Break It Up!

Breaking a long form up into chunks can help make it easier for users to fill out and focus on one block of content at a time. This can also greatly benefit users who may suffer from conditions such as dyslexia or attention/comprehension issues. This approach has the added benefit of making the form less intimidating or daunting and it looks better visually, too.

The two most common ways of approaching this technique are to either break the form up into sections on one page, with clear separation, or to break the form into multiple pages. A really good example of this can be seen on our client’s site Loveisrespect.

Less Is More

Simply looking over your form fields and identifying fields that can be either combined or eliminated can greatly help the user in filling out the form. For example, instead of having a First Name and Last Name field, why not combine these into a single Full Name field? Do you really need both Cell Phone and Home Phone fields? Could you also eliminate the Surname field? These types of questions are great for reducing the form length!

Create Conditions

My final tip is to show form fields conditionally. For example, if you have a section of the form asking about children, why not first have a radio button asking, “Do you have children living at home with you?” and if the users select “Yes,” then you conditionally load in the extra fields related to that. Most modern form builders allow you to do this very easily. We use this tactic on almost all of our clients’ Gravity Forms.

These tips are truly simple and applying them to the next form you design and add to your website will go a long way. A well-designed web form will not only enhance your website’s UX and strengthen its accessibility, it will also increase conversions, turning website visitors into customers.

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Lean UX was born out of the Lean startup movement. The concept of ‘being lean’ is derived from Lean manufacturing principles, which essentially postulates ^[1]:

“making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else.”

Lean UX !== Agile UX

Lean UX can sometimes be confused with Agile UX, which is an earlier manifestation. While Agile UX relies on the integration of User Experience Design into Agile Software Development Methodologies; whereas, Lean UX is suited to the Build-Measure-Learn cycles, or learning loops.

As Jeff Gothelf says ^[2]:

“Lean UX is an evolution, not a revolution.”

Lean UX: Getting Out Of The Deliverables Business

What does Lean UX have to do with design?

One beneficial model for incorporating Lean UX into the design process is leveraging Style Tiles, or element collages. Traditionally, client work relies heavily on creating elaborate Photoshop mockups. However, this is precarious because designing a page is quite different from designing a block, or widget, section, element, what-have-you–as is monitoring and eliciting feedback, and developing such elements.

This whole process relies heavily on assumptions on the consumer’s desired values, and can generate the waste that bogs down budgets (time, money). As my colleague Corey Collins so poignantly points out ^[3]:

“We’re seeing everything for what it is: a single piece of the puzzle rather than looking at the entire puzzle and trying to pick out the pieces we feel hold the most importance.”

Why not focus on creating smaller artifacts (Build), which allow for quicker feedback and testing? Evaluate your user’s reaction (Measure), compare to the designed postulate, and improve (Learn). Build-Measure-Learn, and cut out the waste.

Footnotes:

1. “Lean Manufacturing” – Wikipedia.org
2. “Lean UX: Getting Out Of The Deliverables Business” – Jeff Gothelf [SmashingMagazine.com]
3. “Getting Small with Modular Design as QA” – Corey Collins (@CoreyMCollins)

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