Ever fill out a form, hit submit, and say what the heck? Did the form fail to process the data correctly? Did the database fail? Did you type the captcha letters wrong? It was none of the above. It was the design, or should I say usability.
Your secret to building a successful form for your website? Watch a few NEW users fill it out for the first time.
Not all things are intuitive, especially to new visitor. Look at this example below. Continue reading »
A few days ago I wrote the post, Half Way to a Sale. It was about how a background check company quickly got visitors to engage in their site, and how it leads them half way down the sale process by filling out a two field form. The screening company really has it easy, and only is one step left for a visitor to make a sale. They just had to pay.
Not every service or product is that easy of a sell though. More information is often required. Using an example from this cheap auto insurance site, you can see how the engagement technique is used again. The auto insurance site needs to start the visitor engagement process somehow, and the way they do this is by simply asking for a zip code. Continue reading »
I am a subscriber to Jakob Nielsen’s site, a popular web usability expert. Today he sent out an email with his findings that suggest we should stop using password masking on forms. I usually would agree with his findings, and many of the polls I run come to similar conclusions. In this particular case though, I think his case studies don’t reflect a real world experience, and missed an important point. Continue reading »
After reviewing the website Area Rugs Club this morning, I found that they had an very unusual search form. The site has a few different methods to search, and their main one was what got my attention. It was a combination of the method, so I decided to see what the heck was going on.
Area Rugs Club sells rugs. In the rug world there are all sorts of criteria. The main ones are: style, color, price, and shape. These are the top ways a visitor will search. So A.R.C. devised three different ways to search. The first is a series of drop downs menus where you can define your ideal rug by the four main methods. The second method was to search by visual clues, by means of icons representing it. See Example of a search for rugs by style: Rugs. The third method is a basic text box search form, so a visitor can search for any product that has the keyword.
So here is a screenshot of the unusual search form they have on their home page. It’s a combination of the three search methods they have throughout the site.
My first impression was that it was over redundant. Why do you need so many search methods? You don’t need the color icons, it’s in the drop down selection. Why use icons for the brands? Couldn’t they have just put that in a drop down? How about the search box at the bottom? Why not just get rid of all the other options, and just use that? Then I though, it’s a nearly a perfect form.
First thing is first. This rug store needs to have a drop down search by criteria form. Why? Because many other sites have this ability. Online shoppers expect to find a search method like this, and it is a very effective method of finding what you are looking for. Second thing. Those brand name icons sell their site and their product. By having those icons they don’t just help a visitor find what they are looking for, but say “Hey! Look here! We sell the brand you are looking for.” A search form that sells, beat that. Third, colors. Why? For one, it was probably easy to make those icons, and for another reason, it is most likely the second most popular search method. User experiences faster searching by having it. Fourth and last, search by keyword. When all your searching fails, this form will find it, or they don’t have it. End of story, this form is made to work, for the visitor and the seller.
Before you change your search forms to match theirs, make sure you test everything out first. Know how your visitors would prefer to search for your product, do industry research, so you can see how your competitors are doing it, and make sure it is easy to use. I’m guessing every aspect of that form is being put to work, and it is in order of users prefered search method. The users experience was definitely considered in this sites design. Now they just need to get to work on the search form for their blog, Area Rugs Blog. It needs some help, there is no button to click to start the search.
A little more than a week ago, I wrote a post about forms, and how a moving company could improve their conversions by asking less questions. I found another site today, Vancouver MRI Clinic, that is trying to accomplish a similar task for their visitors. This post is just a little comparison of the two.
If you compare what the moving site is trying to accomplish, and what this MRI Clinic is trying to accomplish you will find their are very similar. They both want to get the visitor to schedule an appointment, and both will have to get more specific details afterwards.
The MRI Clinic site knows they will need more specifics, and have focused their form to only ask the essential items. Forget first and last name, forget address, they don’t even want a city. They don’t ask why you want one or anything. All of that can be figured out with a phone call or email, and that is all they ask for.
Comparing it to the movers form, you can easily see which form will most likely be filled out. The first reason is that the clinics form it is simply cleaner. There are no drop down menus, tricky questions to answer, no mandatory fields specified (they all are), and even the phone number field is easier to fill out. It’s three fields vs. twelve, and on the net with its finicky users that’s huge. Do you think the moving site could still book the reservation using the clinics form? I do.
The final advantage I wanted to point out about the Vancouver MRI Clinic’s site is that because their form is small, it doesn’t take up the entire home page like it does on the moving site. It allows room for an introduction message, selling points, contact information, and more.
Keep those forms small if you can, and make sure you only ask for what is essential. If you need them to give you more informaiton, ask them later, and you could even ask them right after they hit submit.
Are you sick of crappy Captchas like I am? Captchas are great for keeping the spam down, but they can also be extremely annoying, especially when they are hard to read. If you insist on using them here are a few tips to improve usability, and conversions.
On sites where I have had spam problems I typically start with the easy question option. This will get 99% of all spambots. It’s also easier to set up. When I get aggressive, I then install captcha script, but limit it to just four or five characters. Any spam after that, and I think it will happen no matter what you do. Hope you take the poll!
Here is the poll: Are you sick of hard to read Captchas?
This Dallas Moving company was nice enough to let me use their home page form as an example on how to improve it’s usability. The form allows site visitors get get a quick estimate on how much it would cost to move using their service. If any of you have been following this blog, you have to know by now that the best thing you can do is keep them simple as possible. Let’s take a look at their form.
