Did the online USA census form, poorly designed format

[Bill Dufour]

I just did the online USA census form. took about five minutes. Whoever designed the setup needs to go back to school and learn how computers work these days not ten years ago.
The first question was to type in your your 12 DIGIT secret code that came in the mail. Problem is it is not 12 DIGITS. Many will be confused since it is 12 CHARECTERS. About half of the digits are letters.
Each page where you enter dates you can not type in the date, you have to curse down and highlight the date, then click it to fill in the box. All typing it does is curse down the list to the correct date but not insert it until you click it again.
One of the biggest time wasters was the fact that most questions are on the left 1/4 of the page or so. But you have to curse all the way down to the lower right corner to hit the continue box after each page.
Bil lD.

[glenn bradley]

Brought to you by the folks who design our voting systems :-)

[Bill Dufour]

On the bright side Califorina, home of silicon valley, does not allow voting machines to be hooked to the internet. The info is stored onboard in a removable storage unit. After voting is over this unit is removed and taken to a county voting headquarters where it is read by a stand alone computer. I have no idea how these results are reported to the state headquarters.
Bill D.

PS: Corona is a town in southern California, headquarters for Fender guitar.

[Ronald Blue]

I just completed it online. Very smooth. All pages worked as expected. No confusion on the code when I signed in. It's the only thing on the form that could be used as a code.I'm not sure what you had issue with Bill.

[Jerome Stanek]

I filled it out yesterday no problem understanding it or filling it out. You just have to be smarter then the easy questions

[Mike Cutler]

Ronald

Bill is saying that the online form is clumsy. Which it is.
There is still a very large population of folks in the US that are not computer literate, and a form like this could cause confusion for them.
I'm still trying to figure out why I'm getting it again? We did the zillion page census form last year.

[Jerry Thompson]

What dastardly deed will befall one if it is not replied to?

[David Bassett]

What dastardly deed will befall one if it is not replied to?

I think they said they'd have to send someone to interview you. The real cost is that if you aren't counted it reduces your congressional representatives (versus other states.) Census data is also often used when allocating federal funds.

[Mark Daily]

I think they said they'd have to send someone to interview you. The real cost is that if you aren't counted it reduces your congressional representatives (versus other states.) Census data is also often used when allocating federal funds.
Yep- this is one thing you can do that will bring more money & political clout to your state.

[Mark Daily]

Brought to you by the folks who design our voting systems :-)
And the Obamacare website...yuk..

[Tom Stenzel]

And the Obamacare website...yuk..

I remember signing in to the healthcare.gov site a few years ago. After putting my username I was then informed that my password was expired. So I had to answer the security questions.

It certainly was convenient that the answers for the security questions were already filled in for me when the questions appeared on the screen. Saved me a lot of typing! :eek:

Tom

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I got three forms in the mail with three different codes. Guess I'll have to fill it out three times.

[Bill Dufour]

It not only helps your state but even your representative district for state and federal representation if you state or county has more then one house member.
Bill D

[John K Jordan]

But you have to curse all the way down to the lower right corner...

What curse words work the best to move the cursor the quickest? (....sorry, I couldn't resist! :))

[Michael Weber]

I noticed all the issues Bill point out except the 12 "digit" thing. Found the fill in date issue particularly stupid. On another note there was no postage prepaid envelope in my mailed packet as stated on the instructions.

[Matt Day]

I logged in quickly and easily. It was a bit of a pain going back and forth to the Next button, but other than that it was fine.

Could they have made a few improvements? Yes of course. Was it a big deal? No, it took me less than 10 minutes to complete our household of 4 people.

[Myk Rian]

My wife and I just did it online. Quick and easy.
The cursor kept hovering over the Delete button for her. She was watching too closely for me to do the deed.

[Jon Nuckles]

I just completed my questionnaire after letting my mail sit for a few days in quarantine. :) I didn't notice any problems with the online format. Compared to some online forms the State of Illinois has required me to navigate, I'd give the census people an "A."

[John K Jordan]

I just completed my questionnaire after letting my mail sit for a few days in quarantine. :) I didn't notice any problems with the online format. Compared to some online forms the State of Illinois has required me to navigate, I'd give the census people an "A."

My wife entered ours yesterday said the same thing, including the discriptor "easy peazy". She said it was clear and quick. She wondered if problems people had were related to the type of device they used. Or maybe they have changed things.

JKJ

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I did ours the day after the form arrived in the mail. To me, it was quick and easy.

[David Bassett]

I too wonder if it depends on device. I just did it, keeping Bill's complaint in mind (at the bottom, way right), and didn't feel it unreasonable. Yes, I was mostly done at the top of the page (white biased much?) and had to scroll passed the other choices, but since most were check one or more or select best match making me look at all the choices is reasonable.

I didn't much like their race questions. My usual America Mutt didn't seem to be allowed, so I went with the earliest arriving ancestors from my & my wife's family legends. Pretty sure there's other stuff mixed in since the mid-late-1600's and, in my wife's case, it's "known" the family legend was significantly edited by the early immigrants to assimilate more easily.

