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This guide explains how to structure online forms.

Design your forms for the format they鈥檒l appear in

Paper forms and digital forms have different strengths and weaknesses. Design for both formats with the same amount of care and attention.

The movement from paper to digital is an opportunity to transform how your service is delivered - don鈥檛 just put your paper forms online.

Know why you鈥檙e asking every question

Before you start, make a list of all the information you need from your users.

Only add a question if you know:

• that you need the information to deliver the service
• why you need the information
• what you鈥檒l do with it
• which users need to give you the information
• how you鈥檒l check the information is accurate
• how to keep the information up to date and secure

This list is called a 鈥榪uestion protocol鈥� - it鈥檚 different from the form itself because it鈥檚 about how you鈥檒l use the answers.

A question protocol forces you (and your organisation) to question why you鈥檙e asking users for each item of information. It gives you a way of challenging and pushing back against unnecessary questions if you need to.

Once you鈥檝e worked out what you need to ask, you can start thinking about how to ask the questions.

Design for the most common scenarios first

Once you have a question protocol, you can start to decide how to order your questions.

Start with questions that will let users know if they鈥檙e not eligible for the service, so you don鈥檛 waste people鈥檚 time.

Use 鈥榖ranching鈥� questions so people only have to answer questions that are relevant to them.

You need to decide which group of users you want to prioritise. Make sure you know the relative size of your different user groups and how your decisions will affect them.

Start with one thing per page

Start by splitting the form across multiple pages with each page containing just one thing, for example:

• one piece of information you鈥檙e telling a user
• one decision they have to make
• one question they have to answer

User research will tell you when you can merge pages together. For example, if you鈥檙e designing an internal service for government users who need to repeat and switch between tasks quickly.

Starting with one thing on a page helps people to:

• understand what you鈥檙e asking them to do
• focus on the specific question and its answer
• find their way through an unfamiliar process
• use the service on a mobile device
• recover easily from form errors

It also helps you to:

• save a user鈥檚 answers automatically as they go
• capture analytics about each question
• handle branching questions and loops

Try the Register to vote service on 188体育 to see an example of this approach.

Structure your form to help users

Asking a question doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean you should use one form field. For example, date of birth is best captured with 3 text fields.

For page titles you can use either a question or a statement. For example, 鈥榃hat is your date of birth?鈥� or just 鈥楧ate of birth鈥�.

Use questions or statements consistently to help users get into a rhythm of answering. This lets them focus on the content of the questions rather than their presentation.

Further reading

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Find out whether you can use the 188体育 Forms platform to create a form interface without needing to know any code.

Read blog posts about:

You can use the design pattern to ask users questions to help them work out if they can or should use your service.

Related guides

You may also find these guides useful:

• Using, adapting and creating patterns
• Making your service look like 188体育
• Making prototypes
• Designing how 188体育 content and transactions work together