Bad practices = terrible user experience.

Bad practices have everything to do with how the web form looks and feels to your respondents. If an online form is confusing or difficult to navigate, it’s much less likely that respondents will hit the submit button. A bad web form sends the message that user experience isn’t a priority, which is definitely not the message you want to send — or receive.

Let’s dive into different types of bad practices and how you can steer clear of them.
 

1. Input Validation

Input validation is essential in web form design: it catches mistakes and helps you get cleaner, more accurate data. But it can be a source of frustration if the validation rules aren’t set up properly or clearly explained.

Here’s how you can avoid creating hurdles:

• Don’t be too strict. For instance, a U.S. phone number with area code can be entered a number of different ways, with or without parentheses and hyphens. If the validation rule isn’t flexible, then you’ll block all the people who might use a format that’s just slightly different.
• Display hints. If you expect a specific format, make sure to give an example.
• Auto-format when possible. This takes out the guesswork and makes things a lot easier for your respondents.
• Report errors early. That way, the respondent won’t face a bunch of errors at the very end of the form.

2. Slicing Fields

Slicing fields means splitting one input into multiple fields. Fields are sliced, or broken up, in place of hyphens or forward slashes. This can be helpful when the format is well-defined. For example, for a date field, the Gregorian calendar is the de facto international standard, so the format is well known. And you can solve the Month/Day order confusion with a hint in the right place.

However, sliced fields are generally too rigid and require concatenation. And if the respondent isn’t familiar with the format, sliced fields could slow down the process of filling out the form.

3. Copying Conventions

An example of a convention is The Paper Mentality, where form creators get stuck in a paper mindset, and the conventions of paper carry over to online forms. We’ve all had to deal with paper forms, right? And paper forms are designed to maximize space so you use less paper. It’s economical: all the fields stretch to fill the page.

But print design shouldn’t translate into the screen. A web form doesn’t need to have the same constraints as a paper form: not all fields have to be the same length. In fact, it’s better to size fields differently, depending on the length of the expected input.

Snail Mail is an extension of the Paper Mentality. The mailing address convention is very common, where Country is listed at the very end. And when forms are intended for U.S. residents, usually it’s not an issue.

But if a web form’s audience includes people who live in other countries, then it can be frustrating when the flow isn’t linear, from the top to the bottom. Respondents may need to back-track and jump around to fill in a form.

Here’s an example solution — the Country field comes first.

• Don’t follow conventions blindly. Think about the design choices you’re making, and why.
• Use a top-down layout. Make sure the fields are in the right sequential order.
• Align labels above fields for maximum readability. This follows the top-down layout, and it’s also mobile-friendly.
• Break down the form into easy steps.
• Use branching logic to skip questions as needed. Unlike paper, you can hide irrelevant questions with a web form.

4. Auto-Complete

Look at line 2 below. Hmm, this is the Paper Mentality, right? On an envelope, you often need two lines to write the street address, and in turn, databases are designed to store 2 fields, so forms have 2 fields as well… but maybe you don’t need that anymore. Why not make it a single, multi-line field?

Well, maybe. But here’s a couple counterpoints: first, people are used to 2 lines. It’s not going to confuse or delay them too much. Second, what about the auto-complete feature in the browser? It turns those fields yellow and can auto-complete them for you. It would be silly to miss half the address because you thought you were clever.

HTML5 standards are evolving. The “autocomplete” attribute can support more than on/off, so leverage it to your advantage.

• Use common labels for fields like Name and Address, so the browser autofill can do the work for you.

5. Auto-Advancing

Auto-advancing nets you faster data entry — in theory. Once the respondent finishes a field, the cursor automatically goes into the next one, without an extra keystroke or mouse click. But in practice, most people don’t expect it, and end up fighting it.

Auto-advancing can be helpful if it’s used often and the user can learn to expect it. Since it’s not universally in use, however, you may be better off without it.

6. Hints and Labels

• Always add a label. Not including labels feels like a space saver, but it’s easy for people to forget what the label was and enter the wrong information.
• Do not use the “placeholder” attribute alone. Same problem as above: people might forget what the label is once they start typing. Plus, it’s bad for accessibility: screen readers require labels, and won’t pick up placeholder text the same way.

7. Non-Standard Components

Should you use the new shiny component that turns your input in a combo box that looks really neat and is so much easier to use? …Probably not.

It may not be compatible or compliant enough, and it may not be supported going forward.

Consider these questions for every new feature you’re thinking about implementing:

• Does it work with older browsers?
• Does it work with older devices?
• Does it work on all types of devices?
• Does it work on different locales and languages?
• Is it W3C standards / 508c compliant?
• Will it still be working next year, or the year after?

You can use HTML5 features with polyfills when needed.

8. Dark Patterns

A Dark Pattern is a user interface designed to trick users. For example, a dark pattern could con you into buying something you didn’t want, like an extended warranty.

You never want to deceive your respondents, so keep these guidelines in mind:

• Preserve user choices at all times.
• Use clear labels and calls to action.
• No opt-in by default. Don’t make decisions for your respondents. Opting in should be a deliberate choice, not automatic.

Next: Bad Processes

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Deborah Kim

Deborah is Creative Director at FormAssembly, based in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves clean writing, friendly design, and dim sum.

The post 7 Common Web Form Design Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Bad processes = awful management.

Bad processes are back-end. They face whoever builds and owns the web form — and whoever collects and manages the data. Stakeholders, IT, developers, administrators, creatives — that’s you!

Bad processes make it hard to get the work done and maintain standards across your department or your organization. Bad processes pit stakeholders against IT, due to miscommunication and different expectations.

And, worst of all, bad processes can mean security threats.

So let’s explore how you can identify and eliminate the bad processes.

1. Bottlenecks

You’re probably all too familiar with administrative bottlenecks. They happen all the time, they drain your resources, and they stop you from getting things done. Instead of working on what matters most, you’re stuck dealing with problems such as:

• Double entry. If you have paper forms, someone’s got to transcribe them. Or if your online forms aren’t hooked up to your database, someone has to copy and paste the data for each new submission, over and over again. And every time, you run the risk of introducing a new typo or error, so your data accuracy could suffer.
• Reliance on IT. You need to make a few changes, but you’ve been waiting forever (and you’ll continue to wait!) because the IT team has tons of other stuff to do. You have no clue how to make the changes yourself, since the code is quite complex. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and the deadlines are creeping ever closer. You need your forms done yesterday.

Here’s how you can prevent these bottlenecks.

• Integrate your forms. Your forms should be plugged directly into your information system, so the data’s exactly where you need it — right away.
• Empower stakeholders. Give them the ability to review and edit forms. No more waiting on IT!
• Make changes easy. Since your needs will change and grow with your organization, flexibility is key. You should be able to iterate quickly and effortlessly.

2. Security

When you’re dealing with people’s data, your respondents trust you to keep it safe. It’s important that you follow best practices and maintain the highest standards to ensure the security of your data.

• Avoid ad hoc development. A handcrafted web form that’s tailored for one specific purpose is not a scalable solution. It’s best to use an agile system rather than reinventing the wheel each time.
• Avoid rogue form creators. Take care that there aren’t any vigilantes setting up home-brewed forms to collect sensitive information.
• Centralize form creation and data collection.
• Make sure your developers are familiar with data sanitization, XSS, CSRF, OWASP Top 10.
• Use (good) SSL. be sure to stay well-informed and current with the latest issues and vulnerabilities. For instance, two major security bugs (Heartbleed and POODLE) were discovered last year.

3. Non-Compliance

Compliance with data privacy laws and policies is essential to good web form design. These processes are all about what kinds of data you collect, and what happens to the data after you collect it.

• Know your compliance requirements. They’ll depend on what types of data you collect and where your organization is located. For example, you may need to comply with FERPA, HIPAA, Section 508c, PCI, or state laws.
• Don’t collect data that you don’t need. With every question you ask, it’s necessary to think about why you need the answer, how you’ll use the information, and whether it’s consistent with respondent expectations and data privacy laws.
• Don’t store data longer than you have to. You shouldn’t hold onto data indefinitely, especially if you’re safeguarding sensitive information. Your organization may have specific data retention policies.
• Control who accesses the data. Don’t share passwords, keep track of who has access to what, and limit access by default. Because data privacy is critical, access should be on a need-to-know basis.

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Deborah Kim

Deborah is Creative Director at FormAssembly, based in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves clean writing, friendly design, and dim sum.

The post 3 Web Form Design Pitfalls to Eliminate appeared first on The Assembly Line.

A contact form acts as a communication gateway for people and great companies.

But it can be so easy to get lost in a sea of bland contact forms that look exactly the same.

These days, you see them on just about every contact page.

And yet the same thing happens again and again—a great designer crafts a beautiful website, spends hours and hours on it, but seems to completely forget about one vital page: the contact page.

The end result is that their contact page often consists of just one basic form and not much else, making it look like every other contact page in existence.

It’s true—people do it all the time, even though the contact page is so incredibly important.

Don’t believe me? Try this quick exercise: Google “front end designer (insert your city).” You’ll find many impressive portfolio websites, but the overwhelming majority of these sites either:

A) Don’t have contact forms at all (creating more of a barrier between them and their potential clients), or

B) If there is a form on the contact page, it’s often—well—pretty boring compared to the rest of the site.

There are many advantages to putting some serious thought into contact form design:

• People will feel more inspired to actually use it
• You can show off your brand’s personality
• It will be more memorable

So, how can you be sure that yours will stand out from the crowd?

1. Give it character

Nobody likes a website with no personality, right? The same goes for contact forms.

Don’t be afraid to give your form some character. Unleash your brand’s tone and style here.

2. Choose a color scheme

Sure, grayscale is awesome. In fact, I will defend it to the death—but it’s not always the answer for every website.

If your site’s color scheme is grayscale, then by all means, go for it.

But if your site is colorful, your contact form should be as well. It’s all about consistency.

If you haven’t already chosen a set of colors, consider selecting complementary colors for a visually appealing look.

3. Enhance it with your company’s branding

Your company’s branding is on your website and business cards, and your contact form should be no exception.

There are many ways to easily implement your company’s branding, like adding a company logo, changing around the colors, and more.

If you’re looking for a shortcut, you can do all of this instantly using FormAssembly’s drag-and-drop Form Builder.

