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<h1 id="cut-your-forms-in-half">Cut Your Forms in Half</h1>
<p>2019-05-09</p>
<p><em>Building web forms can sometimes feel like a boring or daunting task</em>. Don&#8217;t pass this dread on to your users - rip out as many of your form fields as possible.</p>
<p>Web forms tend to get a bad rep, mainly because so many horrible design choices are made without the user experience set at the forefront. Often times clients demand that they <strong>need</strong> those twenty input fields or else how will they collect critical information from their users? Normally when I&#8217;m approached with such a statement I simply ask them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&#8220;How many form fields would you be willing to fill out for an emergency situation?&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&#8220;My form isn&#8217;t for emergencies though&#8221;, they might reply. In that case ask them why they feel it acceptable to waste their users&#8217; time just because it isn&#8217;t urgent. Time is valuable.</p>
<h2 id="fixing-a-form-in-the-wild">Fixing a form in the wild</h2>
<p>Let&#8217;s use a real-world form off the <a href="https://www.greatwestlife.com">Great West Life Insurance</a> website as an example (left is original, right is updated):</p>
<h3 id="breaking-things-down">Breaking things down</h3>
<p>So what exactly have we changed?</p>
<ul>
<li>Combined first and last name fields into a single input</li>
<li>Removed the overkill &#8220;retype&#8221; email &#38; password field (with the optional <code>show password</code> this becomes redundant)</li>
<li>Minor position changes for optional subscription sign up and input field descriptions</li>
<li>Removed <code>recovery email</code>
<ul>
<li>This is something that should be prompted to the user after successful registration - don&#8217;t bog them down before they even sign up</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="helpful-micro-improvements">Helpful Micro improvements</h2>
<p>You don&#8217;t need to be extreme when gutting form fields - just be practical.</p>
<ul>
<li>Don&#8217;t use &#8220;first&#8221; and &#8220;last&#8221; names as separate inputs, instead use something like &#8220;Full Name&#8221;</li>
<li>Make complex questions use preset answers via <code>checkbox</code> or <code>radio</code> inputs</li>
<li>Avoid <code>select</code> items whenever possible (these are clunky and most times unnecessary)</li>
<li>Include easy to understand, real-time error prompts</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2>
<ul>
<li>Great place to deep-dive into UX form design: <a href="https://uxmovement.com/category/forms/">UX Movement</a></li>
</ul>
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