Question

Later this year I will be producing a few expandable banners for a company. The banner is used to attract people and have them suggest candidates for a competition.

I suggested the option of possibly integrating an application form in the expandable banner, which after submission should land the user on the landing page of the site.

But after I suggested this, I started thinking:
I can’t recall having seen a form in an expandable banner for a long time. Because of this, I assume the use of forms in banners might be considered a big no-no. If this assumption is correct: I am trying to figure out why this is. I understand this will be partially off-topic, since the rationale might be in the realm of marketing, rather than programming. Still I’d like to pose this threefold question:

1. Programmatically:
   Are there typical security or other concerns that keep professionals from using forms in banners? I’m thinking maybe csfr attacks, etc. here.

2. Usability:
   Is using a form in an expandable banner a typical no-no from a usability perspective? I’m thinking maybe banners accidentally closing when filling out the form, or too little space to inform the user of the purpose of the form perhaps?

3. Lastly, marketing wise (I understand that this category might be particularly off topic):
   Is there any marketing aspect which advises against this route? I’m thinking: have the user land on the landing page as soon as possible, perhaps?

Maybe it’s a combination any of these categories? Or maybe none at all. I’m kind of trying to figure out whether my assumptions are correct, and why. Hopefully someone can shed a light on this matter from the perspective of any of the three categories.

Answer 1

I’ll address the Usability, from an end-user perspective. This is just my end-user’ish opinion.

I expect when I see a banner that I will only have the ability to click on it. My rationale for this is that I have seen so many banners that fake the look of a form. The banner looks like it has a form in it, but in reality it’s just an image wrapped in an Anchor. If attempting to focus a fake text field in the banner, by clicking in what looks like a normal form text input, I end up clicking the anchor that wrapping a single image.

So, seeing that enough times, I have the opinion that any banner that looks like a form is suspect and if I click anywhere within the banner I am not surprised if the form is a fake form.

Also, seeing trick forms in banners enough times, I get the feeling that all banners that have form inputs (fake or not) seem shady. So, I guess, Marketing Wise, don’t do things that make users think your business is shady.