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Create Better Online Forms
The growth of eCommerce has helped to convert many of our formerly
paper-based activities into electronic functionalities. Early attempts
at putting forms onto the Internet usually required downloading a form,
filling it out, then faxing it back to the website owner. Now it’s all
done electronically, but some websites do it better than others.
Online forms are used for a number of purposes, including placing
orders, gathering customer details, and even conducting market research.
They are often essential tools in marketing products via the Internet
and the success or otherwise of an online form is largely dependent upon
how it’s designed.
The first rule of making sure
any online form is well-designed and suitable for the purposes it’s
intended is to use the services of a professional. The more
complex the form is the more difficult it will be to get it working
exactly like you want it to work; this includes both the layout of the
form and the HTML coding that enables it to acquire and transmit the
information you need.
Because a designer will only follow your instructions, this article can
serve as a guide to creating a workable brief for someone to follow.
It’s not meant to be all-inclusive but it will be a starting point where
online form development can begin.
1. Know What You Want to Do with the Form
Be very clear about what the form is to do. What information does it
require? How will the questions be asked? Will it be web-based only or
also downloadable? How will it be accessed from the website and how will
it be ‘sent’ when it’s completed? Have all this kind of decisions worked
through before design begins.
2. Conduct Your Own Research
There are literally thousands of form templates available on the
Internet. They probably won’t include one that’s 100% perfect for your
uses, but they can be a useful guide to what works and what doesn’t. Try
completing a few that look about right and see what happens. Find the
ones that work best and note why they’re better than the others.
3. Keep Length to a Minimum
A form should only be as long as it has to be. People don’t appreciate
having to fill out long forms, nor do they appreciate answering
questions that aren’t relevant to what it is they want to achieve. Be
sure however to allow enough room for users to complete each section of
the form; cramping areas to save space can affect the quality of the
information you receive.
4. Group Related Elements Together
The form will be easier to complete if it has a ‘flow’ that helps the
user through the parts they’re asked to fill in. For example, all the
user’s personal details – name, address, job title – should go in one
section; all questions relating to the same topic in another section.
5. Pages are Optional but Sometimes Helpful
You can generally have just one ‘page’ to an entire form if you want,
but it’s not always a good idea. Users that have scrolled down what
seems an interminable form can easily tire and abandon the task before
it’s finished. It can actually make it easier to complete a form by
breaking it into a couple of pages with all related questions on each
page. Remember that a page is just an electronic division and doesn’t
represent as much information as would be gathered on a printed page.
6. Keep Forms Visually Simple
It can be distracting to the user when a form they’re completing is
cluttered with graphics. Even varying the typefaces can make a form
confusing for the person filling it out. Keep the layout and the
elements as simple as possible and easy to work with.
7. Start with the Instructions
Even if you think the form doesn’t need instructions, include them
anyway. What seems obvious to you may not be to people completing the
form. Tell them what the form is for, how to complete it, and how to
send it to you when it’s completed. If the form is fairly long provide a
warning up-front that it may take up to x minutes to complete it. (Some
sites incorporate a progress meter to show how far the user has
progressed after completing each page.)
8. Test the Form before Going Live
No matter how much planning and design talent have gone into a form it
should always be tested on a representative sample of users before it
becomes a part of your website. Any sticking points or confusing
elements can be detected and removed before it’s too late.
These are the ‘bare essentials’ of designing an online form but they’re
all important. Remember to always keep the user in mind; you’re asking
them to spend their valuable time helping you stay in business so make
it as quick and easy as possible for them to give you the information
you want.
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