[Lee Schierer]

My wife and I did ours, it took less than 5 minutes. I hand to move my hand less than two inches to move the cursor from the top left to the lower right. Not a big deal in my mind.

[Curt Harms]

We got a second form that appears identical to the first. In the boiler plate is a sentence that says if you've already completed the first one there's no need to do the second.

[roger wiegand]

Just did it, quick and easy, no glitches or complaints. No, it doesn't look like a site that's been through umpty rounds of testing and refinement, but it was easy and completely functional, I'd just as soon not pay for elegance, we have better things to spend our tax dollars on right now.

Compared to trying to search with any precision on Amazon it was a dream. (my current pet peeve)

[Stan Calow]

I was surprised at how short it was. I remember them asking all sorts of questions in the past, including how many toilets you had in your home.

[Gary Ragatz]

I was surprised at how short it was. I remember them asking all sorts of questions in the past, including how many toilets you had in your home.

I think there's a "short form" and a "long form," and only a sub-set of the population is asked to complete the long form - I think our family got the long form in 2000.

[Michael Weber]

I originally agreed with the OP's analysis. I used a very old iPad with IOS 10.3.4. Months if not years out of date. Device will not support updates. Browser was Chrome and my device no longer supports the latest version of that. Since others did not experience problems it was likely my issue. Sorry "Big Brother" for maligning you. :rolleyes:

[lowell holmes]

I will wait for the form in the mail.

[Scott Donley]

I got the letter last week addressed to me at my address, went online same day filled it out , no problems, ez. Yesterday I got a new letter, different code but addressed to resident at my address, do I fill it out again ?

[Jon Nuckles]

I got the letter last week addressed to me at my address, went online same day filled it out , no problems, ez. Yesterday I got a new letter, different code but addressed to resident at my address, do I fill it out again ?

No. Instructions say you might get a second letter, but not to fill out the form again.

[Bert Kemp]

My biggest problem is if you choose not to provide something then it stops it won't let you not answer a question. I can't for the life of me figure out why they want my phone number. I thought a census is to figure out how many people there are. I'll tell them that but that's all they need to know a far as I'm concerned. I'm now waiting for the mail in form were I can answer or not answer to my liking . LOL :eek:
Thats one of my biggest pet peeve's is mandatory questions on surveys, soon as I hit one I delete the whole thing.

[Jason Roehl]

My biggest problem is if you choose not to provide something then it stops it won't let you not answer a question. I can't for the life of me figure out why they want my phone number. I thought a census is to figure out how many people there are. I'll tell them that but that's all they need to know a far as I'm concerned. I'm now waiting for the mail in form were I can answer or not answer to my liking . LOL :eek:
Thats one of my biggest pet peeve's is mandatory questions on surveys, soon as I hit one I delete the whole thing.

I tested a "workaround", but ended up putting in my phone number. I used to, when asked for a phone number online, use my area code, then 555-1212. That would have worked here. As for race, it accepted "Other/Human".

I agree that the form was fairly clumsy, but I pretty much expect that of every website these days, and am surprised if it's not.

[Jacob Reverb]

The first question was to type in your your 12 DIGIT secret code that came in the mail. Problem is it is not 12 DIGITS. Many will be confused since it is 12 CHARECTERS. About half of the digits are letters.


Huh. I feel left out, because I did the survey online and it went without a hitch. I guess I'll have to consult my dictionary next time. What's "pedantic" mean?

[Curt Harms]

My biggest problem is if you choose not to provide something then it stops it won't let you not answer a question. I can't for the life of me figure out why they want my phone number.
.................................................. ......................


Phone number? 8675309 For a good time call .........:D

[Eric Danstrom]

I'm waiting for the paper mail-in version. I don't want them poking around my computer looking at all my files. If they want to do that they'll have to work a little harder than getting me to fall for an "on-line" census form....

[Jim Koepke]

I have no idea how these results are reported to the state headquarters.

Once they have all the results in an air gapped computer system the results could be called in or even brought to another machine by what is often referred to as 'sneaker net.' This is when it is placed on a thumb drive or other media and brought to another machine to transfer.

The census went fairly easy for me online. My two letters with the 12 digit code was misplaced so there was a provision for an address.

Sure, it wasn't pretty and sexy, but it is likely something that the majority of people can handle whether they are entering the information via phone, pad, laptop or desktop computer no matter what browser a person might choose to use. That is a major consideration when we have so much variety in our technology today. Most of the time my machine is running two browsers simultaneously. Some sites load better in Safari, some do better with Chrome. My Firefox is so old it seems to have a problem with everything.

jtk

[Bert Kemp]

Huh. I feel left out, because I did the survey online and it went without a hitch. I guess I'll have to consult my dictionary next time. What's "pedantic" mean?


The definition of pedantic is someone who is very concerned with the details of a subject and tends to overly show off their knowledge. An example of someone who is pedantic is a person at a party who bores everyone while talking at length about the origin and details of a particular piece of pottery.