Posts Tagged ‘form design’
How to Customize the Look of Your Forms with CSS
The online form builder allows you to easily change the layout and colors of your forms when these are embedded into your website. This article discusses how to further customize the look of your online forms by providing your own CSS stylesheet. You can create one (or more) CSS stylesheet for each form.
Disclaimer
The feature discussed in this article is UNOFFICIAL. It is NOT PART OF ANY FORMSMARTS COMMERCIAL OFFERS and we do not provide direct support for it. Feel free to post questions at the bottom of this page. Changing the layout of a form may prevent it to display consistently across browsers.
Verify Your Site & Upload a Logo
To be able to use your own CSS stylesheet, your first need to verify your site and upload a site logo. Uploading a logo creates a website profile on FormSmarts and will allow you to provide your own CSS stylesheet. The logo will be shown on the standalone version of your forms and also on PayPal if you’re using Advanced Payment Integration.
Create a CSS Stylesheet
The CSS code in your stylesheet will be loaded after the default FormSmarts CSS, so any instructions specified in it will override the default. We give a few examples of customizations in the Example section below. More will follow.
Update the Embed Code on Your Site
In the HTML snippet given in the Form Publishing Info screen of the form creator, change the query string portion of the URL from mode=embed&lay=1 to mode=embed&lay=1&style=css/form.css, where css/form.css is the path to the CSS file relative to the root of your website. For example, if your website’s URL is http://www.example.com, the CSS file should be at http://www.example.com/css/form.css.
CSS Styling Examples
Changing the Font and Color of Headings
h2{
font-family:serif;
font-size:14px;
color:orange;
}
Changing the Layout of a Form to Multiple Columns
Logical sections defined by headings can be made into separate columns using the following CSS code and changing the iframe width accordingly.
#section_1{
width:350px;
float:left;
}
#section_2{
width:350px;
float:right;
}
Posted on November 21st, 2011 in form builder.
14 Comments »
Tags: embed, form design, howto, usability, widget
A Tip to Increase Form Conversion: Use Required Fields Wisely
When creating a form, the form builder allows you to specify whether your want each input field to be required or optional. The meaning of required is obvious: form users will not be able to submit the form unless a value has been entered for each and every required fields. For radio buttons and drop-down lists, that means users will have to explicitly select an option between the ones provided. The decision to make a field required is not to be made lightly, because that could frustrate the user and affect the form’s conversion rate.
The meaning of optional is more subtle as it is different for text input fields (text boxes, multi-line text areas) on the one hand, and radio buttons and drop-down lists on the other hand. That’s because in the latter case users only have a limited set of options to choose from, and the first option in the list is always selected by default.
In the example illustrated below, we’re building a registration form for an event. The form should accommodate up to two delegates. The first delegate is required, but the second one is optional. It turns out that:
- The first set of radio buttons or drop-down list should be required.
- The second set of radio buttons or drop-down list should be optional, with None as the default option.
Because None is selected by default, the form user won’t have to do anything in the most likely scenario where he’s only registering one attendee. This will save him time and frustration, and will statistically increase the form conversion rate and reduce form abandonment.
Posted on April 12th, 2011 in form builder.
4 Comments »
Tags: form conversion, form design, HTML form, input field
Introducing Form Layouts
We’re pleased to now support two form layouts.
Question (a.k.a. field name) and input field aligned horizontally (default):
|
Question and input field aligned vertically:
|
Which Layout Should You Use?
Most people find web forms designed with the first layout clearer and easier to read. That’s why we use it by default whenever you create a form.
The best layout to use depends on the length of the questions asked on the form.
- When a form is made of short questions like name or email address, prefer the first layout. This is what you should use, for example, for contact forms.
- When the form contains longer questions like Why do you want to work for us?, you should rather use the second layout. It turns out that you should use the second layout for most complex forms like web surveys and job application forms.
How to Change the Layout of a Form
You can change the layout of a form in the form details page. Note that if you’re using a form widget embedded into your site, you must update the HTML code on your site whenever you switch layout.
