Ben Terrett’s My Internet (redesigned and posted by Michael at DesignNotes):
My internet also includes clearly accessible contact details from the word go. It’s amazing how often we (marketing monkeys, publishers, media types) get this wrong. My internet doesn’t include contact forms either. I would like to email a person please.
And don’t even get me started on Flash…
I’m not so sure that it’s absolutely necessary for everyone to have a contact page with all contact info listed. That’s what forms, comments and social networking tools are for. I think of email addresses as a more private communication tool that requires a different level of permission — just like phone numbers.
Flash is just badly abused. It’s a misunderstood technology :)
Hey Ehren. I think the fact you’re talking about “forms, comments and social networking tools” puts you leagues ahead of a lot of websites!
But I actually disagree – I think it’s really important to encourage conversation and be able to contact people directly.
I mean contact forms are like the plexi-glass in banks between the customers and tellers. They’re barriers that say: “we don’t trust you”. Worse, they’re a hierarchical form of communication – It’s not a conversation or a dialogue…
Anyway, we should talk about this over a pint ;-)
Hey Dan. :) I think your point is absolutely valid — it is a hierarchical form of communication. I think we have to dissect the issue a little. i.e. whether or not we are talking about P2P, B2C, C2B, etc. They are however getting mashed together …
From my perspective personally — I don’t feel businesses deserve to have email addresses shared openly with them (i.e. why we have spam issues) and I also don’t want random people emailing me either. In order to connect with me as a person — we have to establish a connection through some sort of context. That context is through:
– comments like these or
– through forms that require the person who wants to communicate to establish that context or…
– through social networking tools like twitter where conversation is almost completely public and anyone can jump in.
Those are some of my demands as an internet user. For me, it’s all about trust. Other people will likely have different demands. You might be interested in my friend’s example of a social media policy :)
http://melaniemcbride.net/contact/my-social-media-policy-smp/
However from a business standpoint, your argument about contact forms potentially being a barrier would be valid in various circumstances.