Contact form C70001

Description

A form which can be used by a visitor to contact the website’s owner. The form asks for contact details, some required fields, some free fields.

Context of Use

A contact form is generally used as an initial contact moment. Almost every website has a general contact form.

How it works

The form validates the information filled in the input fields. Each field requires a certain input format. For example, a telephone field can only contain numbers and an E-Mail address requires a ‘@’ and an extension ‘.nl’. The user has to press a button to submit the form. When a form doesn’t validate, the user gets to see an error message. Never just warn the user, always reach a helping hand (for example ‘Without your message we don’t know what to reply on.’). Sometimes a user can request a carbon copy of the sent message. Once the form validates the message is sent to the website owner, sometimes a carbon copy is sent to the user and a confirmation message appears on screen. The user gets informed on the reply period.

The carbon copy will be sent to the user’s e-mail address. This e-mail consists of the following information: “Dear [name user], you have contacted [name company’s website] by sending our contact form. We will contact you within 24 hours. A copy of your message is included. With kind regards [name contact person] HYPERLINK “http://www.titlesite.com” http://www.titlesite.com. Original message: [original message].”

Specification

Required fields for a contact form should be ‘Name’, ‘E-Mail address’ and ‘Message’. Additional fields can be ‘Telephone number’ and ‘Send me a carbon copy of the message’. There may be reasons to ask more from your user, but keep in mind that it is never smart to ask too much in a first user approach. Once you’re in contact you can always ask for more information.