4. Create a personalized introduction

Too many contact forms lack the classic introduction message.

Not having an introduction message is like enabling voicemail on your phone without going through the effort of creating a pre-recorded message.

People know what to do, but they’re thrown into it with no welcome. Is that really the best way to start things out with a potential client?

With a custom greeting, people will feel welcomed and will know that you are looking forward to hearing from them.

5. Choose unconventional button text

Most buttons on contact forms say “Send” or “Submit.”

So, the good news is that it doesn’t take much effort to make yours unique.

Get creative. Make your message fun.

It could be something as animated as “Blast off” or something unique, but ever-so-slightly toned down, like “Send away.”

What do you think?

Do you know of an impressive contact form? Have a few thoughts to share? Leave a comment or tweet with us @FormAssembly!

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post Contact Form Design: 5 Ways to Get Creative appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Let’s face it: It’s easy to forget about the importance of web form design, especially when you’ve got a million other things on your mind.

But the good news is that there’s still plenty of room to get creative when it comes to form design—and upgrading the look and feel of your forms will help visitors interact with your website in all the right ways.

Sure, everyone knows that a contact form is important, but how many people put real effort into the look and feel of a form? Not nearly as many. That’s why I wanted to take the time to showcase and acknowledge some of the best web forms around.

Let’s just say that if there were such thing as a form art show, these great web forms would be placed prominently on the walls for all to see and admire (and they’d be admired even by the form art snobs). Rest assured, we’ll be steering clear of Comic Sans, flashy graphics, and offensive color combinations.

So sit back, relax, and absorb the great design—because these companies really know what they’re doing! Here are five examples of web form design best practices:

This form on Pillow’s website is very tastefully designed, to say the least. Full of dotted borders and lively colors, it matches the website’s mood seamlessly and is easy to read.

On top of this, the “Sign me up” button is bold and prominent, which is ideal for boosting form conversions. Call to actions of any kind should always be bold, and this form is a great example of that.

This friendly form by UX Passion is welcoming, minimalist, and aesthetically pleasing.

The design is fresh and simple, and the “Send it” button provides a burst of color.

Every form field is relevant, and there is even a personable note to visitors about why answering every questions is important. By doing this, they’ve added a human element.

Really, it’s perfect.

Here’s an extremely creative contact form by Rogie King, owner of Fine Goods Market and co-founder of NeonMob.

The colors and font selection are nothing short of perfect.

Plus, there aren’t too many fields—making it more user friendly and less intimidating. After all, nobody likes long, drawn-out forms.

Bravo! Who wouldn’t want to use this form?

This work of art by Zenefits really couldn’t be any more perfect.

It’s basic, non-intimidating, and friendly all at the same time. The design is energizing and lively.

The font choice is fantastic. Plus, they get bonus points because there are no unnecessary questions. It’s also great that the “Submit” button really stands out (in a good way).

This form by ZenPayroll is the epitome of sleek, don’t you think?

It’s not too busy—because it doesn’t need to be. It’s straightforward with a lovely combination of gray, white and green.

The all-caps adds a nice touch and really works with this design.

What do you think?

Which one is your favorite—and do you know of an amazing form that we missed? Feel free to share with us in the comments!

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post 5 Examples of Web Form Design Best Practices appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Every growing business needs a way to track employee vacations efficiently—after all, it’d be chaos if you never knew the schedules of your fellow colleagues.

While paper forms once served this purpose, many companies have chosen to move on and go paperless with their out of office forms.

It’s really a win-win: It helps eliminate clutter and is eco-friendly. Plus, everything is all in one place and you can invite coworkers with FormAssembly accounts to view submissions at any time.

If you’re looking for a simple, straightforward time off request form builder, then check out how you can create awesome out of office forms using FormAssembly:

Choose a design

When building web forms online, the design possibilities are endless.

With web forms, you can make changes to the design instantly. If you want to add your company’s logo, implement a new field, change the background colors or the font—it can all be done in a matter of seconds.

It’s always good when a form reflects a company’s culture and branding. If you’re a small, scrappy startup, you might go for a fun, colorful design over a standard black and white color scheme.

Narrow down your questions

Like any other web form, the key here is to narrow down your questions so that the fields featured are ones that are absolutely necessary.

A long, drawn-out form will eat up time and resources. So, keep it short and simple.

Every business is different, but a few fields that most everyone needs are: First name, last name, department, and of course the dates they would like to request off.

You can also add an optional field for additional comments, just in case an employee would like to elaborate. For example, someone might say that they’d like several days off, but that one day would be a half day.

Decide who will view each submission

Since you don’t want those responses getting lost in a black hole, you’ll want to decide who will be in charge of viewing each time off request. Whether it be each department head, your secretary, or yourself—it’s easy to share forms using FormAssembly’s “Share” feature.

You can create a separate time off form for each department, and you can even create an all-in-one form which collects company-wide submissions. It’s also worth noting that with dynamic routing, it’s very simple to send certain responses to specific departments.

Bear in mind that anyone who will be a form administrator must have their own separate account.

To grant form access, simply login to your FormAssembly account, click “Edit” next to the form of your choice, hit “Configure” and then “Share.”

After clicking “Share,” type in your colleague’s FormAssembly username to invite them. You can choose whether to let them view the responses, give them the ability to edit the form, or both.

And you’re done! Easy as ever, right?

Set your notification settings

Do you really want to login to manually check each submission? Probably not. That’s why we offer email notifications for anyone who would like a heads up about new form responses.

Email notifications are enabled by default. To customize your email settings, login to your FormAssembly account, find your form, click “Edit,” then “Configure” and “Notifications.”

Here you can choose to enable either text or HTML emails. Plus, you can make sure that you’ll be notified whenever new submissions roll in.

If you’d like to get really fancy and totally automate this process, you can incorporate approve/deny capabilities with dynamic email notifications (see picture above).

Implementing this would mean that a supervisor would receive an email with a link to a prefilled form where they would then either approve or deny a time off request. After that, the employee would receive an email with their supervisor’s response. With dynamic email notifications and prefilled forms, all of this can be automatic.

Export results

If you’d like to print out a full list of time off requests (say, for bookkeeping purposes), you can easily do this with our “Export” feature.

For example, if you wanted to open the results in Excel, you would login to your FormAssembly account, find your form, and click the responses link (highlighted in red in the picture below).

After that, you can choose to export all responses in the format of your choice. You can choose CSV, HTML, XML, or attachments.

Conclusion

If you’re a fan of streamlining your business processes online, then you’d likely benefit from building and hosting your company’s time off request forms online.

As you can see, there is more to a web form than meets the eye. Your forms should be consistent with your company’s vision and branding, each form should have a designated admin, and the form should be straightforward and easy to use.

Has your company created an awesome time off request form online? We’d love to see it! Share your form with us in the comments.

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post Out of Office Forms: the Easy Way appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Here’s a form design tip on how you can launch forms faster. Use the updated Predefined Content in the Form Builder!

What’s Predefined Content?

Predefined Content are premade fields and sections you can add to any FormAssembly form. Learn more about how Predefined Content can help you save time.

What’s New

We’ve recently expanded our Predefined Content Library to streamline your form building even more! Here’s a quick overview of what’s new:

• Date
• Date with Calendar
• Time
• Time and Date
• Contact Details (Long and Short): Long includes a mailing address, and Short is just for name, phone, and email.
• Payment Info: For collecting credit card details. The Sensitive Data settings are ready to go!
  
  

• Shipping & Billing Addresses
• Likert Scale: Perfect for surveys and feedback.
• Checkbox Matrix
• Short Answer Matrix
• Radio Button Matrix

We’ve also updated the US States and Canadian Provinces so that the fields are variables, and the abbreviations are within the variable.

Share Your Form Design Tips

Send us your ideas and suggestions. What would you like to see in the Predefined Content? Is there a genius form design tip you’d like to share with us? Leave a comment here or tweet @FormAssembly!

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Deborah Kim

Deborah is Creative Director at FormAssembly, based in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves clean writing, friendly design, and dim sum.

The post Form Design Tip: Speed Up with Predefined Content appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Usability and user experience aren’t just about how a web form looks. It’s also about how your web forms talk to people — the words you use and how you say them. To follow web form usability best practices, don’t stop at designing the layout or style of a form. Remember to design your words, too.

How do you design with words?

It’s simple. Think like a designer: write iteratively, use data to drive your decisions, and aim for clarity and delight.

The world is stuffed full of boring, complicated, messy, awful forms. You probably don’t enjoy filling out forms, but think of the last time you were really impressed by a letter or an email. What was special about it? Maybe it was someone reaching out to see if you needed any help, or a friend linking you to a helpful article. Maybe it was something small, like a funny sentence or a perfect emoji.

The magic touch is the connectivity — the emotional connection you create with your audience.

Words can help you achieve that. What you say can make a huge difference in how people feel about and respond to your web form. The right words will boost your conversion rate and build trust in your brand. The right words will feel authentic, honest, and friendly.

So let’s get to it! We’ve put together this quick guide to designing with words, so you can get started and build your own creative process.

1. Write Iteratively

Writing iteratively means creating multiple drafts or versions. You don’t just leave it at one go, but your writing will develop and evolve through a series of iterations, going through a process of feedback and editing each time you move to the next iteration.

First, outline what kinds of information you need to collect, and how you’ll phrase the questions. Draft the form title, intro, question labels, submit button copy, thank you page — basically anything that needs text.

Keep in mind how the text will flow from one step to the next. Does everything make sense in that specific order? If you need to, diagram and wireframe to make sure that you’ve mapped out all the steps and possible sequences.

Once you’ve got the outline down, fill it in. Feel free to come up with several different spins on a word, sentence, or paragraph.

And then rewrite, revise, and rework your words until they’re ready. Depending on the project, you might go through three or more rounds of revision. Build on the things you learn, and keep iterating!

2. Make Data-Driven Choices

This applies to any decision across the board, but it’s essential to writing, too. Whenever there are multiple options, it can be tough to know which one to choose. People on your team might have different opinions, some stronger than others. But it takes more than someone’s keen intuition and wealth of experience.

In the end, it’s all about the user.

So head to the data. Do an audit and evaluate how closely your words hit the mark. Survey your users: ask open-ended questions and ask them what they think. Conduct user tests and gather feedback.

