Form Design is an integral part of a UI design project. These forms can be designed so many creative ways not to hamper the experience of the users in any way. An interactive form design can engage users and in turn boost the conversion rate.
In this article, I would be discussing several techniques to optimize the form design of your website. Let’s take a look.
Number of Fields
While designing forms the first thing to ask is “ Do I really need the phone Number?”. What’s the use of FAX, Address?; Do I need to deliver envelopes?
Well, the number of fields in the form adversely affects the prospects as you add on more fields to it. Sometimes, all you really need is an email address and the name of the person. That’s it. Make sure to minimize the number of form fields as much as possible.
Single Column vs Multi-Column Forms
Depending on the number of fields, you might either choose to go with single-column or multi-column. If you have got number of form fields that needs scrolling, it is advisable to follow the multi-column form design approach.
However, a number of A/B Testing results have shown that single-column approach performs quite well when you have not more than 5-10 fields.
Display Error Message Clearly
I consider this as a crucial UX part for forms as restricting users from filling forms due to some errors might leave them frustrated and for the reason, it is important to clearly communicate why is it being generated.
Use Inline Field Validation
Inline validation is one of the great ways to communicate a message, alerts, etc. that is very helpful to the end users. Even before they submit the information this validation should be real time. This often helps the user to resolve the validation errors.