This is simply because the layout affects the size of the form. Forms accessed by their FormSmarts.com URL don’t have this restriction.
Any Feedback About Form Layouts?
We welcome your feedback about this feature.
Posted on August 14th, 2008 in HTML form.
9 Comments »
Tags: form design, usability, widget
How to Lay Out Form Input Fields
Your goal as a web publisher is maximize the number of (legitimate) respondents to your forms. A first step towards this goal is to lay out your forms in a way that is intuitive to users, makes forms faster to fill in, and minimizes form validation errors.
It follows four points you should consider when designing a web form:
- choose the most appropriate input field widget for the situation
- group fields together within logical sections
- place multi-line text input fields (textarea in HTML) towards the bottom of the form
- group optional fields together at the bottom of the form
The first point is discussed in details in FormSmarts documentation.
The second point commends, for example, that when you ask people about their contact details, you group all relevant fields (first name, last name, email,…) together. We found that most form designers tend to do that right. The form builder will in the future allow users to define different logical (and visual) sections within web forms.
Multi-line text input fields obviously tend to take longer to fill in than other input fields. They require more effort, thinking and typing, so place them after other fields. Visitors will be less inclined to abandon the form altogether if they have already spent time completing the first part of the form.
The last point is about grouping optional fields together at the bottom of the form. This allows people to quickly review the remaining questions, and skip the fields they don’t want to fill in or don’t apply to them. This may of course conflict with grouping fields within logical sections. In that case, place optional fields at the end of each logical section.
We’ve now enabled comments, and we warmly welcome your thoughts and feedback about this post. if you’re reading this by email, just click on the title to post a reply.
Posted on June 29th, 2008 in HTML form.
4 Comments »
Tags: form builder, form design, howto, input field, web forms
Ever Wished You Could Reorder Fields?
The set of form-making operations supported by FormSmarts form builder was up to now almost complete, allowing to:
- create a form
- delete a form
- edit form properties (name, title, return URL, form filling instructions, recipient email account)
- add a form input field
- delete a field
- edit field properties (name, description, field type, input widget, optional/required)
The last unsupported operation was to allow users to easily change the order in which fields appear on a form. This is often needed to:
- group fields logically
- group optional fields together at the bottom of a form
- insert a field in a existing form
- move fields around to increase the visual appeal of a form
Reordering fields manually is tedious, as it involves deleting and re-creating fields.
No more. Reordering fields is now a trivial drag & drop: in the fields tab, drag the field you want to move, and drop it in the position you want.
As usual, we welcome your comments and suggestions about this feature.
Posted on June 20th, 2008 in form builder.
5 Comments »
Tags: form builder, form design, input field
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 May 6th, 2008 in HTML form.
No Comments »
Tags: form builder, form design, howto, input field, web forms
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 input fields. Users can now update their web forms and create new ones using Drop Down Lists, Radio Buttons, and Checkboxes.
We are in the process of updating relevant documentation on the site.
Update: see how to choose the correct form input field.
Posted on March 22nd, 2008 in form builder.
No Comments »
Tags: form design, upcoming
Adding Form Filling Instructions to Your Web Forms
You can now specify Form Filling Instructions for your web forms. Although this field is optional, we encourage you to make use of it. It will help your visitors complete the form more efficiently, and also help you build trust with them. Here are some information you may want to place in the Form Filling Instructions.
Remind users of the purpose of the form to avoid people submitting the wrong form.
Precise the intended content of particular fields. This will help your visitors complete the form accurately and efficiently.
State for which purposes you will use the data submitted, and whether the data will be shared with a third party. This is particularly important if you collect email addresses and other personally identifying information. People are often concerned about their privacy when submitting forms, so having a clear privacy policy will help build trust with your users.
Include the name of your website, so visitors can be confident they are contacting the right person or organization.
Whenever relevant, give an estimated response time, e.g. “we normally reply within 2 working days”.
Posted on December 6th, 2007 in form builder.
6 Comments »
Tags: form design, howto, privacy, usability, web forms