Tips To Optimize Your Web Form For Mobile Devices
Seven factors to consider when designing your web and app form for mobile devices
Mobile devices are increasingly fulfilling more functions. Not only do they serve us to make calls and send text messages, but they also serve us to listen to music, organize our daily activities, play and surf the internet. Due to the great importance that mobile devices are acquiring in our daily lives, web design and apps designed by app development companies have undergone major changes and have had to adapt to the new needs of users.
An element that is almost always found on a website is the forms. Whether on the contact page or the option to subscribe to a weekly newsletter, these web forms help to collect the necessary information and make the process simple. Obviously, these options should also be available for users who navigate using their mobile devices, but a number of considerations must be taken into account, starting with the screen size. In this article, we tell you how to optimize your web form for mobile devices.
Include only absolutely necessary fields
On the internet, users are accustomed to the speed, not only in the response time of web pages. This user demand also applies to web forms. Whether they want to subscribe to a newsletter, send a message or make a purchase, users expect the process to be simple and quick. For this reason, you should ensure that the forms you include only contain the fields that are absolutely necessary.
Simplifying your forms and including only the necessary information is convenient for the users who browse the internet from their computers and those who do so from a mobile device.
Use vertical forms
Mobile devices have a smaller screen than computers. It is important to take this detail into account when designing forms. A well-accepted practice is to make the form vertically aligned instead of horizontally. This helps it adapt naturally to the format of the smartphone.
This practice prevents users from having to move the screen to see the fields. In this way, when entering they can see all the fields that must be filled in and are still visible while completing the information. Also, they are less likely to leave an empty field by mistake, since they see the entire form, they know what information has been completed and what is missing.
Make use of drop-down menus
On mobile devices, users must scroll to view a complete page. If your form has more than four fields (such as an online store, for example), then the user will probably have to scroll to see the entire form. In certain cases, this situation can be avoided by including drop-down menus.
The drop-down menus are super useful because they reduce the time that the user spends filling out a form and facilitates the task because they no longer have to enter the information manually.
Consider the autocomplete option
Not only drop-down menus are a viable option when we talk about form optimization. You can also include the autocomplete option so that while the user enters the information, the possible alternatives are closed. Including this feature is very helpful when the field supports many options, although not indeterminate. That is, there is a fixed number of possible options. For example, it could be useful in the fields where the country is added, but not in the field of names because the number of options is much greater.
Combine the fields of your form
The fields for a form are usually separated into one data per field. For example, name, surname, email address, place of residence, etc. In general, this makes a lot of sense because it allows the user to focus on only one data per field and avoids confusion. However, in mobile devices, due to the size of the screen, this arrangement of the fields is not ideal.
At this point it is necessary to consider the possibility of joining certain fields, such as the field "first name" and "last name" could be merged and simply called "full name".
Don't forget the button
No matter what type of form you are creating, at the end of the process there is a button. The message may vary depending on your form, but it is important that this button stands out from the rest of your page. The color you choose for this button also has a lot to do with the rest of the page layout. If within your color palette you have considered an accent color, then you probably already have this detail resolved. However, if not, think carefully about what color you could choose. It is also important to perform color tests.
Inform the user about the process
It is important to inform the user when filling the form. In many places, alert signals are used every time a data has not been completed, they mark the field and even some sites direct you immediately to the field that needs to be filled in. The same is also true for mobile devices, you must find a way to inform the user about the progress.
Much of the information that is delivered to the user is done through interactive elements such as placing an approval in the fields that have been filled in or including a message informing about the success of the process (that is, that the process has been completed in its entirety).
Another way to inform the user is to incorporate a progress bar, that way the user knows where he is in the process. Of course, this option is ideal in processes that are usually longer and more detailed, such as online shopping.
These are some of the tips to optimize your web and app form for mobile devices. Your form should have a simple layout and the users must be able to understand and fill it in the shortest possible time. Consult app development companies for the best form design layout for your mobile app.