Spool Jared - Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks

W eb form design. Do we really need an entire book on such a mundane topic?

You bet we do. As arbiters of checkout, registration, and data entry, Web forms are often the lynchpins of successful Web applications.

• Checkout forms are how ecommerce vendors close dealsthey stand between people and the products or services they want and between companies and their profits. For example, eBays vast inventory (its the 30th largest economy in the world) is driven in no small part by its Sell Your Item form.
• Registration forms are the gatekeepers to community membershipthey allow people to define their identity within social applications. All of MySpaces 150+ million users joined through a Web form.
• Data input forms allow users to contribute or share information, and they allow companies to grow their content. Most of YouTubes huge video collection comes from its Upload Your Video form.

Web forms are often the last and most important mile in a long journey. Despite their importance, the design of forms is often poorly thought out and conceived. Your organization may have already invested heavily in opening a relationship with its customers through high-quality marketing, site design, and search engine optimization. But now it is time to close the deal by making sure those customers can complete your forms. And thats where this book will help.

Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks is truly for anyone who needs to design or develop Web formsand who doesnt? Whatever type of designer you areusability engineer, Web developer, product manager, visual designer, interaction designer, or information architectyoure probably involved in Web form design in some fashion. This book will provide you with something that you can use immediately to improve your sites forms.

If youre a beginner, youll receive a broad overview of all the considerations that constitute good form design. If youre an experienced practitioner, youll engage at a deeper level with issues and solutions you may not have encountered before.

This book is a collection of the insights and best practices for Web form design Ive accumulated through 12 years of designing Web experiences. Wherever possible, Ive conducted or referenced research to better understand the impact of Web form design decisions. Where no research was available, Ive called on my own experiences and those of other designers and developers.

Just about every chapter in this book wraps up with a set of best practices that outline ways you can begin to apply the key points made within each chapter. Although these best practices can guide you toward the right design solutions for your forms, the content within each chapter explains the what, when, and why that informs each best practice.

Section One, Form Structure, begins with an overview of why form design matters and the principles behind good form design. The remaining chapters provide a set of best practices for organizing forms and focusing people on their primary goal of completing a form.

Section Two, Form Elements, dives into a series of best practices for the core components that make up forms: labels, input fields, actions, and messaging (help, errors, success). Here you will find information on aligning labels, required input fields, primary versus secondary actions, automatic help systems, and much more.

Section Three, Form Interaction, focuses on the process of filling in forms. From inline validation solutions that confirm or suggest valid answers to gradual engagement solutions that immerse people within a Web experience without forms, this section is about applying dynamic behavior to make forms more useful, usable, and enjoyable.

This books companion Web site ( www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms) contains pointers to useful Web form design articles that Ive found and Ive also written. It includes a calendar of my upcoming talks, and a place for you to engage in discussion with others interested in Web form design. We expect to post information on new Web form design-related resources and special discounts for related applications. You can keep up with the site by subscribing to its RSS feed ( http://feeds.rosenfeldmedia.com/webforms/)

Weve also made the books diagrams, screenshots, and other illustrations available under a Creative Commons license for you to download and use in your own presentations. Youll find them in Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia).