Question

I’m trying to simplify a form (using ASP.NET MVC but I guess that might be irrelevant) with a lot of fields. My initial thought was to split it up into tabs, but then I read somewhere that this would be usability hell. Also, required fields would be split between different tabs, so validation would be a challenge. What are some ways to present forms in a nice way so that it’s not one long page of fields?

Answer 1

Personally I think showing “one long page of fields” is not only the most usable but also the nicest way to present a form.

There’s an argument that users are more likely to fill in a long form that’s split over multiple pages, however as a personal preference, I like to see what I’m in for and what needs to be filled in.

(from my own experience of multi page forms, I usually end up quitting half way through because I wasn’t able to estimate how long it was going to take to fill out the form and I’ve got something else that needs doing.)

One thing I like to do is seperate the relevant areas using <fieldset>‘s and then style these to offer a clean and clear form. This makes it easy for the user to see what data they need to fill in (seperated into logical fielsets) as well as provides the developer the opportunity to style each area in such a way that the form seems less daunting.