So if you look at their home page you will find this form that I have taken a screenshot of on the right as the main element. If you are good at getting forms to convert you should see right away that it’s missing a key element. It’s the reason why you should fill it out. If you look closely you will find it on the site, but it’s not obvious. If you want someone to fill out a form give them a clear reason.
The second thing killing this form is the dreaded asterisk. There is nothing wrong with using an asterisk usually. It commonly indicates required field. When using it though, two other things need to happen. There needs to be a note someplace on the form that states the asterisk means required form element, and there also has to be a form element that is not required. Otherwise is just wasted text. If all elements are required, just say “All elements are required”, and forget the asterisks. The form in the current state could create a little bit of confusion.
The third item, and this is probably the most influential item is asking for information that will have little to no impact on the quote of service. Asking for the moving date should have little to do with costs, and if it does, it could easily be explained…after the visitor has submitted the form. See Poll on forms. Only asks for what is absolutely required.
Not all forms questions are easy to answer or ask. On this form they ask for the estimated move weight. I’m guessing most people would not be able to accurately answer this. I don’t know the weight of the chair I’m sitting on. In the Dallas Movers defense though, they did make it easier to estimate by additionally offer estimations by the number of rooms instead of pounds.
The final part, and failing of this form is the submit button. We know what it will do, and there is no confusion there. When you just say submit though, you are missing an opportunity to say why you should fill out the form. A quick form reader might see that submit button without reading the form, and think it’s not or them. Where as a quick reader that saw “submit for free quote”, would know what that form was form without reading anything else, and just might fill it out.
I have wrote about these guys before, and I am doing it again. I love this company, and how the tackle the web and their web presence. Houston Real Estate, also known as VIP Realty uses several techniques to get their desired visitor action. The use parallel designs, multiple domain names, and different methods to get visitors feedback.
Their recent change was to their search form. The form is designed for a speedy submission, and an easy submission. There is lots of criteria to go by when looking for a new home, so a search form needs to be pretty extensive. How do you solve? Use drop downs. How do you keep it from being cumbersome? Group form types. See example: Houston Flat Fee MLS
Looking at the example I have taken a screenshot from, you will see the first two boxes are just basic text boxes, and then the rest are drop downs. Where do most webmasters mess things up? They throw the text boxes in the middle someplace slowing down the users experience. As it is now, a user uses the keyboard then move to the mouse to input form data. Grouping keeps the back and forth movement between the two to a minumum. I have said this before, but I can not say it enough because I have seen countless forms that just do not follow this basic advice. Group your forms by type, and group the user movements. It’s a basic usability tip for you.
I was asked to do my Basic Usability and Design Analysis on Velnet Web Design yesterday before their site is totally completed, and they said that it would be OK if I shared a few of my findings.
Right off the bat, I saw something that needed fixing. There is way too much text. What about my site, that’s all it is you say? Well mine is a blog, and you are here to read. Velnet Designs is there to sell, and those looking to buy want quick facts, and an easy method to do so. Here is a possible wake up call to some of you reading this. I am writing a post about their site, did an usability analsyis of their site, and STILL did not read all of the content on the home page. It’s just too much.
So as a visitor how do you navigate all that text. There is bound to be lots of links within it. Usually, when visiting a website, we are used to a link changing color in some way after visiting it. Well in this case clicking the links doesn’t help the visitor.It stays the same color, and when returning to my starting point their are no visual clues of where I have been. In my book this should be the first thing to fix on the site. Make it so the visitor can navigate that text.
If you look at their free ecommerce web design quote form you will see an easy enough form to fill out. What’s slowing down visitors from filling it out though? Dumb stuff. Getting some basic info is important, but knowing the visitors title, or what color scheme they want is really unnecessary. When building a form, get the minimum first. You can fill in the blanks as the relationship continues.
There was also one form missing. The search form! It’s always a good idea to have a search form on your site to help visitors out when your sites navigation fails them.
Looking at the UK Web Design page, the reigns need to be yanked on the use of bold or strong. Their lists have the same emphasis as the titles of the lists. Where’s the emphasis there?
The beauty is the owner has taken the time to get an analysis before they completed their re-design. They can review all my comments, pick and choose what they want to improve on, and finalize with a clean site. Having an extra set of eyes always helps, and too often webmasters are doing it solo.
Need a limo for Toronto? Check out Toronto Airport Limo. Want to learn a lesson about how valuable your websites forms can be, take a look at their reservation page. What’s so special about the reservation page? It up-sells.
Comparing their reservation site to ten other limo sites that I found for San Jose, Ca. here is what I found. Six of them did not even offer online reservation. Well if you are catering to persons who like to do things online, those guys are surely missing out. Then there is the other four sites. They did offer online reservations, but their was one main thing they missed out on compared to Toronto Airport Limo.
Of the four that had reservation pages, none of them offered a return trip. They simply assumed you wanted a limo just for one day, or one just for one way. Toronto’s limo site offered the returned reservation, and when you make it easy for slapping in an extra service with only one payment you will make more sales.
When I was younger I used to wait tables. The managers allways pushed up-selling, and at first I hated it. I hated selling extra crap to customers, because honestly, I thought they hated it. The reality is though, they often love it. They don’t always know, or even think about the possible add-ons you may have. “Get a limo for the way home from the airport? I didn’t even think of that.” Getting a limo for the way home may be obvious for some, but out of all those ten other sites I looked at, they blew it on catering to those customers. Toronto Limo figured it out though. Don’t forget to take the time to up-sell!
Top Commenters
Ali Imran (5)
Curtis (4)
Graphic Design Co... (1)