Adam Silver - Form Design Patterns

I remember my first foray into forms. At the turn of the century, web design was one of the modules on the information communication and technology course I took at sixth form college. My learning mostly consisted of cutting and pasting snippets of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Yes, I came from the view-source school of web design and development.

My obsession with forms started when like with any other HTML element I tried to cut and paste it. Despite rendering OK, when I submitted it nothing happened. Fast forward seventeen years and here I am writing a book about form design patterns.

Every meaningful interaction that happens on the web is achieved by a form of some sort. Without forms, the web merely becomes a passive experience just a way to consume content.

Forms allow users to create, update and delete things. Whether its communicating through email, buying a product, online banking, or working on a fully-fledged administrative digital service, forms are always front and center.

At first glance, forms are rather easy to grasp. In less than an hour, youll have text boxes, radio buttons and select boxes on the page. But their low barrier to entry turns them into what Heydon Pickering refers to as a 10,000-volt electromagnet for attracting usability problems.

This is a big part of why Im writing this book. Typically, these usability problems come up again and again.

Design patterns serve as guidance and solutions to people solving similar problems over and over. The reason for design patterns is twofold.

First, instead of solving the same problem from scratch every time, we can instead use previously designed, available, recognized, and well-researched solutions. This saves a lot of time. And we can use that time to solve newer and perhaps bigger problems.

Second, by solving the same problem in the same way, users have a consistent and more coherent experience. The service, app, or whatever it is, becomes familiar. Familiar interfaces require less effort to operate. Think about it: every time you encounter a door, you just know that it can be opened, closed, and sometimes locked.

Using design patterns for digital experiences or, more specifically, forms, makes sense too. By the end of the book, youll have many patterns you can use in your own interface immediately.

I first based this book on 50 principles. Originally, each principle would become a short chapter. So there was a chapter called Always Use a Label and another called Placeholders Are Problematic.