Building Successful Web Forms, Part 1
Web forms play a key role for visitor (and customer) interaction on many sites. However, many web designers don't realize that there may be huge differences in form abandonment ratio, depending on how well the form is designed. In this post and follow ups, we'll give you some tips to help you make your web forms an effective communication channel.
Always provide form filling instructions.
Don't assume that all of your visitors will understand how to submit a form without further explanation. Short and clear form filling instructions can reduce form abandonment, and increase the quality of the information collected.- include a call to action phrase like "Please fill out this form to contact XYZ"
- indicate the purpose of the form and the recipient of the information collected
- if applicable, confirm that you will reply, and give an indication of the time frame
Select the correct data type for each input field.
Because of necessary form validation, choosing and incorrect data type may prevent a form user from submitting valid information. When this happens, it is likely to lead to form abandonment.For example, if you specify that a form field can only contain a Number, it may not work for a phone number. 1233456789 will work, but not 123-345-6789. So use the Phone type instead. In many cases, the form builder will pre-select a type for you, but not always. Read more about selecting an input field data type in the form builder documentation.
Choose the most appropriate input field widget.
Don't restrict yourself to text boxes and drop-down lists. Take advantage of the full range of HTML form fields with radio buttons and checkboxes. Learn when to use each one.Using a drop-down list for a yes/no question will slow down the form user, and increase the chances (s)he gives up. Use radio buttons instead. Read tips about choosing the best input field widget in the form builder documentation.
Brand your forms for instant visual recognition.
Always brand your web forms with your own logo. This helps visitors recognize at first sight who they are about to send information to.Posted on Tuesday, 06 May, 2008 at 18:21 in html-form
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Tags: web-forms, form-builder, howto
Form Fields Now Editable
The form builder now allows field modification. Click on the
icon to edit a field.
Posted on Wednesday, 16 April, 2008 at 17:29 in form-builder
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Tags: form-builder, upcoming
New Web Form Creator Demo Video Available
We've added a new demonstration video to help new FormSmarts users get started. The video is on YouTube, and a higher quality version is available for download form the Internet Archive.Posted on Tuesday, 25 March, 2008 at 17:15 in form-builder
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Tags: video, form-builder, html-form, howto
FormSmarts Form Creator Now Supports All HTML Form Field Types
We are pleased to announce that FormSmarts now supports the full range of HTML form fields. Users can now update their web forms and create new ones using Drop Down Menus, Radio Buttons, and Checkboxes.We are in the process of updating relevant documentation on the site.
Posted on Saturday, 22 March, 2008 at 12:55 in form-builder
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Tags: form-builder, upcoming
Tips for Web Form Users with Non-English Language Websites
Many users in non-English speaking countries now use FormSmarts, so we thought we would post a few recommendations for them.
When building your forms with the form creator, use the text data type for any fields that may contain non-English characters, such as the accented characters found in many European languages.
Note that non-European languages like Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Russian are not supported at this time.
As you know, FormSmarts form handler is not a simple form to email processor script like FormMail. Each and every web form submission is analyzed in real time, and the user may be asked to complete a challenge if we suspect a form spam attempt. Although anyone capable of reading elementary English should be able to understand what is expected from him/her in that context, this is something you may have to take into account when designing your web forms. You could for example warn users in the form filling instructions.
If you need help, we provide limited support in French, German, and Chinese (as well as English, of course.) You can write us in any of those languages, but we will only reply in English.
Posted on Tuesday, 11 March, 2008 at 10:45 in form-handler
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Tags: howto, web-forms, form-builder
Are Forms Protected by a CAPTCHA?
We often get questions asking whether FormSmarts web forms are protected against automated submissions by a CAPTCHA. A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test used to determine whether the user is human.
Yes, we do use CAPTCHA tests, but not everytime a form is submitted. Instead, the form handler decides each time whether or not to require a CAPTCHA test (and other verifications), based on non-obtrusive analysis by our form spam blocker of the information submitted.
This saves time to everyone, and reduces form abandonment.
Asking the user to complete a CAPTCHA test for every form submission affects form usability and accessibility.
