UI - How I can make users effectively read what my program says?

Posted by Magnetic_dud on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Magnetic_dud
Published on 2010-04-18T11:11:21Z Indexed on 2010/04/18 11:13 UTC
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I have a simple form that searches through the 2000+ issues of a 3rd party webcomic. (Easy, it's like xkcd: http://url/number That form is as easy as possible, is like this:

  1. What number do you want?
  2. User writes a number, clicks ok, and goes on the 3rd party website on a new tab
  3. Then, my form asks a question: "Did you find that issue memorable? Enter the name here, and we will add it to the "best issues" in home page"
  4. When the user will write the name of the issue, it is added to the database (pending moderation by me)

So, I supposed this design is the easiest and convenient that users can find. Unfortunately, NONE of the users (maybe a 2% behaved correctly) will actually read what I asked. Some of the issues are offline, and gives a 404. On that issues users will write in the textbox a completely wrong title, and correctly capitalized!

It's like if i would name http://xkcd.com/627/ as "The Great Adventures of Jack Smith"

Users are from around all over the country, with different browsers, and have a different cookie.

I cannot believe that my users will not read what I ask, it is a WHITE PAGE with a button that disappears when clicked and a textbox.... easier than that???

Maybe i should put a checkbox with "I acknowledge that this form is for submitting memorable issues, not for fun"? Oh, who will read that?

Or maybe i could enable the textbox only if the user has effectively clicked the link?

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