Why? Because you might think you’ve got all the answers, and you’re totally right about your subject line being the best… until you test it and realize it’s not that great. People are deleting that email after skimming the subject line! They instantly mark it as spam! Your amazing subject line is junk!

Testing gives you the opportunity to see what you’re doing right, and what you could do better. You’ll be able to identify bottlenecks and pain points, and understand what will ease the frustration for your users.

You might not have the resources to do a lot of user testing, especially if you need to put together dozens (or hundreds!) of web forms with multitudes of text. But your words matter. Since your web forms are how you draw in new customers, clients, or constituents, user testing will help you make the most effective decisions and drive the most impact.

3. Be Clear

Make sure your words are as clear as possible. Use fewer words.

Time is valuable, and people are always on the lookout for something better to do with their time. The more words you use, the more you’re asking them to read.

Let’s say you’re driving on a road that forks into two paths:

• The left path looks smooth and clear.
• The right path has a ton of rocks on it — not huge enough to block your car completely, but big enough to get in your way. You’re going to have to do a lot of careful maneuvering around these rocks.

Which one would you pick?

Yep, the easy one. And most of the time, it’s a lot easier to close the tab than to give your time and energy to a web form. Don’t forget that there are endless distractions to keep respondents from filling out a form.

If any part of your form is confusing, ambiguous, or complicated — that’s a lot of rocks for people to deal with. You want the clearest possible path, so people can speed right to the finish line.

With online forms, less is often better. Less text means there’s less to parse, and it’s less overwhelming. After cutting form fields and going from 11 to 4 questions total, one company increased conversions by 120%! So keep your words lean and take away anything that’s not necessary.

4. Delight Your Users

You need to develop and harness what makes your organization unique and appealing to your audience. If you’re running a toy shop for kids, you might want to add more kid-friendly touches to your web forms, like simpler word choice and fun surprises so that children and parents can read along together.

If you’re a florist, you could add lively and interesting descriptions about the flowers and bouquets that your customers can order.

It doesn’t have to be a huge, flashy gesture. But explore ways to make your words meaningful.

Delighting your audience can be as simple as customizing the Thank You page of a form, so that people feel appreciated through your genuine gratitude, or assured by a confirmation that you’ll get in touch ASAP.

Think about how you’d interact with them face-to-face. How do you try to connect with your audience? Figure out how you can take your conversations online. Write like you talk.

5. Organize

Order your form fields and paragraphs so that they follow a natural, logical order. Add section headers and emphasize key points. Make the space clean and inviting.

Basically, make it easy to skim! People will take shortcuts wherever they can, so they’re likely to skim. If words are readily organized, then people will get more info from just a quick glance. That’s very convenient for anyone short on time.

We’ve already said that shorter is better, but if you must have a long form, you can cut down the mental strain by splitting up your form into multiple pages. It’s like dividing a phone number into small blocks of three to four digits, rather than leaving it as a long string of numbers. Break an unwieldy form into bite-size pieces so it’s easier to understand and to fill out. Add a navigation bar so it’s easy to flip from one page to the next.

6. Talk to Your Audience

This goes hand-in-hand with user delight. Who’s your audience? Be mindful and respectful of who and where they are. Have you refined your words so that you’re specifically talking to them?

For example, if you cater to American teenagers, you might use more informal, chatty words and sprinkle emoji into your text. Or if your respondents are parents enrolling kids for a summer camp, your voice might be welcoming and supportive. You’ll present the camp as a fun, educational place and speak to any parents’ concerns.

But if your audience is international and spans many ages and nationalities, then you’ll want to be as plain as possible. You’ll need to avoid using any American English idioms and phrases, because people could get confused or misunderstand what you’re saying. Ideally, your web form will be localized for your audience, so that the text, buttons, and error messages are in your audience’s language.

7. Match Your Brand’s Voice

Your words should sync up with your organization’s identity. It should be a seamless transition from your website, storefront, office, email, letter, text, or however your audience finds you — to your forms. If your web presence and your brick-and-mortar office is beautiful, but your web forms look disconnected and dull, that’s a jarring experience for your users.

Is your organization’s voice playful or professional? If it’s playful, it doesn’t mean you have to go overboard with cutesy words. But you can feel free to have a little fun in the right place. For example, MailChimp’s voice is bright and expressive, but the tone changes depending on the context.

If you have a professional voice, you can be interesting and friendly without leaning too casual or silly.

Just take care to steer clear of cookie-cutter text that’s dry and generic. Does it seem like it could belong any old website, or is it clearly and specifically your organization’s voice?

Personalize your words as much you can, whether you’re designing a homeowner loan application or a pizza party event registration. The unique details of your web forms will help you stand out from the crowd, and help you make a human connection with prospective clients and customers.

8. Focus on Benefits

If people fill out your form, what will they get at the end of it?

Maybe you’re offering a free consultation, or an eBook download. But the benefits go beyond these things themselves, so uncover the real values for your audience. For example, a financial consultation could help people save money and time and find more freedom in their lives — freedom to fund a vacation or a move to a new city. An eBook download packed with cooking tips and tricks could teach you to eat healthier and trim your budget. That’s a huge plus for your nutrition and your savings.

Or maybe the benefits are broader. A survey response could help you change an important policy for low-income households for the better, with a significant boost to their quality of life.

So whether you’re designing business forms or nonprofit forms, show your audience exactly what kinds of great things they can gain or contribute through a web form. It’s a win-win: they’ll know up front what the benefits are, and you’ll land more conversions.

9. Use Better Verbs on Your Submit Buttons

Does your submit button say “Submit”? Toss it out!

It’s plain and doesn’t tell you anything about the online form. It’s like naming a restaurant “Restaurant” — there’s just not enough detail. Wouldn’t you rather know what you’ll be eating before you sit down at a place?

Think of five different words you could use instead. Specific verbs are more helpful:

• Donate
• Register Now
• Send a Message
• Download the Guide
• Schedule My Consultation

Now, you might want to jazz it up with a phrase like “Awesome!” or “Yes!” But while these words communicate a strong voice and tone, they’re vague and don’t give a good sense of what’s going to happen next. Awesome… what? Yes to what? You’re not sure what the actions are there.

When you use specific verbs, respondents can tell immediately what the submit button does. And better verbs encourage people to take action, because the words paint a clear picture of what they’ll get or accomplish.

Web Form UX Further Reading

Looking for more resources on web form user experience? Check out these thoughtful and informative articles:

• What Impacts Web Form Conversion? Luke Wroblewski
• 8 Reasons Users Don’t Fill Out Sign Up Forms, UX Movement
• Must Read? Must Go in Question! Formulate Information Design

Share Your Web Form Usability Tips

We hope this little primer has helped you learn to design with words and think creatively about your web forms!

Do you have any UX tips and processes to share? We’d love to hear your case studies and insights. Please email us at community@formassembly.com, tweet @FormAssembly, or drop a comment here.

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })(); // ]]>

Deborah Kim

Deborah is Creative Director at FormAssembly, based in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves clean writing, friendly design, and dim sum.

The post 9 Web Form UX Tips to Design Your Words appeared first on The Assembly Line.

On the web, there are two kinds of surveys: The awesome ones, which generate many responses and insights — and the terrible ones that don’t get utilized.

Don’t let your survey fall into that dreaded second category of doom.

Here’s the good news: It’s easy to write good surveys that inspire people to respond. If you’re wondering how to write a survey, check out these 5 best practices:

1. Keep the survey brief

The other day, I stumbled across a survey on one of my favorite websites. It was a popup that said something to the effect of, “Care to take a quick survey to help us improve?” So, being the regular that I am, I thought it would be no problem and was happy to spend a few minutes to help out.

And anyway, it was just a quick survey, right? I surely had the time to answer a few questions.

Wrong.

The survey was anything but brief. All in all, it contained around 10 pages and took up about 20 minutes of my time.

And to make things even worse, the progress bar was inaccurate.

I doubt many people finished that survey. Don’t make the same mistake that company made: Remember that when you create a survey, you’re asking someone to take time out of their busy day to help you out for free. 

Here’s a question for you: Would you help a friend out for free?

You’re probably rolling your eyes and thinking to yourself, “Of course. Who wouldn’t?”

Let me ask you this: Would you help a stranger out for free?

Well, that would probably depend on a number of factors: What do they need help with? How much time do you have to spare? Who are they?

But what if that stranger was super friendly, gracious, and clearly respected your time?

When people are awesome and show respect for our time, we tend to listen and be more receptive overall.

I don’t know about you, but I get tons of sales emails every week and about 99% of those get deleted. Most of them come across as extremely spammy, and the salespeople (completely strangers) write long emails and then ask me to take time out of my day to meet.

The truth is that this mentality of respecting someone’s time can be applied to almost anything — and surveys are no exception.

2. Choose straightforward questions

Make sure your questions are direct. Avoid vague questions that may potentially confuse respondents. Don’t use fancy words or cryptic phrases — say it well, and say it in a way that anyone could understand. In other words, don’t make people guess.

Only include words that are absolutely essential.

Check out this example comparison of two possible questions:

• Version #1: What would enhance your experience as a user?
• Version #2: In your opinion, what makes the user experience in the app illustrious and what should we be dedicated to improving? What could be added to make it better?

So, which one did you think was best? Let me guess: Did you prefer the first question? That’s probably because the question was condensed in a simple, easy-to-understand way, making it much easier to understand.

Oh, and you probably also noticed that the second version was much longer. According to a study by Oracle, respondents are put off by lengthy questions. Shorter questions are much less of a hassle, as far as respondents are concerned.

Free your form of arbitrary details and watch it soar! After all, sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest impact.

3. Don’t make every field required

Nobody likes error messages, and poorly-built forms can be breeding grounds for errors. And we all knows that errors lead to frustration and, in the worst cases, abandonment.

Here’s the thing: They don’t have to be. People often run into errors due to not filling out all the required information. This happens when people are moving quickly and don’t see all the fields, or the required fields aren’t well-marked.

The more fields your survey has, the less likely folks will finish.

So, ask yourself this: Would you rather have fewer responses, with every questioned answered — or many more responses with a few unanswered questions?

