Four Golden Rules of Form Design
Good forms save time. Great forms save time without people realizing why. After years of building and reviewing forms, four rules continually rise to the top.
Reduce the Number of Questions
Every question requires user effort to answer and creates an opportunity for error.
Instead of asking: Is the buyer married? What is the spouse’s name?
Ask: Buyer’s spouse’s name (if any)?
Now one answer provides two pieces of information.
Likewise, instead of asking: Is the seller a company? What is the seller’s name?
A smart answer can gather both pieces of information at once.
Ten questions become nine. Nine become eight. Then seven. Keep reducing.
Small reductions matter because every click and every keystroke consumes time and multiply errors.
Never Allow Double Typing
If someone typed: “John Smith” once, they should never need to type it again.
The first time users enter information they are careful. They check source documents and verify spellings. The second time they type it, they become faster and less careful. That is where errors happen.
Ask for information once. Reuse it everywhere.
Use Universal Field Names
Clients return and transactions change.
Information should move easily between matters.
Imagine a client visits your office for a will. Three months later the same client returns to create a partnership agreement. Wouldn’t it be useful if the information already entered could be leveraged automatically?
Universal field names allow that to happen.
More Work for You Means Less Work for Them
Sometimes you can spend an additional 45 minutes improving a form and save the user only a few minutes.
If the form will only be used once or twice, perhaps it’s not worth it. But if the form will be used every day for years, those minutes multiply quickly.
A little extra work during construction often creates enormous value later.
See hundreds of other productivity tips in our Knowledge Base.
