The 10 Commandments of Making User-Friendly Web Forms
Essential rules for designing user-friendly web forms that will actually encourage users to fill them out.
Interaction online that connects users and businesses is constantly evolving. However, one thing that still remains a much needed necessity in this day and age is a good web form. And, just like everything else, web forms also require clear, fast and easy to understand design, to make the user experience more pleasant. Also, user-friendly web forms are more likely to encourage the users to fill them out in the first place. Unfortunately, businesses these days tend to overlook the importance of web forms, but these are essential for bringing users to you. After all, a web form is that must-take step that links the users and their goals, as well as the users and your goals. Therefore, take the following rules of web form design very seriously.
1. Ask only what’s absolutely necessary
No one likes to spend a lot of time filling out online forms. If your goal is to get more leads and boost your conversion rate in this regard, it’s paramount that you limit the number of fields and questions. In general, focus on narrowing down the information you need about the users, so that you still get everything you need without making the users uncomfortable in any way. Web forms are everywhere these days, and users know when questions and fields feel a bit unnecessary and awkward for the purpose they should have. Don’t put a strong lead off by making the mistake of squeezing a bunch of redundant questions into your website form.
2. Structure and organize the fields logically
Basically, when you come up with a set of necessary questions/fields you need from users, you have to organize those fields in a logical manner. Otherwise, the form may feel overwhelming and difficult to follow through. Obviously, this particular rule is very important for those forms that require more information than just a name and email address. So, know what to ask first and what the priorities are from the users’ perspective. It’s only logical to ask for a name and email first, and only then proceed to ask about the physical address. Also, make sure to group the fields of one category properly. For instance, address information should have a natural flow from the street, number, and city to country and code.
3. The labels should be relatively short
In order to avoid visual clutter and reduce the time for scanning, your web form labels should be concise and clear. If you want to ensure that the labels are completely understandable, you can add additional, less prominent captions as an explanation (see the image above). Still, make sure that your name labels draw attention immediately and that they are very straightforward.
4. Avoid duplicate fields if you can
This is a tricky bit when it comes to user-friendly web forms. The majority of users will come across forms that require them to retype their email address, their password, or both. Usually, these are log-in forms, and such practice was considered to be a way to prevent spelling mistakes. However, users just tend to copy-paste this info, with a mistake and all. Not to mention that having to fill out the same info twice nowadays when there’s a real need for speed is pretty frustrating.
5. Distinguish optional from required
Some web forms don’t have optional fields because they really don’t need them for whatever their purpose is. However, even though asking for only the essential information is a must, there will sometimes be a need for an optional field. Again, it all depends on the purpose (final goal) of the web form. If there are both optional and required fields on the web form, make it user-friendly by adding an asterisk (*) next to the required fields (again, take a look at the TechBear’s SEO Test image example).
6. Rethink the use of default values
In your desire to create ultimate user-friendly web forms, you may get the impression that preselected default values for different fields may save the users time. However, it turns out that these defaults can cause more problems than good, simply because users tend to overlook these, especially if the value is already selected. Even if it’s a list of countries, it’s still better to allow the users to type their location themselves. Typing like this usually ends up being faster than browsing through the list, it allows quick scanning, and actually leaves less room for mistakes.
7. As little typing as possible
Even though we’ve just said that it’s better to type than go through the list of options, you still want user-friendly web forms that can boost the overall user experience. And, for that, you also need as little typing as possible. This is especially true for mobile users that don’t want to deal with typing a lot of info on the small screens. The best way to solve this issue is to implement a data prefill for as many fields as possible.
8. Use immediate error alert
User-friendly web forms should have real-time validation, which is especially important for those web forms that require more information than just a name and email address. This means that the users should be alerted immediately when they make a mistake (with a red X next to the field, for example) so that they can fix this as soon as possible. That way, they won’t have to go back and check the form again and again. This is also a much better and more efficient way to prevent mistakes compared to duplicate fields. Aside from notifying the users about their mistakes, you should also notify them when they fill out the field correctly (with a green tick next to the field, for example).
9. You don’t want fixed input formats
There’s really no justifiable reason for using fixed input formats in your web forms these days. To make things more functional and efficient, the best way to go about different formats is to opt for a transformation option that allows you to display/store whatever info you need regardless of its input format.
10. User-friendly web forms don’t need a Reset button
In theory, Reset buttons may have somehow seemed like a good idea. However, the reality of it all is quite different. If you strive to create user-friendly web forms with great user experience, you definitely don’t want to put a Reset button on there, and especially not right next to the Save/Submit/Send/etc. button. This can lead to many unfortunate mistakes, and frankly, not that many people actually want to reset all of the information they’ve already put in.
It’s vital to keep in mind that web forms are your primary connection to business leads as well as the major link to your business success. Therefore, the way these forms are designed has to be well thought of. Of course, these days it may be possible to set up your own basic website without the professional help, but if you want to get the most out of your online presence, it’s always a smart investment to work with experts within this niche.
