GroupCollect helps tour operators organise trips for groups.

Their biggest market is school trips.

The form below allows tour operators to send announcements to parents to chase late payment or tell them about a change to the itinerary:

On the face of it, the form looks straightforward:

1. The trip name, date and location appears at the top for context
2. The h1 heading clearly explains the purpose of the form
3. The fields look like fields (with clear borders all around)
4. The submit button is aligned to the left edge of the last input (where users expect to find it)

So that’s good.

But as you look more closely things unravel.

For example, take a look at the radio buttons for “Communication method”:

There are three main issues with this field:

Issue #1: The radio buttons use ticks for the selected state

Radio buttons and checkboxes are different.

Only one radio button can be selected and that’s indicated with a filled dot.

Multiple checkboxes can be selected and that’s indicated with a tick.

This is not just conventionally the right thing to do - it gives users the ability to quickly understand the difference between the two controls.

As it is, users might think that they can select multiple options. And when they’re unable to, it’ll be frustrating and confusing.

Issue #2: The radio buttons are laid out horizontally

This is problematic because:

1. They’re harder to scan and compare
2. Some of the options are more likely to be missed, especially for users who zoom in with a screen magnifier
3. Even if the user realises they need to pan across, it‘s more effort to do so
4. You can’t lay them out like this on small screens, which unnecessarily makes the experience inconsistent across screen sizes

Laying them out vertically addresses these issues.

Issue #3: The question asks for two answers at the same time

The question doesn’t just ask about how to contact people, it also asks about who to contact.

The options are also an incomplete mix of the two. For example, you can email and text account holders but you can only text passengers.

It gets more confusing when you select “Text passengers” because a line suddenly appears below to say:

“Non travelling trip leaders can only receive email notifications.”

The first thing I’d do is split the question into two because:

Two easy questions are quicker to fill out than one hard question.

But to design this properly, we need to understand the domain. And right now, that’s unclear.

• What actually is an account holder? The person who booked? A parent? A teacher?
• Can an account holder also be a passenger?
• Is “passenger” the right word to use?

And given we’ve only discussed one of the fields in the form, there’s a lot more to consider.

I don’t have time to do that.

But maybe you do:

GroupCollect is looking for a senior designer to work remotely on this form - and the rest of the product.

I've spoken to the guys at GroupCollect - they know this stuff is hard and care about doing it right, which is rare in our industry.

So if you’re looking for a new role and think you could help, click the link below:

​https://groupcollect.notion.site/Product-Designer-at-GroupCollect-2cd6470adf8c80708c90cbe527aa53cd​

Cheers,
Adam

p.s. if you end up getting the role, let me know. I'd love to hear how the redesign went.