Electronic forms are an easy way for your business to collect insight from your customers and gain information about them in a safe and secure way. People fill out electronic forms all the time online and the chances are that they don’t notice when it’s a particularly simple or seamless experience but they definitely do when it’s a frustrating one.
They key is to be part to be part of the first camp, so that customers don’t associate your brand with clunky and annoying forms that don’t work properly.
So how can you make your e-forms sleek and easy-to-use?
Structure
The structure of an e-form is about how you organise the layout such as what input fields you use, field labels, action labels, feedback etc. A logical structure helps to provide a good user experience. Are you going to use a single column format with scrolling or multiple columns without scrolling? It’s worth doing some research and A/B testing to see the types of reaction you’re getting from customers with different types of structures.
The form needs to be functional and simple for customers to access and complete.
Clear Terminology
Showing what you want you customers to do in a clear, simple way and guiding them easily through the process are cornerstones of an effective e-form. Simplify the form as much as you can, being concise and careful with the language that you use.
The terminology that you choose can be really influential when it comes to trying to get your customers from A to B. Try to remove as many confusing terms as you can, imagine you are writing a form for someone who has never used one before, every time. For example, if you just ask for someone’s ‘name’, the chances are you won’t always receive full information, so have separate first name and last name fields.
CTA buttons where you need customers to perform a function can be made to stand-out more by using capitalised first-letters, such as ‘Subscribe Here’.
Short
The shorter you can make your e-form the better, as customers will start to get frustrated if it’s too long or they feel like their time is being wasted when they could be doing something else more interesting. Don’t overwhelm them with information or demands on their time. If you can, make a form a few minutes long – practice filling the form out yourself to see how taxing it is on your time and if you find yourself getting bored!
Visual
To keep your customers interested and engaged, the design of your e-form is crucial. You can use visuals, graphics, gifs etc to catch their attention and make filling out a form an enjoyable experience.
Here at DOWO, we’re experts in building seamless, slick e-forms that generate data that you can get to work on applying directly into your business systems. If you’d like to chat through what you need for your business, we’d love to talk and can whip up the perfect e-form for your business’ unique requirements. Get in touch today!