2002 Credit Union Website Usability Issue Three - Seeking Irrelevant Information on Loan Applications

By Donovan Myers
Posted on Jan 3, 2003

The selling point here is fast service and increased convenience. Until on-line loan applications become a complete substitute for their printed counterparts, most should serve as pre-cursors to actual documents. Members applying for loans on-line have motives of convenience and often impulse-related purchases (such as a motorcycle or watercraft on your web site’s classifieds). If your form is too long because it asks members for non-essential data, your members may lose interest quickly and the impulse to purchase immediately is lost.

While this illustration is satirical, your forms might actually request unneeded information from your applicants.

The Fix: Crucial forms should ask only the most necessary information to secure a conditional decision or issue resolution. Review your on-line forms and ensure that you’re asking only relevant information that is required to consummate the transaction. If you don’t need to know your member’s previous three employers, then don’t include that on the form, or be sure to build your form with logic to ask for the information only if certain other conditions are first met, such as a short term of current employment.