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Ineffective forms can often pose a barrier for users. Why are these forms inadequate, and why do they often cause issues? Poorly designed forms can be an immense source of frustration for people.
How can you ensure that the form is as perfect as possible?
Best Practices for Web Forms
Keep it short
Long forms may disengage users. Therefore, only add fields necessary for this task. TheSkimm offers an email service that has become extremely popular, with an easy signup process requiring only your email address as needed for registration.
Attention on Spacing
Labels for each field should be placed visually next to it and following common practices: they should always be placed directly above or left of each area - never below or right - since any deviation could cause users to become annoyed, leading them to abandon your form altogether.
Keep the space between labels and fields as clear as possible to avoid confusion. Labels that correspond to two or more domains at one time could create further chaos.
ClassPass' signup form is an outstanding example of white space design. Fields that correspond with their corresponding labels are located immediately above them; labels are spaced evenly apart so users can quickly identify which area fits with which brand.
Use single-column
By placing fields into one column, users can more efficiently navigate a form and maintain vertical momentum as quickly as possible.
Short areas or those related to each other such as State and Zip Code, could be placed together on one screen for easy navigation. The Power Digital Marketing Request For An Assessment form only collects the most vital data using one column, keeping the text brief.
This form is an outstanding example of using only one column and supporting information to a minimum.
Use Logical Sequencing
Have you seen web-based bill forms with fields for CVV, Name on Card Expiration Date, and Account Number that is extremely frustrating to fill out? Probably.
For this reason, it would be wise to follow traditional order when filling in these fields. Here, for instance, is some basic information: Name, Card Number, Expiration Day, and CVV, in addition to street addresses that serve as shipping locations: Zip Code, City, and State.
Do Not Use Placeholder Text
Designers use placeholder text as a means of clearing away visual clutter.Group research indicates that such solutions are harmful, as they place too much strain on short-term memory while forcing users to remember where the information resides.
Users may need help to verify their work before submitting it for submission.
Give Users Space
Text fields should never exceed the length of the input. Otherwise, errors could arise, and run-over may occur when more than eight characters are used to enter data into an email box - making it harder for consumers to detect mistakes and detect run-over.
A field with email addresses should contain 22 characters. Hence, consumers have plenty of room to fill up an address field.
Identify the Required Fields
First, remove all optional fields. We are returning to best practices: if information isn't necessary or relevant, don't include it.
If adding information is essential for business needs, be specific when providing it.
The standard symbol for mandatory fields is an (*). This widely adopted standard helps users stay more organized with the information.
Remember to add a note that defines an asterisk! provides software for marketing analytics software development. All the fields needed for the Request Demo form are laid out to users, with an accompanying note at the bottom explaining what an asterisk indicates.
Be Specific With Your Input Requirements
Users should receive clear instructions when certain fields require specific formatting. For instance, birth date fields might specify that input should follow this format MM/DD/YYYY.
Make sure users understand why this is a good practice. The password box must contain all necessary conditions. Since users will likely not know exactly how many characters are required, please do not make them fail; communicate their needs before clicking Submit.
Avoid Set Buttons
If a form contains sensitive data, you can safely cancel it using a Cancel button to avoid any accidents which could cause discomfort to users.
Provide Specific Error Messages
Avoid making error messages that are too subtle; rather, list multiple issues so the user may quickly address all the problems at once.
Errors should be highlighted using various means, including red highlights or bolded text to draw the user's attention and provide clear instructions on addressing them. Doing this will point them in the right direction and show how quickly solutions can be found.
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How to Put it Together
No need to use all these techniques at once if that is impossible! Just ensure the spacing and sequencing makes sense, and if in doubt, try filling out your form like you would normally if you weren't the creator.
Five UX Best Practices For Forms
Designing an effective form is easy, but you should give it some careful thought and use these best practices for website form design to craft something user-friendly and straightforward to complete.
- Be clear in telling users what to do.
Establish the format, specify required and optional fields, and use styles to indicate when something has been completed correctly or clicked upon.
Avoid being cute when designing forms!
- Form items can be stacked instead of being lined up side-by-side.
Label your form input boxes outside by placing labels above any hint text that may appear.
- Focus on form accessibility.
Form input boxes must be navigable using keyboard input; colors should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1; labels and hint texts should be legible on screen readers, and text size must be a minimum of 14pt.
- Mobile friendly is user friendly.
- Use large input boxes for forms so they are easily accessible with large fingers, and set your type size to at least 14pt.
