Because they usually ask for one (or several) of the following: - Basic information that could be retrieved automatically (say from an ID card or a driver's lic

Because they usually ask for one (or several) of the following: - Basic information that could be retrieved automatically (say from an ID card or a driver's licence) but that you have to input on every form: name, address, date of birth... - Questions that are unclear or have no good/definite answer: race (for someone with a very diverse ancestry or who's not American), state (when your country doesn't have any), questions about administrative categories you know nothing about.. - Questions that ask for information that is hard or unpleasant to retrieve: passport expiration date (you need to take out your passport and check), amount of taxes paid last year, zip code of parents' place of birth, list of countries visited in the past 10 years with dates of stay. - Questions that are repetitive (on psych /HR questionnaires for instance) I don't think forms are naturally boring (I tend to like questionnaires from marketing surveys and the like for instance). Asking people about themselves and letting them answer somewhat freely will be fine.