One of the most important things to consider when designing forms is it’s scanability. Before making the decision to even begin filling out a form, most users will quickly scan the form, taking a quick mental inventory of what will be required of them. If the user feels that the form is too long or too complicated to be worth their time and effort, they may likely decide not to complete it. When choosing how to align your form’s input fields and their labels, there are a number of variations you can use, but left alignments in general tend to aid scanability slightly more than others. Left alignments create a natural flow of information from top to bottom and ease scanability. Avoid right aligning field labels against their input fields, creating a ragged left edge and making more work for the eyes. Instead, try your labels left aligned, next to their input fields. Try also testing a version where the labels are left aligned above their input fields.
Communicate form validation errors clearly
If you’re using any kind of form validation on your site, be sure to communicate input errors clearly. Let your users know why the form wasn’t submitted successfully. Rather than vague “All fields are required” error messaging, tell your users specifically what they missed or why their input wasn’t accepted. Did their phone number not have enough numbers? Were they missing the “.com” from their email address? Give clear instructions as to how to fix the problem and successfully resubmit their information.
Try a single column form
One of the most important things to consider when designing forms is it’s scanability. Before making the decision to even begin filling out a form, most users will quickly scan the form, taking a quick mental inventory of what will be required of them. If the user feels that the form is too long or too complicated to be worth their time and effort, they may likely decide not to complete it at all. By vertically stacking your fields and sticking to a single column layout, your form fields will appear more organized and will be easily scanable from top to bottom.
There are a few related form fields, however, that are much more acceptable to list side by side. To make your form seem slightly shorter, try listing closely grouped items, such as first and last name, city and state, and dates next to each other horizontally.
Let your users know what to expect next
Leave out the guesswork. Set expectations. Being vague won’t get people to click on your button or call to action. People like to be in control. Don’t leave them guessing what the next step will be. Show your users where they stand in lengthy processes. Incorporate progress bars. Be clear about what will happen once they complete a lead form or place an order. Clicking submit without knowing exactly what to expect next creates uncertainty. Uncertainty creates friction—and friction can kill the success rate of your page.
Add an actionable icon like an arrow to your primary button.
Experiment with adding some strategic iconography to your primary button. Choose actionable icons, such as forward-facing arrows, that suggest to the user that something expected is about to happen next as a result of clicking on it. For downloads, you might test out a down-facing arrow or even file type icons, such as the Adobe pdf icon. Actionable icons can reinforce anticipation, or even set expectations and can help persuade your visitors to take the next step.
Add a directional cue or arrow
A strong hierarchy is important to any goal-driven webpage design. While there are many ways to develop a strong hierarchy, directional cues are a great way to help you reinforce it. Directional cues are visual elements that direct visitors’ attention to certain areas of your page. They can be explicit, like lines or arrows that point in the direction of your goal—or suggestive, like a photo of a person gazing, pointing or making a gesture toward your goal. Experiment with different ways to direct visitors toward your goal.
Mention your privacy policy near the form or submit button
One of the top reasons users don’t fill out lead forms is the uncertainty of what might be done with their information. Set expectations. Provide a link to your privacy policy under or near your form that ensures their personal information will be safe and won’t be sold or distributed to third parties. If you don’t have an official privacy policy, try implementing a short line of copy that reassures users their contact information won’t be abused.
Align what you’re requesting of the user with the benefit being offered
Whether you’re utilizing some kind of link bait to drive email signups or campaigning for large scale initiatives, always make sure that what you’re requesting of the user aligns with the benefit being offered. As an extreme example, requiring users’ Social Security numbers might be completely acceptable for a college application. The benefit of obtaining a college degree outweighs any risk of providing personally identifiable information. On the other hand, if you were to require Social Security numbers in return for a flimsy pdf download, then you’d likely have a lot of trouble obtaining leads! But, it may not always be this obvious. Even more common fields, such as a phone number or street address, could have the potential to negatively effect your form completion rates, depending on the benefit being offered. Take a look not only at your form fields, but at any hoops your users are being required to jump through in order to get to what they’re looking for.
Provide incentive to sign up
Users rarely sign up for things just to sign up. They sign up in order to benefit in some way. Provide your users with some incentive to fill out your lead forms. Incentive can take the form of an informative email newsletter, a free trial, free guide, download or other type of link bait. Give your visitors something in return for their information. Make it clear to the user how they will benefit by signing up.
Reduce the number of form fields
Filling out forms annoys almost everyone. And the longer the form, the more annoying they tend to be. There’s usually a direct correlation between form length and completion rates. In general, the longer the form, the less users will be motivated to fill it out. Take a good look at your form fields. How important is it that you collect all of the information that you’re asking for? Is each field so valuable that you’re willing to lose leads over it? Remove any fields that hold no or minimal value. Consider collecting secondary information in follow up emails or phone calls.