Building forms

Overview

Where to use

Forms are incredibly common in user interfaces and their design and usage continues to evolve as input methods get smarter and more and more people use mobile and tablet devices. You might design a form for a user to:

• Sign up for / log into an account
• Register for a service
• Reconfigure settings (e.g. enabling notifications)
• Take a survey
• Purchase a product
• Provide feedback

Keep it short

Forms are used for submitting data so be as concise as possible when designing. Think about each field and what value the data will provide. What do you gain by collecting this information?

Begin by asking:

1. Is this a piece of information that is valuable to us?
2. Is this a piece of information that is so valuable that it's worth preventing the user from continuing if they choose not to provide it?

Filling a form is a painful and a mentally heavy task for users. They have to put a lot of effort into their completion, this is one of the reason that a lot of forms have a low completion rate. Be mindful of that when creating one.

Respect the user

Forms are meant to gather information and guide people with as little fuss as possible. To allow users to scan and complete the form quickly, forms should:

• Respect the user's GDPR and other privacy regulations by only asking for information that is absolutely necessary.
• Group related tasks under section titles to provide more context and make the interface easier to scan.
• Follow a logical, predictable order. e.g: first name first, last name second.
• Allow users to stay with a single interaction method for as long as possible (i.e. do not make users shift from keyboard to mouse numerous times in a single form).
• When designing be mindful of password managers and browser capabilities that populate data for users.
• Progressively disclose additional inputs only as they become relevant; see the Designing for longer forms section below.

Be inclusive

Designing a form while keeping in mind that users may be experiencing permanent, temporary or situational disabilities improves the experience for everyone. You must keep in mind that your form must be:

• perceivable
• operable
• understable
• robust and compatible

You can read more about accessibility in the dedicated article.

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Anatomy

Forms are comprised of some or all of the following elements.

1. Text inputs
   Enable users to input free-form text.
2. Labels
   Input labels helps users understand what the corresponding inputs mean.
3. Helpers
   Provides in-context guidance like tooltips, placeholder text, or helper text, to assist the user in providing the right information.
4. Data inputs
   Information can be entered through a variety of non-free form input fields as well, (e.g. checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns and selects, file uploader, date pickers, toggles, etc.) Visit the individual component pages for in depth details of their specific states and visuals.
5. Buttons
   Allows users to submit or exit a form.

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Building a form

Labels

Concise labels for text and data inputs help users understand what information is being requested of them.

• Use sentence-style capitalization for all text elements, except for product names and proper nouns. Sentence-style means only the first word of each sentence is capitalized.
• Although they may be formatted differently, all input components need labels.
• Labels should clearly state the required input.
• Do not use colons after label names.
• Labels are not help text; be succinct. Use one to three words only.

Optional vs. mandatory

All fields in a form are assumed required, with optional fields being tagged as so in the label. Although advise avoiding an excess of optional fields, if the situation arises, we recommend devoting an entire section to optional fields to avoid excessive repetition.

Text inputs

Free-form text inputs are the most commonly used components

• The field widths should reflect the intended length of the content while still aligning to the responsive column.
• Make sure users can enter their information at smaller screen sizes.
• Truncate when an input is too long to be fully displayed in the field.
• Pre-populate known values when possible, e.g. a client's name if known.
• The first required input field in a form should receive focus on presentation to a user.

Deciding what to use

Control	Usage	Context
1. Text input	To capture several words maximum	Names, phone numbers, addresses
2. Password	To collect private data by hiding the characters	Passwords, PIN codes
3. Text area	To capture multiple lines of text	Feedback, support requests

Data inputs

Selection controls

Selection controls offer users a selection from pre-determined options. When designing, consider how many options you need to present as well as how many items the user may need to select. These considerations will determine which component to use. Common selection controls include: checkboxes, radio buttons, file uploaders, toggles, and select lists.

