Typeform : Transformer les formulaires en conversations humaines

Making things a little more human

L'idée de Typeform a germé lorsque les fondateurs ont conçu un formulaire de demande d'information destiné à être utilisé dans un espace d'exposition. Vous savez, ces choses qui attirent vos données.

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.

Ils ont cherché à créer quelque chose de plus agréable que de remplir quelques cases. Ils voulaient supprimer la barrière entre les humains et les ordinateurs.

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 privilégie la conception empathique à la conception axée sur les données.

L'équipe de Typeform dit parfois qu'elle travaille sur l'expérience humaine et non sur l'expérience utilisateur. L'expérience humaine, pas l'expérience utilisateur.

L'UX consiste à amener une personne d'un point A à un point B avec succès. L'HX va plus loin. Il pose la question suivante : ont-ils atteint le point B avec une connexion émotionnelle ?

L'équipe de Typeform pense aux humains. De vraies personnes. Quels sont leurs besoins ? Leurs émotions ?

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

On dirait que les gars de Typeform sont de vrais génies, non ?

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.

Ce que vous voyez aujourd'hui lorsque vous remplissez un formulaire Typeform est le résultat d'une obsession pour des centaines de petits détails sur une longue période de temps. L'équipe a travaillé sans relâche pendant de nombreuses itérations, s'occupant des moindres détails de l'interaction avec le formulaire, un par un.

En se concentrant constamment sur la facilité d'utilisation, la touche humaine et la beauté du design, Typeform a réinventé quelque chose qui existait depuis des décennies. Et ils ont continué à le perfectionner et à l'étendre pour maintenir son caractère unique.

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.

Cela le rend plus facile à gérer, plus motivant et permet aux gens de s'impliquer davantage.

Des polices plus grandes pour des conversations plus humaines

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

En outre, l'utilisation de polices de caractères beaucoup plus grandes que le formulaire moyen encourage les créateurs de formulaires à formuler des questions plus directes et plus humaines. Et les personnes qui remplissent le formulaire donnent des réponses plus humaines.

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.

Au-delà du texte

Une forme habituelle est une grande feuille de texte, demandant plus de texte.

Typeform vous permet de construire facilement des formulaires avec des icônes, des images, des gifs et des vidéos. Cela rend les choses plus visuelles. Et encore une fois, plus humain.

Typeform se développe grâce à la viralité et aux intégrations

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

L'équipe de Typeform a consacré énormément de temps et de ressources à la compréhension et à la redéfinition de son image de marque. Puis à refaire tous les designs.

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. 🦄

Et ils veulent aussi commencer à communiquer clairement sur l'autre chose que Typeform veut dépasser : être uniquement sur les formulaires.

Typeform aims to grow beyond forms

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

Ils ont commencé avec des formulaires et se sont appelés Typeform. Aujourd'hui, ils veulent aller plus loin.

Ils essaient de ne plus être perçus comme un outil de formulaire ou d'enquête, mais comme un outil de communication. Ils s'efforcent de ne plus être perçus comme des outils de communication, mais comme des outils de communication humaine en général.

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

Typeform vous permet d'avoir une conversation à travers une interface. Vous pouvez fournir des données et connecter des données avec Typeform. Vous pouvez créer des flux de travail.

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? 😏

Selon son cofondateur, David Okuniev, il s'agit de.. :

1. La possibilité de taper dans le formulaire sans toucher à la souris
2. The fact that it’s a different type of form
3. L'importance de la typographie dans leur produit

Envie de découvrir d'autres produits emblématiques ? Lisez toute la série ici ! 📲