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The winning FORMula…(sorry)

February 17, 2012 • Article by Rosie Horsfall

Filling in application forms and billing details online has become as common in our internet everyday lives as tweeting about our breakfast. Whether you’re working, shopping, comparing or quoting, you can barely swing a mouse without bumping in to a form somewhere on a site.

Here I introduce Joe Leech @mrjoe; User Experience Director at CX Partners, who argues that the structure and design of these forms is an under-appreciated yet fundamental part of web site design and usability.

All too often, we come across beautifully designed websites filled with sharp and smart content and appealing, approachable layouts, but come the form-filling-out stage, you find your once reasonable and rational browser-mind wanting to punch the website in the face. We’ve all been there.

Here’s the trouble with forms;

1. What’s a *mandatory field?

The use of asterisks in forms confuses not only the layout, but the poor punters ploughing through the questions, too. Most people won’t bother to notice them, and even if they do, there is usually nothing to explain their meaning. Humans will fill in the forms and humans use words, not symbols. Whilst filling in the details, users will assume any information asked for is necessary, so why make it more complicated? If it’s really a situation of life or death (which I find very hard to believe!), mark the optional fields, not the compulsory ones. Plus, when was the last time you used the word ‘mandatory’ in the office, anyway?

2. Scrolling from here to infinity…

Your date of birth is one of the few things about yourself that will never change (for the honest bunch amongst us, at least). However, the format in which it needs to be entered seems to be as varied as the dates we put in them. I’m referring to the dreaded number scrolling tool.

Why? We don’t use it when we enter our pin at the cash machine, we don’t do it when we dial a phone number and we shouldn’t have to use them when we chose our date of birth! Selecting your age from such a complicated and temperamental tool usually takes so long you’re at least another year older by the time you’ve cracked it. Keeping things simple will always be the winning formula.

3. Out of sight, out of mind…

As you happily click around an e-commerce site browsing freely and purchasing at will, you get to the final hurdle of checking out to find yourself faced with one of these:

Before this seemingly harmless logo pops up on your screen, security is the last thing on your mind. You’re looking forward to receiving your cool new iPhone case you’ve snapped up for 43p from eBay, or worrying about how to explain to your wife why you needed your new 12 foot world map from Amazon (“…but it had FREE super saver delivery!”). It is not until the logos plant the seed of doubt that anyone contemplates the (very slim) chance of any personal data slipping through the fingers of protection. Joe Leech points out that many studies have proven users to be more honest and open when the issue of security was simply omitted from a data collecting survey. The levels of security were always implemented and data was equally as safe, its just the users weren’t reminded about the issues or levels of risk.

Of course, data protection is important to all of us and we all want to shop with confidence, we just don’t need to know about the boring bits behind the scenes. In other words, reassuring people about their privacy makes them more, not less concerned.

4. Form now on…(again, sorry)

Forms don’t need to be complicated to be successful. When it comes to useful and friendly form design, stick to the following:

1. Ask for what you need and nothing more in the most user-friendly format you can.

2. Leave choice to a bare minimum.

3. Let humans be human.

Simples.