How to Use this Book

Web 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 deals—they stand between people and the products or services they want and between companies and their profits. For example, eBay’s vast inventory (it’s 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 membership—they allow people to define their identity within social applications. All of MySpace’s 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 YouTube’s 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 that’s where this book will help.

Who Should Read this Book?

Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks is truly for anyone who needs to design or develop Web forms—and who doesn’t? Whatever type of designer you are—usability engineer, Web developer, product manager, visual designer, interaction designer, or information architect—you’re probably involved in Web form design in some fashion. This book will provide you with something that you can use immediately to improve your site’s forms.

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

What’s in the Book?

This book is a collection of the insights and best practices for Web form design I’ve accumulated through 12 years of designing Web experiences. Wherever possible, I’ve conducted or referenced research to better understand the impact of Web form design decisions. Where no research was available, I’ve 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.

Chapter 1: The Design of Forms
Chapter 2: Form Organization
Chapter 3: Path to Completion

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.

Chapter 4: Labels
Chapter 5: Input Fields
Chapter 6: Actions
Chapter 7: Help Text
Chapter 8: Errors and Success

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.

Chapter 9: Inline Validation
Chapter 10: Unnecessary Inputs
Chapter 11: Additional Inputs
Chapter 12: Selection-Dependent Inputs
Chapter 13: Gradual Engagement
Chapter 14: What’s Next?

What Comes with the Book?

This book’s companion Web site ( www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms) contains pointers to useful Web form design articles that I’ve found and I’ve 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/)

We’ve also made the book’s diagrams, screenshots, and other illustrations available under a Creative Commons license for you to download and use in your own presentations. You’ll find them in Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia).