Today Google added a cool new feature to Google Docs called form view. This is a super easy way to collect data on the web. Simply create a form and send someone the link or the form embedded in an email. As people fill out the form your Google Docs spreadsheet is populated with data. Read more about it at the google docs blog.
When this came out I thought it was cool but wondered how I would use it. I made up a form and shared it with my company. It seems like a great way to easily get feedback for something. Then I thought of another use. I could use it for a prototype of an application that I thought of building in another technology. A simple replacement for the “While you were out” slips that I surprisingly still see on desks across America. Well at least Michiana.
So I first did a google search to get the right questions to ask. I searched google images for “While you were out”.This turned up a couple examples of the form. From there I added fields to the form.
Here is how I see it working. You have a URL that takes you to the person you are leaving the message for. Next you just fill out the form. A combination of free form entry, check boxes and pull down menus. Here is the form I created. Fill it out and leave me some comments. Next you create a URL bookmark for the person you are taking messages for. They can just click the link in their browser wherever they are and get their messages. They can even do it from an iphone and click on the number to return the call immediately. This is obviously a crude prototype but it took longer to write this blog post than to create the form and test it. A little modification to the html and you could create a nice view on the iphone.