Posted on Friday, 11 January, 2008 at 08:32 in form-builder
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Tags: form-builder, usability, web-forms
FormSmarts Form Builder and Form Spam Filter Updated
A major FormSmarts upgrade was rolled out today. Changes include:- New features in the form generator, like the ability to delete a field in a form
- A simplified user interface for generated web forms
- A major upgrade of the form spam protection engine
Posted on Friday, 28 December, 2007 at 06:40 in form-spam
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Tags: form-spam, form-builder, upcoming, web-forms
Form Builder Password Change Now Available
If you have forgotten you password, you may now change it without contacting FormSmarts Support.Posted on Wednesday, 19 December, 2007 at 08:19 in form-builder
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Tags: form-builder, upcoming
Why You Should Care About Web Form Accessibility
Many organizations don't publish any email addresses on their website because of email spam. On those sites, a contact form is the only way for a visitor to reach the site owner. This should imply that website designers take a lot of care to ensure that web forms are usable by anyone, as email is.Owing to comment spam and more generally web form abuse, many sites now protect forms with CAPTCHAs or other devices meant to prevent automated software from successfully submitting forms.
The accessibility issues associated with CAPTCHAs for visually impaired people are well known, so I'm not going to discuss this further. I'm going to talk here about people fortunate enough to have normal sight and hearing, but who may also have a hard time using web forms.
Visual CAPTCHAs
Many CAPTCHAs systems are difficult to read because they were designed to defeat automated attempts to read the image using OCR. As the designer of a CAPTCHA system, I've been trained more than the average web user to reading them. Still, I'm surprised by how often I miss the correct code on the first try. A high level of image obfuscation may be needed for very large websites like Google or Yahoo, for which it is realistic to believe some people would be ready to invest a lot of effort to break the system, given the potential payoff. But it's very unlikely someone will try to break the CAPTCHA of the average website. So those should at least be easy-to-read and short, if CAPTCHA there has to be.Not every web user downloads images. More and more people browse the web via cellphones, on which web usage is charged per megabyte. Users are then inclined not to load images to reduce costs. This is even the default setting on some low-end cellphones. Those users won't see the CAPTCHA.
Audio CAPTCHAs
Audio CAPTCHAs are commonly accepted as a good complement to visual CAPTCHAs for the visually impaired. Besides the technical reasons for not being able to listen to an audio file on a computer (e.g. no sound support, no loudspeakers or earphones fitted), there are also social reasons. First, there are social environments where it may be rude or prohibited. For example in public libraries and open space offices. Second, the web is global and non-native English speakers may not be able to understand what is said in the audio CAPTCHA.JavaScript
Some websites require JavaScript to be enabled for submitting a form. It may be because JavaScript is needed to (re)load the CAPTCHA, or because it is used for client-side validation and users not supporting it are redirected to an error page.If very few people still use browsers without JavaScript support on desktop computers, that is not true for browsers on mobile platforms. More to the point, some people actively disable JavaScript. They do so for privacy reasons, or to get rid of ads. We've also seen corporate-wide policies to disable JavaScript for security reasons, i.e. to prevent cross-site scripting attacks and sneaky JavaScript redirects. There are surely compelling forces pushing towards JavaScript acceptance to take advantage of rich and interactive AJAX applications, but those users nonetheless exist and shouldn't be ignored.
Flash Forms
Some web publishers see using Flash forms as a viable option, presumably in an attempt to reduce form spam. Adobe claims Flash reaches 99% of “Internet viewers” (Sept. 2007). What they mean is that 99% of desktop computers in mature markets have the oldest version of Flash (Flash 6) installed. The figure goes down to 93.3% for Flash 9, and only includes six countries. It goes down to 89.4% for users in emerging markets (97.7% for Flash 6). The figure would be more meaningful prorated to the share of web users in each market segment. Still, I find this figure very high given that for people who are not using video-sharing sites, Flash is mainly a technology for displaying obtrusive ads. I feel that Flash ubiquity could drop a lot if browsers had an option to disable it, as they do for Java or JavaScript.Posted on Tuesday, 11 December, 2007 at 13:22 in form-builder
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Tags: accessibility, usability, web-form, form-builder
Creating a Simple Contact Form with FormSmarts: Watch the Video
If you are here wondering how long it would take you to build a fully functional contact form with FormSmarts, get the video from Youtube or Dailymotion.It's a user-contributed video (thanks Dan), so don't expect professional making and voiceover. If you can do better, let us know.
Posted on Thursday, 06 December, 2007 at 11:14 in html-form
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Tags: contact-form, form-builder, video
