Forms With A Human Approach
Tags: Forms, Colors, Design

When writing forms, make everything crystal clear. For example, when asking for their address, make sure they know which one to provide as a shipping address and as a billing address if there is a difference. Also, if you want them to provide an address associated with their credit card, tell them. Sometimes this, and other kinds of information like error notes, confirmations and success messages, is useful to provide. When doing it, be nice to people. Thank them in your confirmation message, write clear error messages or warn people nicely, like “there are only 2 pieces of this color left”. Details matter and these small messages are also part of the site and brand personality. They have to follow the same tone and voice, no matter what the message is.

When you invite people to answer your survey, create an enticing subject line. People have a tendency of wanting to help, so tell them you want their opinion. Say, for example, “Have 2 minutes? We’d love your feedback!” In your invitation, be friendly and offer vital details: how long the survey will last and when is the deadline? Offer a clear Call-to-Action. Use a warm greeting and thank them You may want to include the confidentiality information and how the data will be used. Tell why the survey and their opinion is important. Aim for a survey that takes under 5 minutes to complete. Tell people who they can contact with questions.

Double-check the copy and links before sending the invite. After a few days, you can send a reminder to those not yet answered. When the form is complete, say goodbye. Don’t leave people hanging. Tell them the form was sent successfully and, if applicable, tell when someone will respond to them. You can link to your homepage from the thank you page or give the option to share the survey. After collecting and analysing the all the data, use it to make informed decisions when moving forward.

When asking people to subscribe to your newsletter, be short and clear. What’s the value? What’s What you offer in return for their email address? You can also provide people a preview of a newsletter or link to an archive. Showing social proof, how many people have already signed up, is very effective.

If you are creating a signup form, you don’t have to ask for the password twice. Instead, let people see what they typed. And instead of a CAPTCHA, use double opt-in. You can get creative with signup forms, too. One interesting idea is to use a narrative format: “My name is ____ and my email is _____ . I’d like my username to be ____ and my password ______ .”

Samuel Hulick has great onboarding examples and reviews on his site Useronboard that are worth to check out.

Begin with a few non-threatening and interesting items. People generally look at the first few questions before deciding whether or not to complete the survey. The “don’t know” option is for factual questions and when there is any possibility that the respondent may not know the answer to the question. It’s not good for attitude questions. For those, you can use “undecided” or “neutral” options.

You can apply the “choose your own adventure” methods to forms, too. For example, you can change the “contact us” form based on what the customer is interested in/worried about/etc. by using logic jumps. Or, if you send an invitation/RSVP, you can offer different questions based on the responder’s name, location or answers. When taking this approach, it’ll help to draw a “decision tree” or mind map with the different branches. By using hidden fields you can track referrals (with or without HTML), record extra information (where the person found the link) or further customise the experience.

A form can be a perfect way to tell people about your new project and ask for their input. Images, icons, videos and audio clips offer a nice experience and engage people. You can use them to tell your story and then ask people to share their ideas. This also works for case studies or even for job openings, allowing people to attach files like pictures, CVs, resumes, and so on.

Shawn Borsky has a wonderful article full of great ideas, guidelines and examples about good web forms.