How to Make User-Friendly Forms (Part 2/2)

This is a continuation of the 39 Guidelines, the second part, After Filling out the Form. 

39 Guidelines for UX Designers and Developers

After filling out the Form (Part Two):

32. Format forms for printing – The form should have a printing version setup, so the user can print out their details on what they had filled out in the form of the form itself.

33. Allow users to see their entered data – Provide a summary for users to review the completed form data before submission. Also it is beneficial for users to see their data in the input fields while filling out the form.  

34. Allow simple searches – to mine through form data

35. Confirmation Email - Figure out if gradually engagement solution will work for the website, it is a great way to present “customers an understanding of how they can use your service and why they should care.” A confirmation email which is a part of the gradually engagement solution, will provide users with the authentication of their submitted form(s) or their potential next steps .

36. Being able to view old requests/data being stored – Providing users a summary of the submitted form data.

37. Easy to edit form elements before submitting form-This makes sure the user will double check their answer and correct a possibly wrong answer before submitting the form.

38. Have a "save draft" button - which shows the user a review of their
online form and a "submit button" submit the information/form into the
database.

39. The review form - shows what answers has been chosen by the user and
what files have been attached before the submission of the form.
 

In conclusion, the two books "Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability (Interactive Technologies)" by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney and "Web Form Design" by Luke Wroblewski are an excellent way to create user-friendly web forms. A UX Designer should fit the two sets of guidelines I gathered from the books and usability.gov into the UX process lifecycle. 

 

Sources

I read two books and analyzed the methodology on creating user-friendly online forms (webforms) from, "Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability (Interactive Technologies)" by Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney and "Web Form Design" by Luke Wroblewski.

 

The book, "Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability talks about the process on how to create good forms in an easy to read format. The kinds of forms mentioned in the book are for registration, communicating, commerce, and for the government. The authors explain “how to deal with instructions, progress indicators, and errors”.  There are great examples of form making in the book. It also gives tips to make sure the forms contain accurate data for the users and suggestions on how to user test the forms. This is a great book to read, and I used this book to help create my form making guidelines.

 

The author, Luke Wroblewski, of the book, "Web Form Design" has worked with many big name clients, such as Yahoo! and eBay.  He gives great advice on how to make effective and engaging web forms. He goes over the details of form structure, form elements, and form interaction. This is also a fantastic book on how to make user-friendly forms and I also used this book in collaboration with the other book to create the guidelines below.

 

Usability.gov

 

I’d like to thank Jessica Enders Principal of Formulate Information Design, a leading - expert of fixing webforms. She had emailed me a suggestion to find these two wonderful books with her suggestions to include them to improve my process.