Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

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Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Heather Mueller
/
October 14, 2014
Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

MIN
/
October 14, 2014
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Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Blog

5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

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Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

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No items found.
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5 User Experience Best Practices for Forms

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Use these tips from Formstack to improve the user experience and your conversion rate.
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Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Collecting payments with online forms is easy, but first, you have to choose the right payment gateway. Browse the providers in our gateway credit card processing comparison chart to find the best option for your business. Then sign up for Formstack Forms, customize your payment forms, and start collecting profits in minutes.

Online Payment Gateway Comparison Chart

NOTE: These amounts reflect the monthly subscription for the payment provider. Formstack does not charge a fee to integrate with any of our payment partners.

FEATURES
Authorize.Net
Bambora
Chargify
First Data
PayPal
PayPal Pro
PayPal Payflow
Stripe
WePay
Monthly Fees
$25
$25
$149+
Contact First Data
$0
$25
$0-$25
$0
$0
Transaction Fees
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
N/A
Contact First Data
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
10¢
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
Countries
5
8
Based on payment gateway
50+
203
3
4
25
USA
Currencies
11
2
23
140
25
23
25
135+
1
Card Types
6
13
Based on payment gateway
5
9
9
5
6
4
Limits
None
None
Based on payment gateway
None
$10,000
None
None
None
None
Form Payments
Recurring Billing
Mobile Payments
PSD2 Compliant

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Are your forms killing your lead generation efforts? Is poor design keeping you from collecting the data you need? The popularity of inbound marketing means forms are everywhere: in popups and slideup boxes, sidebars and footers, tabs and lightboxes. Marketers are told to gate content and collect prospect info wherever possible. But all those forms could be hindering, instead of helping, your efforts. Follow these guidelines to build forms that are enticing and user-friendly:

1. Keep them short.

Marketing automation software offers the ability to capture every detail about your prospects. Whether you’re creating an email signup or survey, it can be tempting to add another matrix here, a question about job titles or revenue streams there. The next time you’re tempted to add additional fields, here’s our advice: Don’t. Ask only for the info you really need, and use features like conditional logic to keep forms short.

2. Be selective.

If your blog provides helpful product tips and instructions, placing a form at the end of each post may be a good idea. But if that same form also pops up and flashes across the screen in a banner ad, you risk brand fatigue or, perhaps even worse, invisibility. Users have a limit to how much they can process at once, and their brains will start to block the overflow, either automatically or out of frustration.

3. Maximize colors.

Believe it or not, color can have a big impact on how users respond to your forms. In addition to using your brand’s palette for consistency, test different colors in your form’s theme, call-to-action button, and other features. See how your changes impact conversions. You may find that one seemingly simple color swap dramatically improves the user experience.

4. Use the right language.

Take a good, hard look at your submit buttons. Do they say “sign up now” or “register”? If so, you’re missing a golden opportunity to increase conversions. Recent testing at Unbounce showed changing just one word to “get” can mean a double-digit conversion lift. Similarly, Formstack’s benchmark research revealed that making your buttons more descriptive can have dramatic effect. Changing “submit form” to “submit registration,” for example, has been shown to improve conversions by up to 250%.

5. Customize.

Does your company serve multiple audiences or industries? If so, you’ll need to customize the look, feel, and content of your forms for each one. You can do this by matching your forms to landing pages or by segmenting your list into groups. This strategy allows you to personalize your surveys and registration forms for each one.

Which of these best practices will you focus on first? What would you add to the list?

Want to learn more about Formstack's forms? Try our 14 days free trial of our forms product here!

Heather Mueller
Heather is a website copywriter and digital content strategist who loves helping brands generate leads through the power of the written word—especially when using Formstack. Connect with Heather on Twitter @heathermueller.
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