Form fields are a primitve method of transferring information

I don't like talking to people. Especially for doing chores. So the internet has been a blessing for introverts like me. I can type in a few things, tap a few buttons, and get stuff done. I don't have to talk to anyone to pay my bills or to have pizza delivered.

But some online interfaces are more painful to use than talking to people.

I recently booked a flight to Dubai for my family of five. Filling out the same passenger details five times was less tedious thanks to my password manager (1Password) autofilling this information. But it wasn't totally smooth.

1Password gets stuck on dropdowns. And this airline website had its own unique take on picking dates: you had to select the birth date through a series of dropdowns. Manual input wasn't allowed. So I click into the dropdown, click the year, go back several years, then click a few more times to pick the month and day. It was about 8 clicks for one date.

But the fun didn't stop there. I had to click through this hellish datepicker dropdown for the passport issue and expiry dates as well. For five people. So 8 clicks each for three date fields, for five people. So I've clicked more than a hundred times just picking dates. Dates that I could have, you know, just typed in.

But I was sitting at home on my computer. I didn't mind. It was still better than hopping on a phone and talking to someone.

We had a wonderful time overseas. Two days before our flight back home, I got an email to check in to our flight. I logged in to the airline website which asked me to fill out all of the passenger information again. I was looking at filling out 40 form fields on my phone.

Nope.

I checked in in-person, and it was so much easier than dealing with the phone keyboard sliding up and down for every field and the hellish dropdowns.

The airline website was actually quite good at first glance: it was responsive, accessible, the visual design and animations were top-notch, and there was a proper hierarchy of information. But the sheer number of form fields took away from that experience. I can't totally blame them. Form fields are a primitive means of transferring data.

I signed up for Global Entry a couple of years ago because I got tired of "randomly" being selected on arrival from overseas. Border patrol would waste hours of my time having me just sit around while they checked my info. With Global Entry, I landed, had my retinas scanned by a machine, and I was through. Two minutes tops. No forms, bag scans, or passport checks.

Online forms need a similar seamless overhaul. My digital data already exists. Don't make me manually input this again. Password managers and passkeys are almost there, but not quite.

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P.S. I broke my weekly writing streak since I didn't post/write while I was on vacation last week. I intend to make that up with a double post before the end of the year.