How can I make complicated form logic more intuitive?

Question

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I'm building a search feature that allows users to find people based on providing a combination of their full name and SSN. The part of the business requirements that I am struggling with is this:

• If no name is provided, the entire SSN is required.
• When the LAST NAME is provided, you can enter the full SSN or only the last 4 digits - either way the SSN becomes optional.
• Providing any other combination that isn't the full SSN or last four digits of the SSN is considered an invalid entry.

How can I present this logic in an intuitive way? I'd like to display this logic visually through the use of a clever layout, making it so that the user would follow these rules automatically. I do not want to rely on including text that the user will likely not read.

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My thoughts are this: Maybe present the form as two options: name or SSN search. When a Last Name is entered, grey out the first two fields for an SSN. When an SSN is entered, grey out the Name fields.

Default:

Last Named Entered:

SSN Entered:

However, I'm still curious as to what could be the most elegant solution. Is there somewhere that this fails? Is it unintuitive?

Answer 1

I think you're trying too hard to preserve one copy of each field.

You could try this, assuming the most likely case is that the user knows the full SSN (I'm skeptical that three separate fields is the right way to input SSN, as opposed to a single field with an input mask, but use your experience with the users here):

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

Answer 2

Personally I believe that form design improves the process if the process itself is sound, so it is really difficult to 'uncomplicate' something through design of the interactions alone.

But a way to think about the problem is to make the process simpler (if not more intuitive) so that at least the user can work their way through it.

What you would need to do is work out the most common way people provide the information (i.e. what is mostly easily available, easy to remember and most useful in terms of getting the search result that they want).

In my mind everyone should know the full name (unless they are searching on behalf of someone else), while I don't know understand the logic between a full and partial SSN (i.e. why you wouldn't remember the full number). Lastly, a combination is the most cumbersome in terms of amount of data input and logic.

So I would have a "Search by full SSN" input field, which is the easiest and most straightforward option as there is no ambiguity.

Then you can have a "Search by last name and 4 digit SSN" input field and if the user doesn't enter all the details then it is an invalid search request.

Answer 3

What about the following:

When the user opens the form, they see something like this:

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

If the user starts typing the name, the red text changes to the following:

^{download bmml source}

If the user starts with entering SSN, I assume that last name must be left empty, the following appears (note a balloon explaining that SSN entry is invalid):

^{download bmml source}

Bottom line - you parse the user's input on the fly and the form state changes dynamically to reflect whether the entry is valid. Furthermore, on invalid entry the search button is disabled, on valid entry it is enabled.

It is much more intuitive for the user to immediately see the effects of their action instead e.g. when they enter the data, press "search" hoping for the best and experience "You have entered invalid data" dialog to their disappointment.

Answer 4

I'm not sure if it is an option, but if you split the workflow before providing the input dialog that would also simplify the process. In this way you don't have to cover both use cases in one user interface, but have behavior tailored specifically for each.

For instance, if the search is launched from a menu item, you can have a Search Applicant by SSN and Search Applicant by Surname and 4 digit SSN menu items instead of just one Search Applicant menu item.