You can even get creative by adding fields that aren’t marked as required or optional. Every field could be optional, but there won’t be any clunky “optional” or “required” text next to the fields.

4. Use conditional logic

Since the last thing you want is a bloated survey, save some space by implementing conditional logic. It may sound intimidating, but it’s really not.

Here’s an example use case: if you’re hosting a potluck, you might create a question like: “What will you be bringing?” with a drop-down list of choices. If someone chooses “Drinks”, then another option would appear with a separate selection of different types of drinks.

This will give your questionnaire a clean, user-friendly look that people will feel more inspired by (rather than feeling overwhelmed by the amount of questions).

Conditional logic is the future — it’s like the secret sauce for web forms. Not everyone is doing it yet, mainly because it’s annoying to code and not always offered in form builders. So, it’s time to flex those form superpowers and create an amazing experience for your respondents! Hint: Just in case you didn’t know, FormAssembly’s form builder has magical conditional logic abilities!

5. Don’t skimp on design

Design matters. A lot. Even if you crafted the best survey questions in the world, poor design could potentially kill your chances of getting any responses.

Just as you’d dress up to go to a top-notch (and super fancy) business event, it’s important to also dress up your form to give it a more professional and awesome feel. Challenge yourself to go all out: Add your logo, company branding, and personality. Make the survey a lovely experience curated by your company.

You put sweat and blood into writing those questions, so give it the design it needs to really shine. Send your newborn survey out into the real world, prepared and ready for anything!

Conclusion

Surveys are incredibly helpful to businesses and individuals for a number of reasons: They provide a wonderful way to collect feedback from customers, organize events, get anonymous opinions, and much more — which is why it’s so important to put your best foot forward by creating a survey that is well-written and user-friendly.

By following the five web survey best practices we mentioned above, you will create awesome forms that’ll inspire more responses.

So, what do you think?

Over to you: Do you have any tips to add? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts with us in the comments, or tweet with us @FormAssembly.

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post How to Write a Survey: 5 Best Practices appeared first on The Assembly Line.

So you want your forms to look awesome.

You can use the Theme Editor for that, but let’s say you want to target a specific question. Or you can’t find Theme Editor options for the kinds of styles and effects that you want to add to your form.

Here’s a tip: You can plug in your custom styles into the Custom Code section! But wait. You’re not a programmer or a developer? And you have no clue what goes in that box?

Well, we’ve got great news for you. We just updated the Custom CSS guide in the Knowledge Base.

CSS is magical code that you can use to change the look and feel of your form. You can get super specific with the customization.

In the guide, you’ll find an introduction to CSS, plus code examples and — most importantly! — a list of the form elements you can style on any FormAssembly form. And there’s also handy screenshots to give you a visual idea of what exactly your styles will affect.

For instance, you can customize:

• The entire body of the form
• Question labels
• Matrix layouts
• Hints

If you’ve got any CSS tips and tricks to share, please pass them along to community@formassembly.com, tweet @FormAssembly, or leave a comment here!

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Deborah Kim

Deborah is Creative Director at FormAssembly, based in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves clean writing, friendly design, and dim sum.

The post Amp Up Your Design and Style with the CSS Guide appeared first on The Assembly Line.

If you’re a Pardot user and you create landing pages for marketing on a regular basis, then I don’t need to waste your time explaining the importance of capturing leads via web form.

Chances are, you already know that it’s vital — and that it’s actually one of the easiest ways to collect leads online. And if you’re using a smart form that goes beyond basic capabilities, all the better, right?

Let me give you an example that you might find useful. Let’s say you wanted to add a web form to a landing page with your company’s professional branding, then push that data you gather from respondents to Salesforce.

Well, let me share something with you: it’s ridiculously easy to do.

Here on the blog, we like to share tips, tricks, and new and unique ways you can use FormAssembly with other cool existing tools. Which is why today we’re showing how you can use Pardot and FormAssembly together in the most amazing of ways!

If you’re a FormAssembly user but you love Pardot, the good news is that you can use both of them together to create a powerful marketing engine. (Note: You’ll need a FormAssembly account and a Pardot account for this to work.)

Recently, we created a landing page for an upcoming event in Pardot and then built and customized a form using FormAssembly, which allowed us to then push that data to Salesforce. We thought it was pretty useful, and for others out there who want to do something similar, here’s how you can do that:

1. Create an awesome landing page in Pardot

Use Pardot’s landing page builder to create a beautiful, high-converting landing page. Not only is this a major time-saver, but you can drag and drop to your heart’s desire!

If you don’t have time to code yourself, or you’re managing a team that needs to be able to produce landing pages in a timely manner, then a landing page builder might be the answer for you (and the ultimate time-saver).That way, you can build landing pages without writing even a line of code.

But don’t forget to keep landing page best practices in mind. For example, Jignesh Gohel from Usability Geek says that landing pages shouldn’t have too many opt-in forms. While opt-in forms are definitely necessary, your landing page shouldn’t be filled with multiple forms because it will only confuse visitors.

2. Build and customize your form

If you’re looking for a form that connects to Salesforce and can be customized beautifully with your company’s branding, then try creating your form in FormAssembly’s Form Builder. There, you will be able to upload your logo, customize the color scheme, and drag-and-drop any text or fields you want.

If you don’t want to deal with creating landing pages from scratch with code, no worries — you can use one of Pardot’s pre-made landing page templates and customize it to suit your needs.

Your forms will be able to go beyond web-to-lead — you’ll be able to create web-to-any-Salesforce-object forms.

3. Enable the Salesforce Connector

In order to create customized forms and push respondent’s data to Salesforce, you should first enable the Salesforce connector in FormAssembly. To do this, go to “Edit ➜ Configure” and then click “Connectors.” Find the Salesforce section and hit “Configure.”

You will then be able to create new records, map multiple standard or custom objects, and even implement other cool things like advanced prefilling. For a complete and more detailed walk-through, view the full documentation.

4. Embed the form code snippet in Pardot

Once you’re finished building your form, find the code snippet (it’s generated automatically for you) and paste it in your Pardot landing page.

You can find this in the FormAssembly dashboard after clicking the name of your form. After finding your form, click “Edit –> Publish” and find the code snippet. Oh, and don’t let the jumble of code worry you. You won’t have to mess with the code, and all you will have to do is copy and paste.

After that, head on back over to the landing page editor in Pardot and click the custom code symbol (as shown in the screenshot below).

Now, decide where you want the form to appear on the page. Once you think of a location, paste the form code snippet (the one you just grabbed) wherever you would like it to go. Now, view the updated version and your form will appear. You can move it wherever you want on the page, so feel free to re-arrange as needed until you find the perfect place for it.

And that’s it! In case you’re curious, here’s a picture example of a form in action on a landing page hosted by Pardot. This is a landing page that was created specifically for an event, and it was built with a custom landing page along with custom form integration with FormAssembly’s Salesforce connector:

Well, you’ve finished the guide! Congratulations: Now you’re ready to start collecting leads like a pro. You won’t even know what to do with all those incredible leads.

Conclusion

Over to you: Have you tried creating custom web forms and embedding them in your Pardot landing pages? We’d love to hear from you and see some examples of the cool stuff you’ve created!

Feel free to share your thoughts and examples with us in the comments here, or tweet with us @FormAssembly.

(function() { function async_load(){ var s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://pi' : 'http://cdn') + '.pardot.com/pd.js'; var c = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; c.parentNode.insertBefore(s, c); } if(window.attachEvent) { window.attachEvent('onload', async_load); } else { window.addEventListener('load', async_load, false); } })();

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post Pardot Forms: Easy Forms for Your Landing Pages appeared first on The Assembly Line.

When you think of web usability, you probably think about landing page optimization, design, and the overall user experience. But there’s one missing link — something that is vital to web usability. Something that not many people think about.

So, what the heck am I talking about, anyway? I’m talking about web form usability and best practices, an aspect of the user experience that is extremely underrated.

When was the last time you filled out a form? It might be difficult to remember at first, and that’s because we use forms so often that we don’t even think about it. We often don’t think about things that we do all the time. For example, most of us don’t put much thought into opening a door, driving a car, paying with a credit card, or other everyday occurrences.

Forms have become such a common part of the online experience that we sometimes don’t realize how much we really use them.

But here’s the thing: You will benefit from thinking about how to make forms more user-friendly. Oftentimes, forms are what’s standing between you and communication with a customer — or even a new sale!

Why does web form usability matter?

If you think about it, online forms are a digital gateway of communication between you and your customers. Whether you’re creating a newsletter subscribe form, a contact form, survey, application, or feedback form, a lot of important information is sent through forms.

How much work does your company put into its website’s overall look and feel? I’m guessing a lot. So, your forms should be no exception. You want the best experience possible for your users.

The last thing your visitors want is a frustrating, confusing user experience. Read on to learn 7 ways to create awesome, user-friendly forms:

1. When it comes to design, less is (really) more

If you’re design-minded, you’ve probably heard this a million times, but it’s especially true with forms. The more bells and whistles you add, the more annoyed your respondents will be.

When was the last time you were genuinely impressed by a website (and didn’t leave within 5 seconds)? What do you remember about the experience? Chances are, you noticed the site was easy to use and that its design was pleasant.

There’s a reason why websites like Airbnb and Twitter are so popular: They’re simple and straightforward. People aren’t left wondering what to do. And guess what? It’s easier said than done, but if you aim for simplicity and strip out anything that may be unnecessary, you’ll have a much easier time.

2. Don’t throw in unnecessary fields

Nobody likes being presented with a form with an endless amount of fields. That’s like hiking up a mountain and not being able to see the top, and who wants that?

According to Oracle, people are not inspired to answer long questions. It’s not all that surprising, and yet there are forms and surveys that break this rule ALL the time. Don’t let yours be one of them.

So, take some time and think about the number of fields in your form. If something isn’t completely necessary, or if you could do without it, then consider saving it for another time. That way, you won’t overwhelm your respondents.

In the form example above, you can probably guess that not every field should really be there. For example, knowing someone’s Twitter handle may not be necessary in this particular case. And if your company communicates via email primarily, then the mailing address field really doesn’t need to be there.

Also, focus on asking questions in the most straightforward way possible. If you construct a question in a way that makes people stop and wonder, “What the heck do they mean?”, they’re not going to want to stick around. After all, people are busy!

