Typeform: Trasformare i moduli in conversazioni umane

Making things a little more human

La scintilla per Typeform è scoccata quando i fondatori stavano costruendo un modulo per le richieste di informazioni che sarebbe stato utilizzato in uno spazio espositivo. Si tratta di oggetti che catturano i dati.

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.

Il loro obiettivo era creare qualcosa di più piacevole che riempire alcune caselle. Volevano eliminare la barriera tra gli esseri umani e i computer.

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 il design empatico a quello basato sui dati.

Il team di Typeform a volte dice di lavorare sulla HX, non sulla UX. Esperienza umana, non esperienza utente.

L'UX consiste nel portare una persona da A a B con successo. L'HX va oltre. Si pone la domanda: hanno raggiunto il punto B con una connessione emotiva?

Il team di Typeform pensa agli esseri umani. Persone reali. Quali sono le loro esigenze? Le loro emozioni?

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

Sembra che i ragazzi di Typeform siano dei geni, vero?

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.

Quello che vedete oggi quando compilate un Typeform è il risultato dell'ossessione per centinaia di piccoli dettagli per un lungo periodo di tempo. Il team ha lavorato instancabilmente attraverso molte iterazioni, curando uno per uno i più piccoli dettagli dell'interazione con il modulo.

Concentrandosi costantemente sull'usabilità, sul tocco umano e sul bel design, Typeform ha reinventato qualcosa che esisteva da decenni. E hanno continuato a perfezionarlo e ad ampliarlo per mantenerne l'unicità.

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.

Questo rende il lavoro più gestibile, lo rende più motivante e mantiene le persone più impegnate.

Caratteri più grandi per conversazioni più umane

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

Inoltre, utilizzando caratteri molto più grandi rispetto alla media dei moduli, i creatori dei moduli sono incoraggiati a formulare domande più dirette e più umane. E chi lo compila dà risposte più umane.

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.

Oltre il testo

Un modulo abituale è un grande foglio di testo, che chiede di aggiungere altro testo.

Typeform consente di costruire facilmente moduli con icone, immagini, gif e video. Rende le cose più visive. E ancora, più umane.

Typeform cresce grazie alla viralità e alle integrazioni

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

Il team di Typeform ha impiegato un'enorme quantità di tempo e risorse per comprendere e ridefinire il proprio marchio. E poi ha rifatto tutti i disegni.

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. 🦄

E vogliono anche iniziare a comunicare chiaramente l'altra cosa che Typeform vuole superare: essere solo moduli.

Typeform aims to grow beyond forms

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

Hanno iniziato con i moduli e si sono chiamati Typeform. Ora vogliono crescere oltre.

Stanno cercando di allontanarsi dall'essere visti come strumenti di forma o di costruzione di sondaggi, per essere percepiti come strumenti di comunicazione. Verso la comunicazione umana in generale.

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

Typeform consente di avere una conversazione attraverso un'interfaccia. Con Typeform è possibile fornire dati e collegarli. È possibile creare flussi di lavoro.

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? 😏

Secondo il suo co-fondatore, David Okuniev, si riferisce a:

1. La possibilità di digitare semplicemente all'interno del modulo senza toccare il mouse
2. The fact that it’s a different type of form
3. L'importanza della tipografia nel loro prodotto

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