Stairwellblog

I had the opportunity to attend An Event Apart: Chicago 2009 this past week+ (thanks Ted & Charles!) and was fortunate enough to catch Luke Wroblewski’s presentation on web form design.

I was pleasantly surprised that one of the most boring topics on paper was actually one of the most interesting of the conference. I don’t know if that’s a testament to Luke’s work or an indictment on the rest of the speakers (who were, in my estimation, pretty mediocre…save Dan Rubin) but I’d rather not dwell on the negatives of the event (for now).

As a designer, the form page has always been a bit of an affliction. It’s kind of like going to the dentist when you know you have a cavity. You don’t want to but know you have to. While I thankfully have avoided any unsuccessful attempts at making a form too extravagant (no, my back isn’t too far away to pat), I have seen several that have gone down in flames. Why? Because typically it’s hard to keep the simple, simple. That’s not an indictment on designers everywhere, just what I believe to be a simple fact of life. I mean, why do we need sugar, cream, milk, half and half and hazelnut in our coffee? It’s coffee, not an English pastry. Keep it black people!

The same concept can be applied to many web forms. When a user runs in to a web form, I would venture to guess their mood changes significantly. Call it form syndrome. Even if you just won the lottery, having to fill out a web form to claim your prize could surely still drain at least a bit of your mojo. Why? Because they’re annoying. Some are less annoying than others but in the end, being the least annoying is the ultimate goal (in form design and in life).

So where does Luke come in? For those of you who are still reading, it starts with his book: Web Form Design: Filling in the blanks. I’ll append the disclaimer that I personally have not read the entire book but if it’s anything like his presentation, it surely is well worth your time. I have never met Luke, so the shameless (book) plug theory does not apply here. Plus, it’s something I personally plan on purchasing (if that isn’t a seal of approval, I don’t know what is. )

Ultimately, form design matters because it’s the lifeline of almost all interaction on the web. How else would you send a message, make a purchase or sign up for a new service? By telegram? The harder it is to do such simple tasks, the more unlikely you are to waste your valuable time. This is why knowing how (and why) you should design your web forms a certain way is really important.

Now, before all the other designers run off and scream ‘mutiny!’, like anything else there’s room to color outside the lines a little. You have to know the rules in order to successfully break them (unless you’re just really lucky) but Luke reminds us all to keep it simple and has some interesting statistical data / user testing that helps back it up.

For example, things like splitting up a form on to two pages significantly decreases completion rate. Why? Because there’s an implied expectation for a user filling out a form. Get me in and get me out is the thought. Presenting data in a misleading way (like having another form page to fill out) is a huge deterrent for trying to receive conversions / sign ups / etc. Many designers might design what they believe to be a beautiful page but it is mysteriously not performing as well as expected. Something as simple as the form being split in to two pages (instead of one) could be what’s holding it back from being a huge improvement from a web page’s previous web form. In form (and web) design, it’s the little things that really matter. Knowing what the design challenges are and how they should be tackled is really important.

These seem like basic concepts but Luke does a great job explaining not only how a form should be designed but why it should be designed in such a manner. Give his book a read to learn more.

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