3. Choose a bold call to action button

Form optimization best practices often state that a bold call to action button is more noticeable (and clickable) to users.

Yep, it may sound silly… but it’s true. Sometimes small tweaks can make the biggest differences.

With a call to action button that contrasts the rest of a form, people know exactly what they need to do. So, whether you choose a button that is blue, red, or orange — make sure it’s bold!

4. Avoid going validation-crazy

While you certainly don’t want spam submissions, it’s also not cool to put too many obstacles in front of your users. Too many validation tests can potentially frustrate your visitors and leave a bad impression.

In other words, don’t make someone translate a CAPTCHA and then solve a math problem. If you must add a validation rule, stick with just one.

5. Keep questions short and concise

When forms are full of text (even the most entertaining questions in the world), many people will subconsciously think they might take more time to complete. That’s why you should condense your thoughts and questions in a way that makes sense and doesn’t take up a whole lot of space.

Rather than go on and on about this and bore you with details, I’ll instead show you the difference so you can see for yourself.

Which one do you think is most user-friendly?

Or…

Sure, the first one may be more conversational, but the second version is much simpler. The second version is shorter, and as a result, less intimidating.

I know what you’re thinking: How exactly could a form possibly be intimidating?

But the truth is that a long form sends a subconscious message to respondents, and that message is “This will take longer to read and respond to, and will take up more of my time.”

6. Think like a salesperson

A form would have to be pretty good looking to sell itself without being accompanied by any convincing marketing or sales copy.

So that’s what you need to do: Convince people to fill out your form. Why should they take time out of their busy days to signup for your newsletter, product, or service? Play devil’s advocate, and then let them know why signing up would benefit them. Don’t be shy. Do be authentic and put yourself in their shoes.

Make it interesting, and make every word count — because you’ll need to convince them with words.

You don’t need to go crazy and write an essay about why to fill out a simple form, but a brief introduction will do the trick.

7. Say goodbye

When you’re out to lunch with friends, you don’t just get up and leave after your meal without saying goodbye, right?

Of course you wouldn’t, because you’re not a jerk — and you know that people don’t like to be left hanging. The same goes for form submissions. Tell people what they can expect next by adding a thank-you message and indicating when they’re likely to hear back from you.

If someone on your team typically responds to messages within 48 hours, let them know after they hit the “Send” button. Also give them a heads up that the message was sent successfully, so that they’re not left wondering if they need to re-submit their message.

What do you think?

Do you have any form usability tips that we missed? Can you show us an example of an amazing web form? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts with us in the comments, or tweet with us @FormAssembly.

Other great resources you should really check out:

• An Extensive Guide to Web Form Usability (Justin Mifsud, Smashing Magazine)
• 14 Steps to Building Sign-up Forms That Convert  (Peep Laja, ConversionXL)

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post 7 Web Form Usability Tips appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Companies today know that sleek, efficient online payment forms are extremely important. After all, these forms are digital versions of the customer checkout experience. And you can do a lot with them, too: You can create order forms, donation forms, event registration forms, and more… the possibilities are endless!

But let’s talk about the customer experience. Think about the last time you went to a store and bought something. Was it easy or difficult to check out and pay?

Chances are, it was easy. You probably don’t even remember when you swiped your card, as it was a seemingly minor detail (and likely didn’t take any time at all).

OK, that’s not entirely fair. It’s not always a pleasant experience, after all. Maybe you had to wait through a ridiculously long line when you happened to be in a rush.

I think we can all agree that lines and long waits are annoying. We go into stores to buy things, not hang out in lines.

If you were at the grocery store waiting around in what turned out to be a VERY long line, holding just a gallon of milk, would you stick around — or would you be more likely to call it a day and come back another time (or maybe even go to another store)?

You’d probably be closer to leaving, depending on how long the line was and how much time you had to spare.

Here’s the thing: This same scenario happens online all the time, and people can lose a lot of money over it. If your payment forms present too many obstacles, people will want to abandon your form, which results in lost trust and fewer sales.

If an order form isn’t efficient or it takes a long time to complete, people will be more likely to abandon the form entirely and go back to their lives.

People like convenience.

So, if you want to learn how to optimize your forms and stop missing out on potential sales, then read on to learn about the top four online payment form best practices:

1. Keep the design simple

To give your visitors the best possible experience, your design should be simple! Why? It (quite literally) pays off to follow the “less is more” philosophy when it comes to payment forms. This has been proven time and time again in studies, including one by Google revealing that visually complex design is seen as generally unappealing.

Psychologically, we feel more inspired to interact with a website when it’s straightforward and easy to use.

I know, I know: But you want to conserve space. But the truth is that when you squeeze everything you want into one small area, it can come across as unprofessional. And unprofessional is the absolute last thing you want to be when collecting payments.

The above form is a great example of this — there is plenty of open space, and no unnecessary fields. Each and every field plays an important role, and the questions are straightforward and easy to understand.

2. Convenience matters: Offer multiple methods of payment

As humans, we love being able to make choices and decisions for ourselves.

There’s a reason why just about every store you walk into offers multiple forms of payment: It’s convenient and much more flexible than limiting customers to one form of payment.

The more convenient the process is, the less obstacles there are in front of you and the customer.

And when you’re collecting payments online, eliminating obstacles like this can be especially crucial.

When deciding what payment methods to offer, do some market research to figure out what is most widely used in your industry, while also keeping in mind overall statistics. For example, it’s pretty useful to know that people most commonly use credit cards to take care of online payments..

3. Keep organization in mind

Here’s one big mistake I see all too often on websites: Order forms that seem to be never-ending. If a form has 30+ fields and they’re all in one place, that can be overwhelming. And anyway, who has the time to fill all those fields out?

Even if somebody did have the time to fill out every single field, they’d probably prefer doing something else with their time.

And as an organization, you value your customer’s time — and you want them to know that!

Take this example, taken from one of our templates (you can view the full version here):

The design is elegant and simple, and the best part is that the process is split into portions that are easy to digest. After filling out just a few fields, the customer is taken to the next page to fill out more information.

Breaking the steps up, as shown in the example above, makes it easier for people to use.

4. Enable SSL for increased security

You shop at places where you feel safe, right?

Of course you do! I’m sure you can also remember a time where you walked into a store that seemed a little shady (and you probably left).

It’s no secret that people like to feel safe when they pull out their wallets, which is why stores go to great lengths to make people feel comfortable when they walk through the door.

And, as you can imagine, web order forms are no exception. In fact, earning trust online can be pretty tough. In fact, a study by Statista revealed that 17% of shoppers left a page without paying due to concerns about security.

Think about that. A whopping seventeen percent. How much would you lose in a year if 17% of people left before completing your payment form?

So, don’t give visitors any reason to question your commitment to security — enable SSL on your forms to help protect your data! It’s simple, effective, and it’ll give your visitors peace of mind. Showing visitors your sie has SSL enabled means that they know all interactions are encrypted.

It’s a simple way of keeping your visitor’s data extra secure, so hey, why not?

5. Be very, very clear — but don’t ramble

Have you ever received an email from someone, only to realize you have no idea what they’re asking for?

Don’t let your web forms fall into that same trap. Communicate clearly on your website and your customers will be happier.

Payment forms are not the place for vague questions or confusing language. For best results, it’s important to phrase questions in a way that makes sense to anyone who may be reading.

In the example below, the questions could be much shorter. On top of that, the second question is a little confusing — the respondent would have a hard time figuring out which box they will actually be receiving since it appears to be based on preference only (and not orders).

Here’s a tip: Before publishing your next form, take a few moments to run it by a colleague or a copywriter and get their feedback. A second pair of eyes can really be a big help, as somebody else may be able to point out certain areas of the form that could use more (or less) clarity.

Keep in mind that while clarity is crucial, it’s important not to bore your visitors with questions that are way too long. Say what you need to say in a way that is clear, but also short and sweet.

So, what’s your #1 tip?

It’s your turn now: What do you think is most important when it comes to online payment forms? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or tweet with us @FormAssembly.

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post 5 Online Payment Form Best Practices appeared first on The Assembly Line.

We recently opened a Resource Center! Now you’ll find our documentation and Knowledge Base, plus guides, classes, and video tutorials all in one place. You can also suggest improvements and rate our help articles.

We wanted to make it easier to search through and browse articles, so we designed the menus to stay in place while you scroll.

Plus, you can now see when an article was last updated, and check out what’s new and most popular! You’ll see “New” and “Updated” buttons next to those posts.

You can also rate our articles, which is a quick and easy way to let us know how helpful the documentation is!

Ready to explore? You can quickly search our resources with the Help menu in FormAssembly.

Or, click here:

Note for Enterprise Users

To access Administrator documentation, please sign into FormAssembly Enterprise and visit the documentation through the Help menu. You’ll need to go through the menu in order to view any admin-only documentation.

FormAssembly Support Team

Meet our amazing support team! If you talk to us via chat or email, you’ll be helped by Adrian, Andrea, Valerie, Mike, Forest, Ashlee, or Hillary. They’re also behind our Resource Center, and continually working to improve our help resources.

Resource Center Feedback

We’re always adding information and improving our step-by-step walkthroughs, so we’d love your feedback. If you have an idea of how we can make our resources better, please share with us! Tweet @FormAssembly, leave a comment here, or chat with us in FormAssembly.

Deborah Kim

Deborah is Creative Director at FormAssembly, based in Bloomington, Indiana. She loves clean writing, friendly design, and dim sum.

The post New: FormAssembly Resource Center appeared first on The Assembly Line.

So, your company is sponsoring a trade show — that’s awesome!

Chances are, you’ve probably been thinking about how you’ll be capturing leads at your booth — and how to follow up without wasting too much time.

After all, you’ll likely be talking to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Many of us are (much to our dismay) familiar with the old practice of collecting contact information, manually adding that data to a CRM and then reaching out to individuals one-on-one. This is consuming and, well, more than just a little annoying. And it doesn’t make a lot of sense when there are better, more productive ways to automate the process.

Here’s how you can capture leads quickly and efficiently using web forms at trade shows:

1. Provide real value

If you were at a conference and someone asked you to fill out an intake form but provided no real reason why, would you feel compelled to fill it out?

Probably not.