Clarify Your Expectations For Users
Just completed filling out an important document requiring you to find your driver's license! But now it is done, and time for this nonsense to end! Forms are the final barrier between users and what they need, so web forms must be user-friendly to instill confidence that everything has gone according to plan.
Refrain from making sure users guess whether they have entered all their information correctly or whether there might be errors somewhere along the line.
- Provide the required details.
No need for complicated calculations here - just simple communication!
- Use red as the color that immediately communicates an error occurred.
Red will stand out against your brand palette and catch users' eye, drawing their attention quickly and effectively.
Consider applying an eye-catching treatment around form input boxes, such as thick outlines or red glow effects, that call attention to where an error has occurred and highlight its label.
- Before and following, give a hint to the user regarding what format you expect of them.
For example, if your form requires dashes (e.g., 5555-5555), add text that says that below your form input field.
When errors arise, it is also essential that reminders of the correct format are given and, when possible, explanations are given as to what was missing from their entry.
Also Read: What is Website Design and Development?
The Finest Form Designs Have A Straightforward Structure
Keep forms as straightforward as possible when designing them. Be creative when designing pages, the way they animate, their form, and the application of the brand.
Components that focus more on what surrounds them than on what defines shape should be smooth when selecting buttons, labels, input boxes, or hint text.
Deviations from best-form layout practices may lead to confusion. This may make the form unreadable or impossible to use on mobile devices - or plain confusing.
What you should keep in mind when designing a form
You Can Stack Your Form Input Boxes
Vertically stacking input boxes and labels is an easy way to form clear groups. Labels or hint texts must be easily visible to indicate which input form box they belong in, and the eyepatch of such forms is significantly shorter (the distance your eye travels from start to end), meaning less searching when moving from inputs and more natural downward flow when browsing input forms.
Place Your Labels Above The Input Boxes
Following the principles of web design, most people can quickly recognize boxes with labels placed above them as part of a downward movement in the form.
Although we generally advise against placing labels on the left of input boxes, sometimes configuring your form in two columns can be acceptable.
If your contact page has four input boxes - for instance - this gives more freedom for breaking the rules if needed.
Put Your Hint Text Below The Input Boxes
Hint text is a small piece of text that informs your users what to expect when filling out forms (we covered this in the previous section).
In the past, hint texts were placed directly within input boxes; however, we now recognize this could be better and is both inaccessible and annoying for the user experience: when users click into an input field and provide their data, their hint text disappears completely! Keep your hint text visible by positioning it outside the input box when creating accessible online forms. Our aim should be to make them as straightforward and user-friendly as possible!
Use Form Accessibility Best Practices
No one should ever be considered inaccessible, and that applies both to your website (and all aspects) as well as forms.
Learn about accessibility standards to ensure your form and site are accessible by all. Everything comes down to three primary elements.
Navigation with only a Keyboard
Form design involves developing websites that allow visitors to navigate without touching the mouse at any point - an accessibility practice for people with difficulty using or who cannot use a mouse.
Your form should follow standard operating procedures. Users should be able to navigate from item to item using the tab key, open dropdowns with arrow keys, or use a spacebar for selecting things like checkboxes or radio buttons as needed and submit forms using the spacebar or tabbed technique (screen readers often rely on this technique as they move through pages).
Screen readers often utilize this tactic when reading each element as they progress down the page.
Color contrast & text size
All forms should adhere to a 4.5:1 color contrast ratio for optimal readability. Text, including hint text, must be legible against its background.'s tool will help you assess if your colors are acceptable or not.
No Hidden Text Or Hidden Items Behind Pop-Ups
Many websites used to include hint text within an icon that triggered a pop-up when users move their mouse over it, presenting people with low vision or difficulties with motor skills with an obstacle: moving their mouse over such an inconspicuous icon quickly enough for it to reveal an instantaneous popup and disappearing quickly; hiding hint text behind such popups increases the risk that some users won't be able to locate it easily - to ensure users can quickly read it, it should be clearly visible, easily-readable, easy-to-see and short enough so users can quickly scan over it without delay or hidden behind popups!
Screen Reader-Friendly Labels And Text
UX forms on your website are another key aspect. Their code must take special consideration into account, including making sure all necessary elements are included to allow a screen reader to navigate the text and highlight fields where users interact.
Use Mobile Form Design Best Practices
Web designers now generally take a "mobile-first" approach when creating websites, for good reason.
