I am having a form having around 20-25 fields. I have put all these fields on one page and a submit button to complete my functionlaity. But i am not happy with the length of page and feel like users will be demotivated using this page can somebody help me with suggestions?
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58answers:
4
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A:
You could, depending on the components you have access to, make a 'wizard', where you break up the input in logically grouped information, and present a progress bar / encouragement during the process.
I'd personally just keep it as a flat form. Wizards are less transparent.
Tobiasopdenbrouw
2010-07-22 08:19:04
I could not understand fully "I'd personally just keep it as a flat form. Wizards are less transparent." Please explain
sushil bharwani
2010-07-22 08:22:03
I mean: don't split up, break up, or add fancy stuff. What Daan says, though, makes sense, but I'd do it differently: move all the optional fields to the bottom end of the form, but keep one simple form without fancy tricks. And clearly mark each mandatory field as such (with a red asterisk, for instance).
Tobiasopdenbrouw
2010-07-22 08:29:23
I was about to break up my page. How does using a wizard creates problem. Thanks for your suggestion.
sushil bharwani
2010-07-22 08:33:19
In this case I guess, no problem if the user can navigate back to correct mistakes, and no objects are persisted in the server until the user decides to commit the form. Some web frameworks make it harder than it sould be. The link I provided has other pro/cons
Marco Mariani
2010-07-22 09:03:58
@sushil, there are no 'guaranteed' problems. It's a preference thing - I prefer KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) solutions. The less clicking / navigation / re-reading people have to do, the less mistakes they can make.But if your users (who are more important than me) think otherwise, by all means, change it.
Tobiasopdenbrouw
2010-07-22 09:07:49
How good is dividing your form in four Sections of 2x2.Placed horizontally to avoid vertical scrolling.And categorizing each section based on type of fields.
sushil bharwani
2010-07-22 09:56:37
There is no absolute metric for this kind of thing - you need to ask your users.
Tobiasopdenbrouw
2010-07-22 10:53:40
+1
A:
You can try a 2 page wizard: mandatory fields on the first page, optional ones follow.
Marco Mariani
2010-07-22 08:23:09
+1
A:
Wizards are also more prone to errors,
What you could do (depends on the context and contents of your form) is try to hide parts of your form until they are relevant. For example, in a form where I can choose to receive annoying spam at my home address, I would tick the box "yes I want to be annoyed" and only then will the fields where I enter my address data (street, ZIP, city, etc.) appear.
How effective this is for you depends, of course, on the context of your form. Perhaps you could shed some light on this?
Daan
2010-07-22 08:24:54
+1
A:
Can you remove any fields? Do you really need to collect every single piece of this information? Sometimes forms collect information that's "nice to have" - you have to make a call whether you want all the "nice to have" information from less people, or only the absolutely required info from more people.
Can you predict/automatically retrieve any of the information you're collecting instead of having the user enter it manually?
Group the inputs together so it isn't just one big behemoth of a form
You can also just reassure the user that it won't take too long. You form title can read: "Register Now - only takes 60 seconds"
nailitdown
2010-07-23 03:34:52
After much discussions within the team we have decided that we will still keep all the fields and that also on the same (one)page. We will also categorize them. But we want to reduce vertical scrolling and i need suggestions over that. (How to minimize vertical scrolling)?
sushil bharwani
2010-07-23 05:33:46
There's only so much you can do to reduce the dimensions of a form - lay labels/fields out horizontally, reduce the font size, eliminate vertical white space. .... But sometimes, you may find the changes you make to force everything "above the fold" adversely affects usability more than a little scrolling would have.
nailitdown
2010-07-23 07:54:22