What if you were offered you a free eBook on a hot topic you had just been discussing with someone?

And what about giveaways: Would you fill out a brief form to enter an interesting giveaway?

The best sales teams know that in order to have a meaningful discussion with a prospect, the focus needs to be on what you can do for them — how your service can change their lives.

Interactions at conferences are no exception. Many companies will scan or ask prospects to fill out a form, but what they fail to do is provide value to the prospect.

So, with quick interactions, how can you provide value?

You can provide value by offering something that can truly help their business — and offering it for free. This might be in the form of a free resource like an eBook, a giveaway item that may help them become more efficient, or even in-depth whitepapers. The possibilities are really quite endless!

When you collect something like an email address from a prospect, it’s always good to give them something of value back (aside from simply a follow-up email). It shows you’re invested!

2. Let them know how long it will take to complete

Let people know that your form is quick. Why? Well, you don’t want them to assume the worst. Even if your form only has a few fields — if you don’t say it’s brief, people may wonder if you want them to fill out a long, time-consuming survey.

Put yourself in their shoes for a second. If you were asked these questions, which one would get the most positive reaction from you?

Option A: We’re sending people free eBooks — if you fill out your email real quick right here, it only takes a second.

Option B: We’re sending people free eBooks — all you need to do is fill out a form.

If only an email is required and it just takes a second, let people know that they won’t have to sacrifice their day to fill it out.

3. Make sure the form is straightforward and well-designed

Let’s face it: Nobody wants to fill out a web form that’s outdated, clunky and confusing. That just doesn’t sound like any fun at all.

As silly as it may sound, think of a form as an extension of your company. If you’re a tech company, go with a modern, minimalist design.

Here’s an example of a form we recently used at Dreamforce 2015. As you can see, we had a few different things going on: A giveaway, a free eBook download, and the option to signup for an extended trial. All the visitor had to do was fill out two fields: One for their name, and the other was for their work email.

Design-wise, it was important to us that the form itself was clean, user-friendly and welcoming. We wanted to ensure the design was consistent with our company’s branding and overall vibe.

The checklist worked out well, as we knew that what might benefit one visitor may be different from the next. So, we gave people choices and the ability to select what extra(s) they wanted to receive.

4. Push that data to your CRM

OK, so now that you have that sweet data, you need to make sure to keep it organized for later, right?

And there’s no reason you should have to manually enter every piece of data into your CRM. That’s just tedious, and you’ve got better things to do!

Instead of doing it all manually, you can export your form’s data or use a handy integration (for example, you might use FormAssembly’s Salesforce connector) to automatically transfer that information over to your CRM. This will help you automate the process so that everything’s ready to go.

Which brings me to the next step…

5. Follow up with your contacts

After that data is all transferred over, it’s a good idea to stay top of mind by following up with prospects.

Pro Tip: As tempting as it may be, try to avoid following up the day after everyone gets back. Chances are, every other company will be doing the same thing and it’ll be tough to stand out.

And besides, if you attended a conference and were out of town for a few days, would you enjoy sifting through a pile of emails? I seriously doubt that you would. :-)

Now, it’s good to be clear that I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow up at all — of course not! There’s no doubt that following up within a timely manner is important. Just make sure that your email isn’t the day after the conference, as that’s when every person is sending their follow-ups as well.

Conclusion & over to you

Now that you’ve learned how to capture leads at trade shows by offering them something of value, collecting their contact information, and then push that data to your CRM seamlessly, we want to know: Do you have any other tips to add to this list? We would love to hear what you have to say! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, or tweet with us anytime @FormAssembly!

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post How to Capture Leads at Trade Shows with Web Forms appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Let’s face it: Hiring isn’t easy.

And neither is sorting through hundreds of generic online job applications before finally finding a few that look promising.

Here are a few possible scenarios. Which one would you prefer?

1. After posting a job, you sort through hundreds of mediocre applications and only find a few that are promising.
2. You get a smaller pool of applications, nothing crazy — but you’re blown away by almost every application.
3. Nobody applies for your job because your application form isn’t user-friendly.

Alright, I’m going to take a wild guess that you went with the second one.

Why? Because you value your time. If you didn’t value your time, you wouldn’t be reading an article on how to create applications in the most efficient way possible.

And let’s be honest: Creating (and promoting) an online job application is only a very small portion of the amount of time it actually takes to hire someone.

Why should you create a job application form with efficiency in mind?

As someone who cares about the day-to-day workings of your business, you probably live and breathe efficiency.

That’s why it’s so important to create job applications that actually motivate awesome people to apply. That way, you can avoid being stuck looking at hundreds of “meh” applications.

Here are eight ways you can create INSANELY efficient job applications that inspire top talent to apply.

1. Know what you really want (and who you’re really going to be hiring)

This is really, really important. If you know what qualities you’re looking for in a candidate, you’ll know how to create a job listing that grabs their attention — and you’ll also be able to spot them quickly.

Really think about what kind of person you want to hire. Beyond the job description, ask yourself what you’re looking for in terms of work ethic or the way they tackle tasks.

Are you looking for someone who works quickly, or would you prefer hiring someone who’s careful and meticulous? The best way to gain attention from the type of employee you want to hire is to be as detailed as you possibly can in the description. Don’t be afraid to talk about your company culture.

2. Ask smart questions to save time

We’ve all heard that there’s no such thing as a stupid question.

But when it comes to job applications, it’s in your best interest to ask smart, direct questions — after all, it’ll save you a crazy amount of time!

Creative questions get creative answers.

Check out this example of an application for a marketing position:

The last question in this example isn’t really a standard one, but as you can imagine, any answer the candidate provides will reveal a lot about how they approach a task.

Notice that not every field is required, either. This can also tell you a lot about a candidate: is it their style to go above and beyond, or are they more likely to do the bare minimum?

Of course, you don’t want to get too crazy with this — if your application form is too long and tedious, nobody will want to apply. Then again, if it’s ridiculously easy to apply, you’ll get hundreds of sub-par applications and will have to go through many of them before finally finding your top choices.

The key is to find that perfect balance.

On top of choosing the right questions to ask, it’s also vital that many of the questions are open-ended. So, try your best to avoid yes or no answers. Bill Cates explains in a HubSpot article that some questions really can bring true value to the table, but only when they’re good, open-ended questions.

3. Include specific instructions to help you filter out applications

Come on, do you really want to read someone’s application when they didn’t even bother to read the job description?

In the section where you’re explaining the job duties, try doing something a little sneaky: ask them to put an asterisk before their first name in the form field. This will tell you that they read the entire job description and didn’t skip it over.

Adding that extra step will help you easily separate the people who took the time to read the job description from the people who blasted out tons of identical applications.

If someone doesn’t take the time to read your job description, there’s a good chance that their application isn’t going to be tailored for your company, either, and that they’re copying and pasting their responses from other applications.

It’s pretty easy to figure out whether or not an applicant took the time to read everything, and the result is that you’ll be able to focus on the applications of those individuals who took the time — so, what have you got to lose?

4. Choose a design that’s simple and user-friendly

Sounds cheesy, but let the design be a reflection of your company. Upload your logo, use your company colors, and write a wicked job description.

And don’t forget to make sure that your application form is responsive. We now know that many people use only their phones to browse the web, so this isn’t an area to ignore.

Keep the look of the application simple. In other words, it’s always a good idea to avoid a cluttered 90s design with crazy fonts. :-)

5. Create a thank you page so that job applicants know what’s next

It’s important to let applicants know what they can expect after submitting an application.

And guess what? You don’t need to do anything manually, and it doesn’t have to take tons of time.

You can do this easily by creating a thank-you page.

Bonus tip: If you want to really go above and beyond a simple thank you page, create an automated (but personable) email follow-up with details on when applicants can expect to hear back.

Plus, you’ll look like a pro without even trying!

Have a tip to share?

Now that you know how to create awesome job applications, we want to know: Have you created some killer online job applications and want to share some lessons you learned along the way? We’d love to hear your stories and strategies! Share your thoughts with us below in the comments, or tweet with us @FormAssembly anytime.

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post How to Create a Killer Online Job Application Form appeared first on The Assembly Line.

I probably don’t need to tell you why a feedback form is crucial, because let’s be honest: You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t already know that.

A customer questionnaire is, by far, one of the greatest ways to gather useful feedback without delay. And now that so many businesses are busy building a strong digital presence for themselves, it’s easier than ever to conduct surveys online.

So, why the heck wouldn’t you want to create a flawless customer survey?

Why should a customer feedback form be optimized for success?

You want as many people to take your feedback form after you’ve created it, right?

Of course you do, because you’re sharp like that.

To gather the most useful data, you’ll want to first make sure that your forms are properly optimized for conversions. Check out this list of customer survey best practices for a list of actionable tips that you can implement as soon as today.

1. Listen to the feedback you receive with an open mind.

First, think about your intentions. Are you creating this feedback form because you want a pat on the back?

If so, ask yourself how listening to positive feedback (and ignoring negative feedback) will REALLY boost your business.

Here’s a hint: It won’t.

That’d be like taking a class and getting a “B” on every test without knowing why you’re not scoring higher. On every test, you’d get a note from your teacher that said “B — Good,” but you never bothered to ask your teacher how you could improve.

Sure, there are many strong opinions regarding whether or not the customer is always right.

But the truth is that you can’t grow a business without collecting customer feedback — and it doesn’t stop there. Once you have that information, you’ve gotta do something with it!

Why? Because the alternative would look something like this: You’d be stuck doing the same thing you’ve been doing for years, without making any meaningful improvements to your business.

Or perhaps even worse: You’ll be stuck making only improvements you deem worthy, assuming that your customers will love it, without the data to back it up. (D’oh!)

You’ll get both positive and negative feedback. Don’t take the negative feedback personally. Think about it: You may not like the negative feedback you receive, but remember that the people who provide you with this feedback are trying to genuinely help you.

In fact, they’re actually doing you a huge favor.

They’ve taken time out of their day to help YOU. And no, they’re not your best friend or your mother, so their opinion won’t be pleasantly biased. And that’s a good thing.

Your customers already trust that you’ll listen to them. If they thought their feedback would fall into a black hole never to see the light of day, they wouldn’t have dedicated their own time to share their thoughts.

