Long forms are a thing, especially for internal teams or for businesses that have certain information that needs to be filled out for a request to be approved. We’ve created solutions for teams that have to fill out long forms. We’re looking at forms with 70 to 150 fields. There are a few things we have to do to make them less overwhelming or a little easier, because nobody likes filling out long forms. Everyone knows this, but there are some ways we can reduce user frustration when they’re filling them out.
First, we don’t want users to submit the form until all the required fields have been completed, because those required fields are necessary for what we need to do. We’re going to have situations where the button doesn’t allow them to submit until everything is done. The required fields will display an error when they’re not completed, so we have to make it obvious what is missing. We need to have placeholders so it’s easier. We need to have error messages when a required field is missing. We have to clearly mark required fields so users are not guessing why they can’t submit. The moment someone leaves a field, we also have to validate things like a phone number, an email address, or a website to see if the information is correct.
Then we have long descriptions or text fields. We want to show a character count. If a field has a limit, we have to show how many characters are remaining. If they go over the limit, we have to indicate an error so they can adjust it, instead of leaving them typing and then deleting large sections later. Another is pre-filling information. This is quite important when we have an internal tool and people have logged in. The information they shouldn’t have to fill out, like the date and time, should be captured automatically. They shouldn’t have to enter their email address or their name over and over again. It doesn’t make sense. Then we have to show requirements as they type. We have hints, we have placeholders, and the examples in those placeholders should match exactly what we want them to enter because it’s required for the form. We don’t want them to submit something only to find out later that they needed additional information.
Another thing is that we have to be forgiving with some things, depending on the standards of that industry. We need to handle formatting for numbers and email addresses. We have to make it easier for the user. With longer forms, there’s as much work for the person building the form as there is for the person filling it out because we also have to understand the logic. We have to break our forms into smaller sections, smaller steps, so it’s easier for people to keep moving through them. If possible, have an option that saves responses as users complete the form. If it’s a very long form, as is common in many industries, they can always come back to it, continue where they stopped, save it again, and complete it later. It’s quite helpful.