How to Design a Form by Chuck Green

7/30/2019 How to Design a Form by Chuck Green

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How to design a smart, functional formBY CHUCK GREEN Would you ask a prospect with a specific need to listen to a laundry list ofall the products and services you offer? Would you insist that a new customer provide youwith detailed information that obviously doesn't apply to their needs? If you wouldn't do it inperson, don't do it on paper.

A well designed form establishes a system for gathering, processing, and compiling specific information. It interviews the readerby asking a series of carefully defined questions in the form of captions (name, address, city, etc.). It prompts answers wheneverpossible by providing a choice of answers. And it does it all with an obvious respect for the users time and effort.
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Plus, a well designed form saves you from the frustration and flaws of recording, formatting, and transcribing information from alive interview. Did you phrase your questions correctly? Did you remember all the pieces of the puzzle? Do the answers conformwith the format you use to compile them? Forms are a key component of any enterprise. The easier and clearer you make them,the better the quality of the information you will collect will be.

The problem

To understand the value of an effective formlet's look at the cost of a poor one. At first glance this form may look fine (1), buton closer examination you'll find some fundamental flaws.


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WHERE'S THE EMPHASIS?First and foremost, a form should be obvious about its intent. The example is visually neutraleverything looks equally unimportant. Long lines of tiny text and scrunched spacing make it less than inviting.

LOOK AT ALL THE WASTED SPACESpace has not been use efficiently (2)for example, a full line is devoted to a single phonenumber. Valuable space is lost left-to-right and top-to-bottom. And the text is imprecise: for example, the caption that readsnumber of years in business could easily have been reduced to years in business.


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WHO'S IN CHARGE?The caption name/address/title/phone number of corporate officers leaves the user to decide which partsand pieces to fill-ina problem that is sure to produce uneven results. When you request information, do it with confidence.Show the user that you have thought through the questions you're asking.

The cure

DO SOME RESEARCHBefore you design a form you need to ask some basic questions: Who will be using the form? How willthey fill it in and return it to you? How will you process it? Do the fields need to correspond to an existing database? Consider the

detailsif, for example, the completed form will be stored in a ring binder, you'll need to allow space for a hole punch (3). (Yes,some clients still use paper forms and store hard copies.)


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DESIGN ON A GRIDBy dividing the page into a series of equally sized columns you give the page a uniform look and feel (4). Idivided the example form into five equal columns. Note how the vertical lines all fall on one of the five grid lines.


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SPACING IS IMPORTANTWhether your form is be filled in by hand or using a computer (in some cases, maybe even atypewriter), you will need to space the lines so that the user will not have to readjust the page for each line (5). In most casesbusiness machines print one line for every 1/6th of an inch (one pica). In days past, these lines were spaced 1/3 of an inch apart(roughly two picas) to accommodate a standard, double-spaced typewriter.


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CREATE LOGICAL SECTIONSAnalyze the sequence in which you ask for information and create a series of clearly labeledsections that step the user through the process (6). Provide bold headings the user can scan to see what information they willneed to proceed and to assist those retrieving the information.


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VARY LINE WEIGHTSLines divide the page visually (7): bold lines (1.5 points) divide the sections, medium lines (1 point) dividethe subsections, and the lightest lines (.25 point) are used everywhere else.


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CHOOSE TYPEFACES FOR READABILITYA form, by definition, is more visually complex than most other documents. Fewertypefaces with fewer attributes (italic, upper/lowercase, bold, etc.) typically produce better results. The bold headings here areSlippy Bold and the text and captions are Slippy Light (8) (available from t26.com). Though a paragraph of text in all uppercase

letters is difficult to read, to my eye, short captions in small sizes like these are more readable in all caps. (Notice too that Iadded extra space between characters by increasing the tracking to +100.)

USE TINTS TO HIGHLIGHT IMPORTANT POINTSTints of black or a color are particularly useful for highlighting important itemsand for dividing the page visually (9). The boxes on the actual form are a 15 percent tint of black. If a form will be faxed orcopied regularly, be certain the tints you've chosen are fax-friendlyheavy tints can slow down the transmission and muddy theinformation.


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BE INSTRUCTIVEWhere does the reader call if they have questions? Where do they send the finished form? You may also find ituseful to add a code and date to the form for purposes of processing, distribution, and to differentiate one form from the next.

ASK QUESTIONS AND PROMPT ANSWERSBe as specific as possible. When you say NAME do you mean company name orcontact name? And, when you can, include possible answers in the form of check boxes. A list of credit card names (VISA,MasterCard, American Express, and so on), for example, is preferable to having the user fill in the type of card.


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MAKE YOUR FORMS PORTABLEToday, of course, it is possible to circulate forms via Adobe's PDF format. You can even set themup (using Adobe Acrobat Professional) to be password protected, check boxes, buttons, date and time stamps, typeface choices,and so on (10). It is even possible (using an Adobe Certified Document Services partner) to require and obtain an authenticatedsignature. Below is a simple example of the form that you can download.
http://www.adobe.com/security/partners_cds.htmlhttp://www.adobe.com/security/partners_cds.html

How to Design a Form by Chuck Green

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