That being said…

2. Make sure it’s a quick survey, and let people know that it’s quick.

I know, I know: It’s easy to think that you should get all of those questions out of your system in just one survey.

But people are more likely to take your survey if it’s short — and that doesn’t mean you have to lower the quality of the survey.

All you have to do is ask the right questions.

One well-thought-out question can potentially lead to a great, in-depth response.

Strategic questions are key.

Still, you’ve gotta keep your cool. While smart questions are the way to go, it’s important that you only ask one question at a time to avoid confusion.

As Gregory Ciotti from Help Scout kindly points out, it’s not cool to make people feel like they’re being interrogated when they’re filling out your customer satisfaction form. So, treat your questions with patience and care. :-)

If you have many more questions to ask, save ’em for the next survey.

3. Keep your questions tidy and organized.

Some of us need structure. I’m not saying that all of us do, but c’mon… do you really want to annoy the diehard perfectionists out there?

And besides, a well-structured questionnaire sends the right message. It shows that you’re professional and know your stuff.

Imagine taking a feedback questionnaire where the first question asks how you feel about cats.

So, naturally, you respond with a poem about how much you love cats.

The next few questions are about what you do for a living, your education history, and general background. OK, pretty standard, alright… onto the next question…

Then you get to the fifth question, and it throws you for a loop. It asks you how many cats you currently own. Whoa, wait a minute. You thought the cat discussion was over — but it turns out it wasn’t at all.

Well, I’m sure you would find that super confusing. If they had just kept questions of the same topic together, it would have made 10x more sense.

So, keep related questions together for best results.

4. Be straightforward and specific. Clear wins over cryptic.

Make sure all of the questions in your survey make complete and total sense.

This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many web surveys I’ve seen with cryptic questions.

This is why it’s so important to get a second opinion. Ask someone on your team to read over the questions so they can give you a heads up when something doesn’t make sense.

Sometimes we may see a question one way, and someone else might read it and see something entirely different.

You want the questionnaire to be as easy as possible for people to fill out. You want your respondents to complete the survey without abandoning it altogether out of confusion.

5. Don’t limit your feedback form exclusively to “on a scale of 1-10” questions.

Trust me: Your respondent’s eyes will start to glaze over if they see that every question is about how they feel on a scale of 1-10 (AKA: rating questions).

It’s just plain boring, and it’ll probably make them feel a lot like a robot.

After all, your customers are human beings with real thoughts and feelings that go beyond “on a scale of 1-10” answers.

There’s a solution to this: If you choose to include questions in a variety of different formats, your respondents will be able to tell you much more than they otherwise would with a quick radio button selection — plus, they won’t fall asleep before finishing the form.

It’s probably important to note that one person’s scale might be very different from someone else’s. So, the rating scale can cause inconsistencies.

And there’s data to back that up: Brooklyn College of the City University of New York conducted a study that revealed just how biased rating scales can be.

I’ll admit it: I have a bit of a beef with these types of questions.

As a marketer, I know the importance of a feedback form and even love helping out other companies by taking their surveys — but when I take a questionnaire and every question is formatted in this way, it’s a big turn-off. It just seems so bland and impersonal.

6. Aim for exceptional design that’s both easy to use and professional.

It seems like a study comes out almost every week re-confirming the fact that design matters in business. For example, a study at Stanford showed that design plays a big role in trust and overall credibility.

Your feedback form should be professional, clean, and easy to navigate on any device.

Consider uploading your company logo and using your business colors for consistency.

Don’t worry: Great design doesn’t always need to take hours — a simple, tasteful design will always leave an awesome impression, and it isn’t time-consuming, either.

7. Leave some room at the end of the form for additional thoughts and comments.

Even if you asked some pretty great questions, there’s still a chance that a customer will have something else to add — something that wasn’t mentioned in the feedback form.

You may be surprised how helpful some of those miscellaneous comments can be, too.

An easy way to let people add their extra thoughts is by adding an “Additional comments” textarea at the end of the feedback form.

Now it’s your turn!

Do you have any feedback form tips to share with us? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to continue the discussion in the comments below, or tweet with us anytime @FormAssembly.

Hannah Wright

Hannah is a digital marketer at FormAssembly. She currently resides in Alaska and loves hiking, traveling, music, and history.

The post Feedback Form Best Practices: 7 Tips appeared first on The Assembly Line.

 
At Modernize, we follow a human-centered design process. This means we work diligently to curate content on our website that is relevant to the current needs of homeowners in the United States. We know that since today’s family is busier than ever, no one wants to waste their time sifting through irrelevant articles while they search for answers to their home improvement and design questions. And that’s why one of the simplest ways to understand what our readers want and need from our home improvement and design website is by simply asking them.

By creating a reader survey using tools like those provided by FormAssembly, businesses can take the guesswork out of managing their website. The tools on their website allow users to custom design the format of their survey, input their own questions, distribut the survey to their target audience, and analyze the data once the survey is complete.

For us, creating a survey was simple, and it didn’t require any special HTML or programming skills—which is great, since home improvement is more our thing! We also felt totally comfortable utilizing the services provided, since all the information is protected by strict privacy policies that are certified through TRUSTe.

Sample Reader Survey Questions

Creating content that is customized to our readers’ needs isn’t easy, and it requires us to ask very specific questions about their lives, their preferences, and their homes. Here are some sample questions that we used to guide us as we plan our website and create articles.

• What home improvements would you like to make in the next year?
• On average, how much do you spend on home improvements each year?
• How would you like to improve the energy efficiency of your home in the next year?
• How important is location specific research and data to you as you plan to make improvements on your home?
• What home improvement information do you feel is missing from popular home improvement and home decor websites?
• When you make major home improvements, do you hire a contractor or do complete the project yourself?
• When you make changes to the design of your home’s interior, do you hire an interior designer or do you complete the project yourself?
• In 2016, will your budget for home improvement and home decor projects be increasing or decreasing? By how much?

These questions are just the beginning of what we can and have asked our target audience about what they need most from a home improvement website with a focus on an energy-efficient lifestyle.

Creating a Survey for Your Target Audience

Are you in the business of creating web content? Or perhaps your specialty is designing, developing, and manufacturing products. Either way, understanding your target audience should be among your top priorities. As you craft your survey, keep in mind the following tips we’ve learned through our own experiences.

Avoid “Yes” and “No” Questions

Questions that require no more than a single word answer like “yes” or “no” are less engaging and should be avoided whenever possible. Instead, build your survey around questions that require a multiple-word or multiple-sentence answer. Questions structured in this manner allow you to gather as much information as possible, understanding your target audience better than ever before.

For instance, consider taking a question like, “Do you have plans for a major remodel this year?” and rewording it to something more specific like, “What are your plans for a major remodel this year?” These extra details are sure to give you valuable ideas and insight regarding your audience that you may have never considered.

Don’t Limit Yourself to Questions Directly Relevant to Your Services

It is important to gather plenty of information in your survey that is directly relevant to the services or products your organization offers. Still, there are more general pieces of information that can be a great benefit to your company. Gather basic statistics about your target audience, asking questions about their income, location, work and interests, and even a bit about the others in their household. This helps gain an understanding of not only what they need, but who they are—a must-have for any successful design process focused on the individual.

Move Beyond the Facts

As business owners, we tend to rely heavily on the facts. We want to know who our readers or clients are, what they do, and what needs we can meet through our services. The truth is, understanding your target audience requires moving beyond the facts. Build your survey to collect information about how participants feel.

For instance, in one of our recent surveys we asked homeowners how much they enjoyed making home improvements and how confident they felt in their ability to perform home repairs or upgrades. This gave us some surprisingly new information that has affected the way we shape our message, content, and services.

Keep Survey Participants’ Identities Private

While there are certainly benefits to requiring survey respondents to reveal their identity when taking a survey, the benefits of an anonymous survey seem to far outweigh the drawbacks. In general, it seems that individuals are more likely to participate in an anonymous survey—and when it comes to answering questions, they feel more free to respond with total honesty if they know their answers are private.

Each time we survey our audience, we learn new things about who we are reaching and how we can meet their needs. By fine-tuning our survey process and using helpful and efficient survey building tools, we have been able to collect useful information concerning their resources, their lifestyle, and the problems they face—and how we can solve them.

The post Using a Survey to Learn More About Your Target Audience appeared first on The Assembly Line.

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when they’re starting out is not placing enough importance on data security. We know starting a new company isn’t easy — you have an endless amount of responsibility with not nearly enough time, money, or manpower to support you.

But while any new company can and will make mistakes, some are more costly than others. The current state of modern technology has made massive data breaches and security scandals common occurrences. Having low standards for protection is no longer acceptable and inevitably results in negative, expensive, and long-term consequences.

Luckily, we have some quick tips to make sure you don’t become a household name for the wrong reasons — because if Target and the FBI can have large amounts of private data stolen, so can you.

Establish a security-focused culture from the beginning

Whether you have 2 employees or 200, the importance of security to the well-being of the company as a whole should be strongly emphasized from the start. The on-boarding process for new hires should include a security training component, so that everyone is well-versed with your policies and processes. This training should be regularly reinforced and updated to keep up with constantly changing technology.

From locking your computer when you leave your desk to using a multi-factor authentication process, best practices should be well-known and enforced across all levels. These practices should be stated clearly in your company’s data protection policies, with compliance expected regardless of status or job title.

If you need proof that setting the “tone at the top” is important, check out Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report, which highlighted that insider misuse was the reason for over 10% of confirmed data breaches and 20% of total data security-related incidents.

Your mom doesn’t need your e-mail password

Delegating access is one of the first steps to maintaining an effective data security strategy. In the previous study, Verizon showed that 88% of information leaks are a result of incorrect access rights. To lower the chance of this happening to your company, centralize your authentication controls and establish a multi-step process for request system access. Develop a procedure for sharing passwords and an accessible internal directory that lists every member in your company and what specifically they should have access to.

A study by LastPass, a password management service, showed that 61% of people are more likely to share work passwords than personal passwords while 95% of people have admitted to sharing passwords of any kind. These numbers are staggering, especially when considering the high level of data sensitivity that so many people handle every day.

Point is, save the password sharing for your video streaming services; your BFF can have access to your Netflix account, but any work-related access should be strictly off-limits.

