Let’s talk about forms

Boring
and
Painful

✘ Confusing
✘ Long
✘ Burdensome
✘ Pointless

✘ Confusing Clear ✓
✘ Long Concise ✓
✘ Burdensome Clever ✓
✘ Pointless Contextual ✓

Clear
The form- ller understanding
…with minimal e ort
…what to do with the form
…as the designer intended

✘

✘

Concise
Gathering the required information in the most
e cient way possible
It is not necessarily about being as short as possible
(questions, pages or screens)

✘

✘

Clever
Reduce the workload and prevent errors:
• Utilise sequencing
• Do calculations
• Enforce limits
• Con rm and allow modi cation

✘

✘

✓

✓

✓

Contextual
Create the framework and reduce guessing:
• Provide de nitions and explicit boundaries
• Give background and explanations
• Manage expectations
• Match the user’s mental model

✘

✘

✓

✓

Clear ✩
4 Cs of
a good Concise ✩
form
Clever ✩
design
Contextual ✩

The question
Instructions & notes
The answer choices

No Section H
Q23 Q24
Yes
Section J
Q25
Q8
Q26
Q9
Q27
Q28 Q29 Section I

All text, except
for section
headings and Links to external
question supplementary
numbers, instructions
is indented. appear in an
invisible right
column
Questions are in
bold font

Designer Stakeholder Self complete
on paper
Self complete
Data user using computer
In-person Phone-based
Processing interview interview

★ Q & A
★ Flow 4 layers
of a
★ Layout form
★ Process

Clear ✩
4 Cs of
a good Concise ✩
form
Clever ✩
design
Contextual ✩

★ Q & A Clear ✩
★ Flow Concise ✩
★ Layout Clever ✩
★ Process Contextual ✩

4 layers of 4 Cs of good
a form form design
Q & A Clear
Flow Concise
Layout Clever
Process Contextual

Questions & Comments?
http://formulate.com.au