Deciding what to use

Control	Usage	Context
1. Checkbox	To select or deselect one or more choices	Agree to terms and conditions, add optional items, select all that apply
2. Radio button	To select only one option from two or more choices	Pick type, shipping method, etc.
3. Switch	To select one binary option	Show/hide; On/off; Activate setting
4. Select	To select a single item from a list.	Choose country, prefix or payment method
5. File uploader	To upload/attach a file or multiple files to a form	Attaching legal documents, CVs, images, etc.
6. Selectable boxes	To select a single or multiple items from a list.	Choose a plan, an option, etc.

Offering help

Tooltips

Tooltips can be very useful for providing additional explanation to users that may be unfamiliar with a particular form field. They can also offer rationale for what may seem like an unusual request. However, research suggests that users should not have to dig around for a tooltip to access information that's essential for the completion of their task.

Help text

Help text appears below the input label and assists the user to provide the right information. Help text is always available, even when the field is focused, that's why it's the correct choice for need-to-know information. For context or background information that is "nice to have," use placeholder text or a tooltip.

Buttons

Use a primary button for the main action, a secondary button for secondary actions like Cancel or Discard.

Button alignment

Please refer to button alignement section of the button article for more guidance about the subject.

Buttons labelling

Button label should describe the action the button performs, be specific rather than generic when choosing the label.

Layout

Forms should be one column

Research suggest ^{[1] [2]} that using multiple columns layout can disrupt form scannability. Some exceptions may occur when input are linked or closely related (prefix + phone number, credit card + expiry date + cvv, etc.)

Use field length as an affordance

The length of the field gives an additional indication on the expected input from users. Use this as a helper for defined character count fields (eg. id numbers, phone numbers, client id, etc.)

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Behaviour

Errors and validation

Effective and immediate error messaging can help the user to understand the problem and how to fix it. First, inform the user what has happened, then provide guidance on next steps or possible resolutions. Always present error states on the form, and use inline errors whenever possible.

Client-side validation

We recommend validating the user's data before form submission. This type of real-time, inline validation (a.k.a. client-side validation) should happen as soon as the field loses focus. This will help to easily identify the elements that need to be corrected.

The validation label below the field should be as informative as possible when describing the issue with the user's data. For example, if password limitations require 16 characters, but the user inputs a password with only six characters, the text should read something like, "Password must be at least 16 characters".

Common user errors include:

• Incorrectly formatting data
• Leaving a mandatory field blank
• Leaving a mandatory field incomplete

Server-side validation

Inline notifications come into play when server-side errors are involved, i.e. the user tries to submit a form in its entirety and the page is reloaded with the detected errors.

In these situations, use an inline notification as well as inline error messaging wherever possible to help users make the fix. Inline error messages should disappear when the form criteria is met.

Enabling and disabling buttons

• For short forms that require server-side submission before returning errors, we recommend disabling primary action buttons until all of the form's requirements are met.
• For longer forms, do not disable primary action buttons because the error messages and the primary action button may not be visible on the screen simultaneously.
• When a user submits a form, disable the primary action button to prevent duplicate submissions.
• If it's going to take a while to process a form, communicate this to the user with feedback messages and progress indicators (e.g. spinners or progress bars).

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Designing for longer forms

Product designers often ask about the appropriate length for web forms. Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Your audience and their intentions, along with the context of your product will determine the solution that's best for you. Here are several techniques to help make longer forms less overwhelming.

Progressive disclosure

Use progressive disclosure to reveal any additional content that may arise based on the user's previous selection. This kind of show/hide approach allows the user to focus on relevant information while keeping workflows short.

Accordions forms

Accordion forms allow users to dynamically expose and hide sections of related information. Like progressive disclosure, accordion forms allow users to focus on relevant information without having to navigate between pages. As a general rule, this technique should not be used in dialog forms.

Research suggestsNew window that accordion forms can greatly enhance completion speed and page load times. However the same research also suggests that confusion can arise for users when it comes to primary action buttons and whether they apply only to sections vs. the full form.

Multistep forms

A multistep form spreads form fields across multiple screens and incorporates a progress indicator to track a user's status step by step. There should be a logical relationship between the fields on each screen and a linear relationship between sections.

This approach is good for saving form progress along the journey and allows users to return to a previous step to review their submissions.