How to create user-friendly online forms?

If you want to stand out from the competition in the fight for customers, subtle means are recommended. Thus, depending on how you create a form, you can minimize the bounce rate of users and thus indirectly increase the company’s sales. Even the number of fields to be filled in and the type of information requested are relevant.

The optimal form design for your online store

Forms occupy an important position on the Internet. Be it online orders, customer contacts, or newsletter subscriptions, they are used everywhere. That’s why it’s all-important to consider user-friendliness when you create an online form because otherwise, users will quickly jump off again.

This doesn’t have to be the case, because here are 6 tips to make your forms more user-friendly. Because only customer-friendly forms will bring you more conversions.

6 Tipps für benutzerfreundliche Online-Formulare

Tip 1: Keep it short

A classic mistake is to make forms too extensive. If you ask too many questions, you risk a high user bounce rate. Furthermore, you have to accept incorrect information. After all, not everyone will want to answer all the questions truthfully, taking the appropriate amount of time.

So keep your forms as short as possible. This works if you only ask for the data you really need. When registering for a newsletter, it is sufficient to enter the e-mail address and to agree to receive advertising mailings by ticking a box.

For many online stores, it is sufficient to ask for name, billing and shipping address, and bank details. Date of birth, for example, only needs to be entered for goods whose sale is subject to an age restriction. For everyone else, the date of birth is nice to have. You can then send the customer congratulations or a merchandise voucher on this day, but you can ask for the date of birth elsewhere, e.g. through a mailing.

Accordingly, delete all fields that you do not absolutely need. In the end, it is better to do without some information, but increase the number of users.

Furthermore, do not ask for information that the user has to go through a lot of trouble to find. This could be certain contract numbers or other contact details. Only ask for such data if it is absolutely necessary.

Tip 2: Motivate customer to buy

All people want to be motivated. Tell them what they will get out of filling out a form. For example:

• “Create your customer account now. This way you can keep track of all your purchases.”
• Or when they sign up for a newsletter, “Be the first to read great offers. Register for free.”

Research has even shown that you can increase conversion rates by listing the benefits of filling out the form. After all, it’s not uncommon for users to have doubts while filling out the form. You counteract this with a confidence-building measure.

Tip 3: Provide guidance in the purchase decision process

It’s good to know what’s going on: what will happen if I fill this out? How long will it take? Phrases like these can work wonders:

• “Congratulations! You’re almost there.”
• “Less than 20 seconds to your online account.”

Tip 4: Find the right time

Pay attention to when you confront users with the form. Experience shows that it should happen as late as possible. For example, there are websites where you have to register first, without even knowing what the form is about.

It is better to let users invest time and work first. That way, they are more willing to fill out a form in the end. The likelihood of them abandoning is reduced.

Tip 5: Be clear about what you expect from the user

Many forms suffer from the fact that they provide unclear specifications or, for example, also contain elements that are not accessible to some users. It is precisely these elements that ultimately prevent the successful completion of a form.

One example of this is captcha boxes, which are now very common. They are an effective tool to prevent automated form filling. If you work with such or similar elements, keep in mind that not every user is familiar with them. Play it safe and leave an explanation.

The rule here is better too much than too little. Therefore, say exactly how many characters a username may have, how long a secure password should be, and what characters it must consist of. It is best to place such explanations directly below the input field.

Also, explain why the phone number is needed. Think of the form as a conversation between you and the customer. The more detailed you explain certain things, the more likely trust will develop between you.

Tip 6: Give feedback after conversion

An important point in form development is feedback. There are designs that do without it altogether. However, this carries the risk that the user will get stuck and bail out if he or she enters the wrong information. Therefore, provide concrete feedback in case of errors. Name and mark them.

Example: Are the form fields all filled correctly?

Then, after successful database entry, also give feedback to the user. “Done! You have successfully created your customer account. Here you go to the highlights of the month.” Simple but effective feedback is also to provide correctly filled form fields with a green checkmark.

Conclusion

Optimal forms create new customers
User-friendly forms are an important building block for higher conversion. The more pleasant you make the registration processes for users, the less they will tend to register or even cancel orders. That’s why it pays to pay close attention to even small phrases.

Customer-friendly forms increase sales
It may sound strange at first, but forms cost money. In addition, they are indispensable for many actions on the web. Just think of online orders or entering required data for social networks. Everywhere you are required to leave your data. The cost of such forms is either in a lower or higher conversion rate. With their help, they can be approximately determined.

For example, there have been studies that prove the following: it is enough to change an order form to experience an impact on the conversion rate. The longer the form takes to create, the more data you ask for, the more the conversion rate drops.

With 1,000 new users a month ordering goods for an average of 100 dollars, it makes a real difference whether 20 percent or 30 percent of them actually complete the order. So with an optimized form, you actively ensure higher sales.

Use HeyForm to create user-friendly forms that grab the attention of your customers. HeyForm has a huge list of online form templates according to the industry, so choose any of them which is suitable for you and create an elegant user-friendly form to collect data as much as you can.