The mobile design presents designers with particular challenges as it requires making sure all components work effectively on smaller displays with limited operating systems that support those features.
The design of mobile forms follows similar principles as those governing desktop forms; if a condition is compatible with mobile, it will likely also work on the desktop.
But this is only sometimes the case; make sure that your forms can be seen clearly on small screens by increasing button and interactive element sizes accordingly; font sizes should remain above 14pt for best results. To test them on both a phone and a tablet.
Keep Your Form As Minimal And As Fast As Possible
Form-filling can be tedious work for anyone. To keep things painless and enjoyable for users, only collect the information you don't require and reduce form size as much as possible.
Hence, it loads faster and is simpler for people to complete - this way, your users will thank you!
Use Web Forms To Boost Completion Rates
Use Logic To Organize The Form
First, we will focus on the layout of a form. Web forms are conversations between users, interfaces, and forms; therefore, it should be common to ask users for their addresses before providing their names.
You can improve the user experience of web forms by:
Group information into blocks to create associations. Grouping data into sections can evoke associations. If there are more than six fields, group them logically into sections or, better yet, give each team its header.
All fields should be organized logically, with enough breathing room (padding/distance) between each section when grouping them.
Avoid multiple columns when possible to prevent dispersing user attention. Line up short fields like phone numbers, cities, states, or area codes into a queue if possible; otherwise, arrange them top-down instead.
Only ask what's necessary, reduce fields, and create an easier user form. Every additional area increases the chances of users opting out - imagine Expedia saving $12 Million by simply eliminating one from their web form!
When your form is too long, consider switching up its format with multi-step form templates. A multi-step template works by breaking up each field into smaller forms on different web pages for a user-friendly experience, with its short first step giving the illusion that your condition is smaller; sensitive information fields and progress bars being placed into the last action will encourage people to complete it all in time.
Labels Should Be Placed In The Right Place
Label positioning is often discussed when it comes to designing user interface forms. There are multiple choices for positioning labels; all designers agree, however, that having them visible and above or next to the field is optimal.
Left-aligned labels may be ideal for large data sets with multiple options, making it easier for readers to scan and reducing height by simply looking at them. They only work on desktop views.
Floating labels are another effective solution for label positioning on mobile devices that save space while remaining clear and unobtrusive.
When users type into an input box, a floating label appears next to it to keep context intact - an essential feature on mobile interfaces as users know where they're typing their text! However, this does not work with radio buttons, checkboxes, or text that cannot fit on one line.
Grouping labels and their input. Sometimes the spacing between a label field and its related brand appears confusing and makes it hard to comprehend what you're entering into it.
This makes understanding your input difficult.
Labels and inputs placed close together make them appear related, helping reduce confusion. Gestalt psychology explains this practice of grouping related items.
Avoid all caps, and write clear labels. Use of caps in web form design is strongly discouraged as it makes text harder to read and takes longer for our brains to process; reading speed may even decrease by up to 20% due to all caps texts; additionally, all caps labels could give off an impression that they are shouting at users.
Also Read: Beginning a New Website: 7 Tips
Pay Attention To The Input Design
Text fields are essential components of web forms that gather user data. To help ensure they provide clear visual cues that help guide the user towards fulfilling the request, clickability and blank space are two criteria to evaluate strong visual indicators.
Fill-in fields should remain empty and clickable; engaging with the areas could add minutes or seconds to completion times for large forms.
White space combined with emptiness often confuses users. White areas in text fields remind us that something needs to be written or entered.
Text outline fields provide another good example. They feature strong indicators of space but weak ones for clickability - leaving white spaces visible yet possibly missed by some against their white background.
A horizontal line to delimit a text area is also not ideal since this lacks essential visual cues and could easily be confused for a line separator meant to divide content.
Dark backgrounds with white spaces offer the ideal combination for input. This design makes interaction easy.Once your input fields have been made aesthetically appealing, consider the corners and shape of the text box.
Sharp edges in visual objects were found to cause negative feelings and an impression of danger. At the same time, curved outlines are preferred over their sensitive counterparts, providing user-friendlier input fields.Users need a visual cue when they select a text box, so the select state provides visual confirmation that they are typing and helps avoid mistaking input for other things.
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Conclusion
Once your form is complete and all details have been covered, it can be easy to assume everything is perfect and no harm has come.
But to be safe and reduce potential hurdles to success for users. Getting another set of eyes to review it will allow you to spot issues or obstacles hindering user progress more quickly.
