As some of you might have noticed, you didn't receive a tech-letter last Monday. I took the day off to try to restructure what this newsletter is going to look/feel like. There's a new logo, a new website, and a new layout. Going forward, I want to try to involve you more in the content you receive from me. I'm just going to need you to answer 2 quick questions for me.

For starters, we all have different schedules and too much content can get real overwhelming, real quick. So for that reason, I'm going to give you the option to choose between how often you'd like to receive The Tech-Letter. In the survey below, choose your preference (an email every Monday vs every other Monday).

The second question is me opening the floor up to you. Speak your mind. Have the tools / apps / websites I've sent so far made a difference to you? Provided value? Is there a certain area in your life you wish you could be more productive in, or simply do better (designing, writing, anything)? Feel free to send critiques too (but remember I have feelings too).

Forms might be the one age-old-tool that are never going to actually... grow old. We went from Survey Monkey, to Google Forms, (to other popular ones) and now, Tripetto. This tech-tool is what's known as a "no-code" form-builder. In other words, not only can you select customisable fields (name, email, phone number...), but you can also make calculations, gain insights, and calculate scores— all without actually knowing how to "code".

My one big beef with no-code tools is that they all have some degree of a learning curve. But once you actually figure them out, the possibilities are endless (and I mean it). I'm going to start by brushing over some of the features, and then build a form so you can see the results.

A few notable features include:

• Recall Values: If you ask someone for their name in question 1, and in question 4 want to address them by their name, Tripetto forms remember user input-- so you can totally go "Oh John, by the way. What's your email address?" automatically.
• Branches: Set alternate paths a user can take when completing your form. If a user answers question 2 with a certain answer, you can skip them to question 5 right after, instead of them having to fill out question 3 and 4. 
• Calculations: "From counting inputs, to scoring a test" (hint: useful for teachers), Tripetto lets you calculate inside a form itself. Specially useful if you're an ecommerce; use the calculation features to calculate shipping, total, discounts, and so on. Plus, remember the recall values feature? Use the results from your calculations throughout your form.
• Responsive: Your forms can resize/adapt to fit any screen and make the user's experience seamless.
  
• Layouts: Your form, your design. There are several layouts / colours for you to choose from. You can even make your form look like a text conversation.

New reader? Subscribe to receive The Tech-Letter!

Automation is a big deal when it comes to no-code tools. Tripetto can do this for you. What does this mean? Say I create a "Subscribe now!" form with Tripetto, I can automate it using integrations so that every time a new user enters their email to sign up to this newsletter, instead of me having to manually go look for their email and write it down, Tripetto can automate this process for me, sending me user answers immediately. In the future, I hope to see Tripetto integrate with other popular apps too.

Once you're done creating a form, you can use it anywhere. Share it as a link, embed it on your website; it's entirely up to you. 

And now we move onto creating an actual form. I won't go step by step on this because this newsletter will be way longer than necessary, but if you're interested in starting your own form, you can always look at their tutorials, or try making one on your own (for free).

What you're seeing here is the default form on the right (which currently has absolutely nothing), and everything I can do on the left. The current default field in my form is pre-selected to be a "static text field", but next to the green "Done" button is where I can choose to replace (or add) a bunch of other fields (URL, radio buttons, images, calculators, checkboxes, and so on). Add how many ever questions you want!

After playing around for a bit, this is what my new "Subscribe to The Tech-Letter" form looks like.

You might struggle to see details clearly in this screenshot, but I ended up using a few of the features I wrote about in today's tech-letter. 

The first block has a static text ("Hey there! Thanks for taking the time to fill out..."), followed by question #1, asking for the user's name. 

Now, I used two different Tripetto features here. First, branches. If the user decides not to give me their name, my form breaks into branch 1 (titled "If no name"); which is essentially me asking the next questions in line, but without ever referring to the user by their name.

I set the second branch ("If yes name") to run only if the user provides their name. If they do, I use the Recall Value feature I mentioned above. Tripetto forms remember values that users provide, so if you fill out this form and for name you enter "Sarah", I can automatically set the form to reply "Thanks Sarah!". Personalised experiences, baby!

Both branches then proceed to asking the user for their email (so I can send them tech-letters), and end with a closing message. I have automated this so that when someone successfully completes a form, I get an email alerting me of this, with the user's answers. I even designed the form to make it look like a chatbot conversation! You can check out my form, and even share this link with others to get them to sign up to The Tech-Letter.

I have had experiences with forms before, but they're either ugly (Google Forms), or provide limited information on their free plan (Survey Monkey, Typeform). 

Every feature on Tripetto is currently free to use, and the only thing they ask for in return is allowing for their branding on the survey/form (which is a small line that says the form is powered by them). For those who wish to rock no-branding, there's a cost you can pay to remove it. But in my opinion, the branding is more than fair when you see how much you can get done with powerful forms. Can't recommend this tech-tool enough!