Are you creating online forms for your business? Regardless of whether it is a survey, contact form, feedback form, or registration form – it is important that you try to ensure your forms are as mistake-free as possible.
Some of the more common mistakes that you should try to avoid when creating online forms for business include:
- Using placeholders to replace labels
At first, using placeholders to replace labels may seem like a ‘cleaner’ approach when designing an online form, but it often backfires. If a placeholder is used as a label, it will disappear as the answer is typed, and if the user loses their place or comes back later – they won’t have any reference to figure out what the field is.
Suffice to say placeholders should never replace labels, but should instead be used in conjunction with them – to provide an example of the answer.
- Unhelpful error messages
Error messages that are unhelpful will put off users, and there’s only so many times they will try to fix the problem before they give up. To avoid that you should make sure your error messages specifically identify the problem and if possible suggest a way it can be solved.
Learning how to write good error messages can make a big difference to your forms in the long run.
- Confusing labels that aren’t clear
If your label is confusing and doesn’t clearly specify the answer that is expected, users will end up confused. That can lead to a lot of incorrect responses and inaccurate data, as well as a lower response rate.
Try to keep your labels short, direct, and as clear as possible. Avoid any technical jargon, and use hints to provide further details if needed – as well as placeholders to give examples.
- Too many mandatory fields
Forms that have too many mandatory fields often put people off, which leads to fewer responses. The number of mandatory fields in your online forms should be kept to a minimum and only ever be used if there is a piece of data that is so essential that your business can’t do without it.
In many cases, you may not really need any mandatory fields at all and can leave it up to users to decide what they want to fill out.
Knowing what these mistakes are and how to avoid them could help improve your form significantly, and help it to get more responses overall. As you may have noticed it is important that you’re able to customize your form and its design, which is where platforms such as AidaForm Online Form Builder (https://aidaform.com/) can help.
Overall it shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid the mistakes listed above and come up with much more effective online business forms. That being said you should try to keep an eye out for any other issues that may affect your forms as well and test them thoroughly before (as well as after) you publish them.
