Web forms are the scourge of many a designer, and by extension, their clients. Forms play a vital role on any site because they’re how sites gather all-important info during the checkout process, or lead information on landing pages. If you want to please your clients and boost their sites’ conversion rates, there’s perhaps nothing more significant you can do than design effective, optimal forms.
Design outside the box with narrative forms
The standard form is characterized by a few fields where leads fill in their basic contact details like their name, email address and phone number. It’s humdrum and very mundane…just because it’s typical doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be messed with, though. On the contrary, try shaking things up for better conversions with narrative forms. Narrative forms, as the name implies, are forms that keep the conversation going; instead of simply ending the story when the site copy ends. These types of forms continue to engage your leads by prompting them to fill in the blanks in a form in the style of a first-person narrative. This makes the sign-up process way more personal!
Use fewer (or more) fields
In the past few years, there’s been a debate about the specific form length that works best at boosting conversions. Newsflash: There actually isn’t a specific length that works better; shorter forms get more of a certain kind of conversion, while longer fields get more of another kind of conversion. Conventional wisdom dictates that fewer fields on a form boosts conversions. That’s true, but only in that fewer fields produce a greater quantity of conversions rather than a greater quantity of quality conversions.


Only use clear labels and explanations
It’s stunning to discover that some designers still neglect the fundamentals of ensuring that users can actually make sense of a form straightaway.

Do away with mandatory registration
If there’s anything that can kill conversions quickly when your customers are already all set to buy something from your client’s online store, it’s the dreaded registration process during checkout. Experience tells us that forcing customers to register or sign-in, which equals additional steps, prior to a purchase will lower conversion rates.
understands this perfectly. The retailer of office supplies and electronics features an initial checkout page that doesn’t force shoppers to register again or force registration on new shoppers. Instead, it allows them to easily type in their username and password into two fields if they’re returning shoppers or go directly to the checkout-as-a-guest page, where they’ll just input basic shipping info, if they’re new customers. Such a setup makes things simpler for customers and gives them more freedom and control over the checkout process, which is always welcome.