Prevention is better than cure

When it comes to data security, you should be thinking 10 steps ahead at all times. Anticipate any potential threats that could possibly be posed to your business, whether it’s data at risk from malicious forces external to the company or small internal errors that still have the ability to compromise the integrity of your information.

This is especially important if you’re a company that works with large amounts of customer data — resolving internal data breaches is one issue, but having to explain to your clients that their private information has been compromised is a whole other nightmare best avoided.

One method we recommend is taking a layered approach to protecting network operations as a whole. From the lowest level, this means using anti-virus software and closely monitoring all workstations on the company network. If you or one of your employees loses a phone, laptop, or any other work device, it should be remotely wiped immediately.

In addition, perform constant backups and maintain detailed logs of all systems. All of this data should be encrypted and the cyphers used for encryption in transfer should be regularly changed. If the size of your company requires it, invest in an external data center as an added level of protection for you and your customers.

Finally, put together a Risk Management Plan that comprehensively describes all of your security measures, including a disaster recovery plan for an extreme situation. This plan should be periodically tested and updated as needed.

There’s an app for that

While all of these measures may sound overwhelming, the good news is that that there are plenty of cheap and easy options out there to help you.

Both Box and Google Apps are great for securely storing company files and collaborative documents. LastPass, Sticky Password, and Dashlane can help with password management while BitDefender offers real-time security for all of your company’s devices. For identity management (and creating that internal directory mentioned before), FreeIPA can help with a variety of network administration tasks and is, well, free.

So, what do you think?

Now we want to know what’s worked for you. How does your company protect your data? What are your favorite data security apps and services? Comment below with your thoughts or tweet us @FormAssembly. We’d love to hear from you!

Shira Beder

Shira is a Marketing Intern at FormAssembly and Junior at Indiana University. Her lifelong goals include eating her way around the world and finishing her never-ending reading list.

The post Essential Data Security Tips for Any Organization appeared first on The Assembly Line.

How much control do you believe you possess over your actions, your thoughts, and the thousands of decisions you make every day, from deciding what to eat for breakfast to deciding how to conduct yourself at your job or how to solve conflicts at work and at home?

Psychologists agree that a sense of control (whether it’s real or imagined) impacts your general outlook on life and your overall happiness and success. A Scientific American study found that the majority of people surveyed (60 percent) believe that free will—the ability to make one’s own choices and decisions—exists. But even if we believe we have choice, even if we need to believe it to lead a happy, healthy, and fulfilled life, do we actually have any say or sway over the things we do?

Depending on who you ask and what studies you read, the answers are different, but the general consensus on the “How much choice do we have?” question is “Far less than you may think.”

When Forms Tread the Ethical Line

There’s quite a bit of convincing scientific evidence explaining why this is the case, but we’re going to look at just one example today that shows how something as tiny as the wording of a question in a form (yep, you knew we were going to tie in forms somehow) can influence people to make a decision they may not have intended to.

In 2009, psychology and economics professor Dan Ariely gave a TED talk entitled “Are we in control of our own decisions?” As one of the examples of how little choice we have compared to how we might perceive our lives, Ariely gave the example of a DMV form that asked about one’s willingness to be an organ donor and compared the findings in two groups of countries that took two different approaches to wording the question.

Among the countries were the Netherlands, France, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Austria. One group of countries saw far greater rates of organ donor participation while the other group saw a very low participation rate. What set one group of countries apart from the other? Not differing religious or social values, as Dan pointed out first. Nope. The big difference was something far more subtle, and at first glance, almost trivial.

Here’s an excerpt from the transcript of the talk where Ariely describes the two ways that countries introduced the option of becoming an organ donor or not:

According to the transcript, this anecdote was met with laughter from the crowd, and at first it is a pretty funny story. If you think about it, it’s almost a clever ploy on the part of the form’s creators to get people to make what many might call an ethical choice without even knowing it. (In all major religions, organ donation is encouraged and viewed as a selfless act of giving.)Ethical or Unethical?

But let’s dig a little deeper. Is it good or bad that DMVs in certain countries essentially tricked people into making such a big choice, one they wouldn’t be around to regret, but still, an important choice that many would argue shouldn’t be made for them

The Case for Good

Whatever you think about the underlying principle of the DMV questions, it’s almost impossible to divorce the kind of choice involved. If a choice has little to no effect on the life of the person who makes it or if the choice would, in fact, benefit the greater good, would that change your answer?

Hypothetically, the tactic used in the DMV form could be used to get people to do a lot of great things, like donating to charity or supporting a worthy humanitarian cause. Taking a Utilitarian point of view, which prioritizes “the greatest good for the greatest number of people” when making ethical decisions, using the wording of a question to influence more people to take a socially beneficial action could be considered the ethical choice.

The Argument for Bad

But what if the action that people are tricked/influenced into taking isn’t something they’d approve of? Chances are you wouldn’t approve of that behavior but can think of multiple examples of internet scammers tricking people into falling for their scam or taking a certain action.

While it’s not exactly criminal (though it certainly could be risky if enough people noticed and disapproved of the behavior), this tactic could easily be used to get people to sign up for an email list they’re not interested in. As much as you want people to sign up for your list and engage with your content, is it really worth it if you had to trick them into doing it?

Our Take

The debate of how much choice is an illusion aside, we believe an effort should be made on the part of anyone creating a form to give the form recipients as much information and control over their answers as possible. In the case of a form, people generally assume that not taking an action (not checking a box, not selecting an option) means nothing will change, nothing will occur that they didn’t want to happen. Because this is such an accepted convention, we believe it’s the more considerate (and safer) choice.

Imagine presenting someone with the organ donation in person. You wouldn’t ask “Do you not want to be an organ donor?” right? You’d ask, plain and simple, “Do you want to be an organ donor?” And a simple “Yes” or “No” would be their answer.

What Should You Do?

After all this, you might want to take a look at your own forms and think about what your questions are or aren’t prompting the form recipients to do. If they are influential in some way, what are people being influenced to do? Ethical issues like this don’t often have a clear right or wrong answer, and the answer to what you should do in this kind of decision may depend on your exact situation, the nature of the form, the kinds of people you’re sending it to, and a number of other factors.

———-

What do you think? Have you heard of any other ethical issues related to forms? We’d love to keep this ethics series going by exploring all areas of form-related ethics, so be sure to share your ideas and opinions with us in the comments below or on Twitter.

The post Choice and Control in Forms: The Ethical Debate Behind Wording Questions appeared first on The Assembly Line.

Last month, we announced, in light of Salesforce’s impending retirement of the Stay-in-Touch feature, that FormAssembly has you covered with capabilities that can replace your use of Salesforce’s Stay-In-Touch feature. (Not to mention that it’s also a better option than Salesforce Stay-In-Touch that you can switch to at any point; you don’t have to wait for Salesforce to retire Stay-In-Touch!) Today we’re going to talk more about the benefits of using FormAssembly, instead of just the email that’s used for Salesforce Stay-In-Touch.

Benefits of Using FormAssembly to Prefill Data

Why choose a Stay-in-Touch solution that’s just good enough when you could take advantage of FormAssembly’s near-limitless form building and configuration possibilities? Here are just a few examples of what FormAssembly makes it possible to do.

FormAssembly’s Drag-and-Drop Form Builder Allows You to Do So Much More Than a Simple Email Would

You’ll never be limited as far as what you can do in FormAssembly. Users love our broad, useful feature set that allows you to easily (drag-and-drop) create forms with multiple types of fields, including short and long text boxes, multiple types of lists, and radio buttons, and brand them almost any way you like.

With Salesforce Stay-In-Touch, you don’t have the option to change the look of the form that users see. The form that displays when users click through a Salesforce Stay-In-Touch email to update their information is bare bones, and you only have the option of displaying contact record fields.

With FormAssembly, you can customize forms to your heart’s content, using any standard or custom fields and objects (not just contact record fields), along with maintaining consistent branding. Repetition of your logo, brand colors and other visual imagery is one of the keys to building a strong brand that people remember and grow attached to.

Below is a screenshot of the basic, SF Stay-in-Touch form, which suffices for situations where you only need to update contact information and don’t see the need for more customized design and branding.

FormAssembly Offers a Different and Better User Experience

With FormAssembly, your options for how your forms can look and act will open up considerably. Beyond just the standard, two column Salesforce form shown above, you can construct and style your forms specifically to create a better experience for your form users. For instance, you can break a long form into multiple pages to make it more manageable or only include object fields you absolutely need to avoid overwhelming your contacts with an outrageous amount of fields to fill out.

Using FormAssembly to stay in touch also takes away the step of approving updated information and instead sends the information directly to where it needs to go in Salesforce. For you and for your end-users, FormAssembly offers a tailored visual and interactive experience.

Conditional Features Allow You to Route Data Conditionally

With Salesforce Stay-In-Touch, information can only be sent into contact record fields with no options for customization. With the conditional features in FormAssembly, you can decide exactly how and where information gets transferred into Salesforce.

For example, based on certain information entered by a user into a FormAssembly Form, you could check a box in Salesforce. Here are a few more examples of how you could use the conditional feature in conjunction with FormAssembly’s Stay-In-Touch capabilities:

• Assigning Tasks to records that are updated and assigning the task to specific Salesforce users based on form entry.
• Setting up a Contact only if they enter certain criteria, using FormAssembly’s Skip-If functionality.

You can learn more about creating conditional questions with skip-if formulas in our documentation.

—————-

FormAssembly’s Stay-In-Touch alternative lets you stay in contact with your users, but it also allows you to do so much more. Nearly any kind of data you need to gather for any context can be collected through the use of a link to a prefilled form and sent to your email list.

We’ll be diving further into the setup of the process, which requires the Salesforce pre-fill connector, later in this series so stay tuned and reach out to us on Twitter @FormAssembly with any questions. You can also sign up for a 14-day trial if you’d like to test this functionality out. Need more advice on applying FormAssembly’s Stay-In-Touch alternative to your business? Work with our team to set up and discuss your use case.

For more information on FormAssembly’s alternative to Salesforce Stay-In-Touch, you can check out this previous post, titled “Why You Should Choose FormAssembly to Replace Salesforce Stay-in-Touch.”

The post More Reasons to Replace Salesforce Stay-In-Touch With FormAssembly appeared first on The Assembly Line.