A Consuming Experience

Check out this form from http://www.own-it.org/members/register.asp:


HTML forms can have checkboxes or radio buttons, dropdown lists, etc. With a radio button you only get to pick one of several options - they're mutually exclusive. But with checkboxes you could choose more than one of several options, if you wish.

The answers to the "majority of ownership" question in the above Webform are in the form of radio buttons. So, yep, you guessed it - you can only choose one answer. If you're "Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic", well then you can't be female. Or disabled. And if you're a woman, you can't possibly be minority ethnic or disabled. Etc.

Very PC if the majority of a business is owned by, say, disabled Asian women, innit (not). Wonder if anyone's ever bothered to complain about being made to pigeonhole themselves into a "minority" in this particular way!

From the way they've put things on the form, it does seem that the use of radio buttons instead of checkboxes is deliberate, rather than a usability boo boo.

Perhaps it's a profound attempt by Own-it to get the person filling in the form to stop and consider in depth the nature and make-up of their identity, and what aspect of their identity is the most important to them - their ethnicity or their gender, etc. Force 'em to pick their exact "minority group". Make 'em philosophise about their identity. Adds another dimension to the tedium of completing yet another webform, y'know.

Or perhaps it isn't...

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