forms Articles & Videos

  • Semantic Differential Scales: Measure User Attitudes with Nuance

    In UX surveys, semantic differential scales help measure user attitudes with nuance. This video covers what they are, their pros and cons, and how to write clear, balanced adjective pairs for UX research studies.

  • Few Guesses, More Success: 4 Principles to Reduce Cognitive Load in Forms

    Four principles of form design — structure, transparency, clarity, and support — minimize users’ cognitive load and improve usability.

  • Checkbox Design: 8 Guidelines

    Design effective checkboxes by using square boxes, clickable labels, and clear, positive wording. List items vertically with instructions, and ensure legal checkboxes are unchecked by default to respect user consent.

  • Less Effort, More Completion: The EAS Framework for Simplifying Forms

    Use the EAS framework — Eliminate first, Automate where possible, and Simplify what remains — to minimize user effort and improve form completion rates.

  • Checkboxes: Design Guidelines

    Checkboxes allow users to select one, some, or none of items from a list. They can be used standalone, in checkbox lists, or nested checkbox lists.

  • 10 Survey Challenges and How to Avoid Them

    Response biases make it difficult to create good surveys. Follow these tips to counteract 10 of the major survey response biases and improve your survey data.

  • Tooltips in the User Interface

    Tooltips are small user-triggered popups that explain UI elements when the user points to something. They are useful, but don't use them for critical information.

  • Better Forms Through Visual Organization

    How to organize and lay out your form fields and their labels to make data entry easier for users.

  • Marking Required Fields in Online Forms

    Do you need to mark fields as "required" in forms on your website or in apps? What if all fields are required? And what is the best way to show that a form field is required?

  • Placeholders in Form Fields Are Harmful

    Data-entry form fields on websites are crucial for ecommerce and many other applications. Fields need labels and (sometimes) instructions, but placing this text inside the field lowers usability and accessibility and should be avoided.

  • Change Blindness in User Interfaces

    Change blindness is the tendency for people to overlook things that change outside their focus of attention. In user interface design, this explains why screen changes that seem striking to the designer can be completely ignored by users.

  • Marking Required Fields in Forms

    Using an asterisk to mark required fields is an easy way to improve the usability of your forms. Only marking optional fields makes it difficult for people to fill out the form.

  • 10 Design Guidelines for Reporting Errors in Forms

    Help users recover from errors by clearly identifying the problems and allowing users to access and correct fields easily.

  • Date-Input Form Fields: UX Design Guidelines

    Date-entry fields must be unambiguous and support task completion by using the right design pattern. Small design changes can prevent big user errors.

  • Let Loyal Shoppers Edit Saved Credit Cards

    To eliminate outdated information and make online shopping efficient, let ecommerce users easily update existing payment information directly within the checkout flow.

  • Website Forms Usability: Top 10 Recommendations

    Follow these well-established — but frequently ignored — UX design guidelines to ensure users can successfully complete your website forms.

  • When to Hide Content Behind Forms and When to Give Content Away

    Understand your users’ intents and stage in the sales funnel before you gate content.

  • Slider Design: Rules of Thumb

    Selecting a precise value using a slider is a difficult task requiring good motor skills, even if the slider is well designed. If picking an exact value is important to the goal of the interface, choose an alternate UI element.

  • Preventing User Errors: Avoiding Unconscious Slips

    Users are often distracted from the task at hand, so prevent unconscious errors by offering suggestions, utilizing constraints, and being flexible.

  • Don't Force Users to Register Before They Can Buy

    Optional registration on e-commerce sites simplifies the purchase process and invites users to register when they feel comfortable, rather than forcing unwanted registration.