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Form Design – Making Your Form a Work of Art

Data is collected and used every day. This information may be collected by Human Resources, a doctor’s office, on a web site, or with a registration cards. Frequently, this data is entered on a form. The amount of thought and effort that goes into properly designing a form can reduce the burden of the person filling it out and increase the likelihood that the form will be filled out correctly. This month’s Ergo Tip of the Month addresses the basic Human Factors of proper form design.

Proper form design applies to both paper forms and computer screen forms. While there are many rules and concepts regarding good form design, only three will be addressed in this tip:

An example of both poor and proper form design is shown below. Each of these three concepts will refer to the examples to illustrate their benefits to form design.

Chunking

When people are presented with a large, complex task, it is sometimes easier to break the task into smaller sub-tasks. In form design, this is called chunking. Chunking allows the person performing the task to have a sense of progress or accomplishment as each sub-task is completed. Chunking also helps a person feel less overwhelmed when asked to provide pages of detailed information. Although the above examples are limited in size, note how the proper design organizes the task of ordering ice cream into chunks. The task is broken into sub-tasks of basic ice cream selections, “extras” selections, and then confirmation to place the order.

Borders/Groupings

Borders/Groupings are used to associate related choices. When using radio buttons, where only one choice may be selected, borders notify the user that these choices are related and should be viewed as a group. Frequently a heading can be provided that explains the significance of the group. This usage is illustrated with the Size, Container, Flavor, and Topping borders in the proper design example. Additionally the solid black lines help define the different sub-tasks and reinforce the chunking concept.

Aesthetics

Proper form design should make your form pleasing to the eye. The form should not detract from the purpose of gathering data. This means that color and font choices should be appropriate for your audience. Items should be aligned within their groups. Groups should be aligned with each other. Rows, columns, and straight lines help the user’s eyes follow the flow established within the form. Ensure that the form does not have so much information presented that more than 25% of the form’s background is hidden. All of these rules help make a form readable and useful.

Using these three concepts will greatly improve the clarity of your forms. Think about this article the next time you have to fill out someone else’s form and look for good and bad examples. There are many websites that further address proper form design and can be found using search criteria such as “user interface design.” Take a moment the next time you need to design a form to collect data and help your users have a good data entry experience.