.✨

Typeform believes that forms are not only about collecting the data you need, but also about controlling the impression you leave. Or as they tend to say: “How you ask is everything”. 🤯

Typeform puts human experience over data

A company’s DNA most often starts with its founders.

In Typeform’s case, the co-founders’ favorite way of spending a day is designing. That’s when they really get their energy flowing. 🤩

Its biggest competitor and the market leader, SurveyMonkey, is by DNA a data analytics company. Typeform is different. It’s a user interface company.

Of course the team does care about data. Otherwise they wouldn’t be creating software that collects data. But they very much have a “people first, data second” mentality.

They believe in being “data-informed, rather than data-driven”. Which means that they recognize the power of data, but will never completely let go of their gut feeling either.

It’s a matter of blending customer perception with conversion rates. Balancing feelings and facts. Gut feeling and metrics.

Typeform antepone el diseño empático al diseño basado en datos.

El equipo de Typeform a veces dice que trabajan en HX, no en UX. Experiencia humana, no experiencia de usuario.

La experiencia del usuario consiste en llevar a una persona de A a B con éxito. HX va más allá. Se pregunta: ¿han llegado al punto B con una conexión emocional?

El equipo de Typeform piensa en los humanos. En personas reales. ¿Cuáles son sus necesidades? ¿Sus emociones?

It requires thinking about who the user really is. Getting close to them. Understanding them. 🤗

To this purpose, Typeform does a lot of customer research. And it’s not only the product team who constantly tests new ideas on customers. The go-to-market team as well is working on trying to get closer to customers, to understand where the value for Typeform really lies, what they really want.

In the end, emotional connection is what makes people fall in love with a product. ❤️

Typeform’s design is the result of relentless focus

Parece que estos chicos de Typeform son unos genios, ¿verdad?

While some of the software’s success could be attributed to intelligence and smart choices, it’s probably more the result of extreme focus. It’s the relentless investment of time and resources in a clear goal.

Lo que ves hoy cuando rellenas un Typeform es el resultado de obsesionarse con cientos de pequeños detalles durante mucho tiempo. El equipo trabajó incansablemente a lo largo de muchas iteraciones, cuidando una a una las partes más pequeñas de la interacción del formulario.

Al centrarse constantemente en la facilidad de uso, el toque humano y el diseño atractivo, Typeform reinventó algo que existía desde hacía décadas. Y no dejaron de perfeccionarlo y ampliarlo para mantener su singularidad.

And it has served Typeform well. In a saturated market like form software, competing by copying what already exists would have been fruitless. Instead, Typeform produced something people wanted and weren’t getting yet: a beautiful way to build engaging forms.

They give us forms that don’t feel like forms

Put your hand in the air if you like filling out forms…

Yeah, I didn’t think so. 😏

We all need to communicate about data, but we don’t like forms. We want forms that don’t feel like forms.

Here’s how to make forms more human.

Taking one at a time

Typeform breaks the form’s interface up into smaller components. You don’t see a big list of questions, but only one at a time and it then has a natural flow of things coming.

Esto lo hace más manejable, lo hace más motivador y mantiene a la gente más comprometida.

Fuentes más grandes para conversaciones más humanas

One question at a time means there’s more screen estate that can be used.

Y al utilizar fuentes mucho más grandes que la media de los formularios, los creadores de formularios también se animan a plantear preguntas más directas y más humanas. Y quienes lo rellenan dan respuestas más humanas.

No boxes, less buttons

Writing in boxes and clicking little buttons doesn’t feel very human. That’s why Typeform works with one line of text and a cursor. A question and a possibility to answer. That’s it.

Really like buttons? They’ll show it. But if you don’t want to touch your mouse and just use your keyboard, that’s entirely possible. Just hit “enter” or one of the shortcut keys indicated next to the answer.

Más allá del texto

Un formulario habitual es una gran hoja de texto, en la que se pide más texto.

Typeform le permite crear fácilmente formularios con iconos, imágenes, gifs y vídeos. Hace las cosas más visuales. Y, de nuevo, más humanas.

Typeform crece gracias a la viralidad y las integraciones

Like all products that grow at the speed of light, its growth mechanisms are special and inherent to the product’s core use.

1. Viral growth: every form sent out is an ad for Typeform

People send people forms. These forms are beautiful. And they contain a subtle ‘Powered by Typeform’ mention.

Simple as that, but this button amounts to 50% of Typeform’s signups. 🚀

2. Integrations: people stay if Typeform is part of a workflow

Integrations are great for Typeform’s retention. If you just send a survey once, you might not need Typeform after that. And you might end up stopping your subscription. 🛑

As soon as you embed forms in a workflow, that all changes. You can’t just stop using Typeform. That would require replacing the form or even stopping the entire flow.

That’s why Typeform spent a lot of time on building out its integrations with MailChimp, Google Sheets, Zapier, … and why it allows you to embed forms in any website.

3. Branding: people only choose Typeform if they feel it’s different

El equipo de Typeform invirtió una enorme cantidad de tiempo y recursos en comprender y redefinir su marca. Y luego rehaciendo todos los diseños.

They want to make sure that people understand the human side of the company and how they make forms more human. In that way, they want to grow beyond being just a software company. 🦄

Y también quieren empezar a comunicar claramente la otra cosa que Typeform quiere superar: ser sólo formularios.

Typeform aims to grow beyond forms

From the very beginning, Typeform’s founders had a vision that was about making communication more human.

Empezaron con formularios y se llamaron a sí mismos Typeform. Ahora quieren ir más allá.

Intentan dejar de ser percibidas como una herramienta para crear formularios o encuestas y pasar a ser percibidas como una herramienta de comunicación. Hacia la comunicación humana en general.

At this moment, you can use Typeform to organize surveys, feedback forms, quizzes, interactive stories, … but they’re aiming way bigger. 🔭

Typeform le permite mantener una conversación a través de una interfaz. Puede dar datos y conectar datos con Typeform. Puede crear flujos de trabajo.

People will always have to collect information from other people. The question is how they’ll do that. It won’t always happen through a browser or a form. Among other things, the team is already looking at using AI, VR, and voice technology. Automatically organizing and transcribing conversations.

Typeform is all about creating conversational interfaces and figuring out how they’re going to replace the traditional point-and-click interfaces.

And they won’t stop until they reach their full potential. 🙌

Bonus: Typeform… what’s in the name?

Ever wondered what the name Typeform is all about? 😏

Según su cofundador, David Okuniev, se refiere a:

1. La posibilidad de escribir en el formulario sin tocar el ratón
2. The fact that it’s a different type of form
3. La importancia de la tipografía en su producto

¿Quiere ver más productos icónicos? Lea toda la serie aquí. 📲