Hooo boi. I'm currently working on a product which does handles compliance- imagine a form which is so long it can take 40 hours to complete. That's what I'm making.

Here's a few things I've discovered.

1 Placeholders are usually bad.

People mentioned this earlier in the thread and suggested floating labels, I'm not a fan of them either. But the reality is that if you've got some key info in a placeholder, it probably shouldn't be there. The Norman group has a lot of good research on this stuff - the value isn't in 'shortness", it's in reduced cognitive load.

I came up with an alternative, we call it helper text. It's working for us.

2 There's a lot of good research on forms

I'm not talking a medium post I'm talking academic research and studies- the norman group is gold. Anything you can find from them, trust. The UK gov has also some good studies on forms. Chances are somebody has already thought "whats the best way to ask for a relative date?", and found out.

3 Cognitive load and psychology is key.

You have two goals. One reduce the cognitive load for a user. This means having logic in the form, splitting up sections, allowing them to fill it out in any order, autosave. Anything you can do to make them work less is good.

Second goal is to keep them moving - make it clear what they're gonna need, how long it's going to take, how far through they are. This is part of why splitting up sections is such a good idea, it not only reduces cognitive load, it makes it feel easier.

Feel free to hit me up if you have design issues, cause chances are i've already hit them.

Some ideas:

• Hide/show sections/fields based on selections
• Split the form into multiple sections/pages
• Offer a summary at the end of the form so users can review what they're going to submit (and change if needed)
• Simplify the navigation

For example, say you have a page with 4 sections of 10 fields. Place a 'next step' button at the end of each section to automatically scroll to the next section.

Also, take into account the expectation of the user. If I'm using a contact form, I'm expecting a short form with a few fields (name/e-mail/phone/message). If I'm going to put in a job application I expect to be able to add more text and data as I'm trying to apply for this job the best way I can. Sometimes a longer form can actually work better than a shorter one.

You can also improve the experience by making it more fun. Like adding illustrations or visuals into the background.

Floating labels are tricky, as they don't work well across some of the older browsers. Labeled fields is still the best way to go in most cases.

I can share some feedback on the work we've done on Selby College's application form over the last couple of years if you're interested.

An example of their application form

A couple of years ago their form was significantly longer (at least 50% more fields) and we've worked with them to trim that down based on feedback and testing we:

• Removed practically all optional fields on the form and instead of putting required on all fields we put optional next to a few which cuts down on label noise
• Some fields are legally required and have to be asked up front (learning/disability section for example)
• Broke the form down initially into 6 sections in first iteration and then into 4 in current one when we trimmed more fields out
• Added field notes on some inputs to help clarify what info we were collecting or why (eg. Mobile number field)
• When you progress to next section, keep previous section open and easy to access if applicant needs to go back or review what they've written

Completion rates on the 4 step form over the original version and also the 6 step process are up significantly which is good for the college because each application is potentially a valuable new student enrolling in what is an extremely competitive industry/market.

Feedback from students is that the form is still quite long but a definite improvement. It's worth noting that the college admin team still speak to the applicant after they receive an application (which allowed us to remove many optional fields - offsetting that data collection to later to make the form less intimidating).

I'm sure there's still a lot to improve on but that's just a few notes from a couple of short sprints to fix a big form for one of our clients.

Hi,

I've worked on quite a few forms, so perhaps I can help you. Can you specify what you mean by very long/complex forms? Are we talking 10 questions, 20, or a 100?

Here's a good resource if you are indeed working with very long forms: https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/Organising-long-tasks-Save-and-return-jOJz53EyXrr2ulxtJPdSx

I grouped a few of my design tips in this slide deck: https://www.slideshare.net/sjors/design-better-forms-75498519

Here's some further solid advice: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/design/form-structure and here some visual examples (with code :) https://govuk-elements.herokuapp.com/form-elements/

Also, perhaps good to know; you might encounter some friction between what's the best converting form and what's the most accessible form. In the end it's up to you to fight the right fight :)

I am personally not a big fan of floating labels. This article does a great job breaking down the reasons why.

A very long form looks intimidating and can make users rethink their decision; if it looks like it's gonna take me 15 minutes to fill, chances are I might reconsider doing it. For longer forms, I try to divide them into sections that are easier to digest. You can go the extreme route like Wealthsimple did and put one question per page, but I think this is going a bit too far and it just feels like an endless survey at that point.

The hardest part is figuring out where to break the form and what should be bundled together so the architecture makes sense and flows naturally.

Dividing into sections also makes it easier to track and get a more detailed breakdown of what users are doing and where the friction points are.

As others have mentioned, spread things out so it seems less of a laborious task either by clearly labelled sections or additional pages (mark where they are in the process).

Page length is almost irrelevant as people prefer something easy to digest and fill out with minimal chances of making errors (clear labelling, supporting text, examples within fields).

If you have additional helpers either in a tooltip or other device you have to question why it's hidden; if a field needs longer explanation then surely this is content that should be surfaced. These mechanisms can prove to be more difficult to implement if your considering touch based devices (phone, tablet etc.)

Changing how labels are presented won't make the form any shorter, you'll only reduce page length.

The ultimate goal is to make a form easy to complete.

Step by step! Obviously!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nITMhO3ZPZM