• Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: September 19, 2005

  • This article is old but basically still holds true. Jakob's use of the term "application" is a little out-dated. The functionality he sites is commonplace today.
• Forms work when there's not much to    do    beyond plain data entry. Just stack up the text boxes and have the user type away mindlessly. A few decision points might be acceptable, such as the traditional question as to whether shipping and billing addresses are the same or different. Even here, a small amount of interactivity improves usability. You might, for example, gray out the billing address area unless the user unchecks the box for "billing address is the same as the shipping address."
• nteractions that are more complicated suffer when you present them as straight forms.
• • Complexity of requested information.    If the data request is a no-brainer that people can supply without further ado, use a form. If users need to think and/or refer to supporting materials, use an application (and provide features for accessing the supporting materials). 
   
  •     Number of steps.    If the steps are few, use a form. If they are many, structure them into a natural workflow split across multiple steps. 
   
  •     Conditional areas.    If all questions and options are always the same, use a form. If the users' subsequent entries depend on their actions in previous steps, use an application and present only the options relevant for each step. 
   
  •     Linearity.    Conditional areas are one example of non-linearity, but there are others. If users clearly proceed in a linear sequence and never need to revisit or revise previous steps, use a form. If steps don't depend on each other, use a form. If users need to jump between steps or complete steps in an unpredictable sequence, use an application.
• Note that the    sheer length of a form    is not a sufficient reason to break it up. Yes, it's best to stick to one or two screenfulls: If a form takes up many screens, you should seriously consider    eliminating some of the questions and options    .
• But, if all elements are truly needed, you can certainly place them on one long page -- just ensure that each element is easy and that all users have to do is keep scrolling (and sighing) as they complete each step in the long march to the blessed submit button.
• Even when applications are simply sets of pages embedded within larger websites or intranets, they differ from forms in that they have    programmable logic and workflow    .
• By breaking up the workflow into multiple steps, users can focus on one topic at a time. They're thus potentially less distracted and overwhelmed by other screen elements competing for their attention.
• Because you have fewer items on the screen, you can afford to clearly explain each one.
• A second advantage of having fewer items on each screen is that your layout is less burdened by space constraints.
• Eliminating irrelevant steps.    Users never need to see questions and options that don't apply to them.
• With applications, you can let users work on different parts of the problem in a sequence that makes sense to them.
• Providing feedback.    Take advantage of programmability and restate users' actions and choices to confirm how the computer will interpret them. For example, if users must enter a vendor number, give them feedback by stating the vendor's name. This will drastically reduce errors from mistyped vendor numbers.

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• Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: February 2, 2004   

   

  Keep Online Surveys Short
• Summary: To ensure high response rates and avoid misleading survey results, keep your surveys short and ensure that your questions are well written and easy to answer.

  • This goes for surveys as well as forms in general and ecommerce.
• One goal beats all others when designing a customer survey for a website:    maximize the response rate    .
• How can you get average users to respond? The highest response rates come when surveys are    quick and painless    . And the best way to reduce users' time and suffering is to reduce the number of questions.

• A second solution is to    ask different questions of different visitors    . If you have ten questions that absolutely need answers, divide them into five different questionnaires with two questions each that    fit on a single screen    . You can then randomly assign one of the five surveys to each visitor. 

   

    Your website is a computer: take advantage of its ability to run software and show different users different things. (Alternatively, you could run a different survey each weekday, assuming there are no significant differences between visitors on different days.)

  • This also makes sense for forms in general and ecommerce. Don't present irrelevant questions or form fields to users when the system can detect what is relevant and what isn't.

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• Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: April 26, 2011   

   

  Workflow Expectations: Presenting Steps at the Right Time
• Summary: Actions at one step of an application impact subsequent steps. When users don't understand this relationship, usability suffers.
• Workflow theory ranges from simple concepts, such as    progressive disclosure    , to thorny ideas, such as inductive vs. deductive interfaces.
• instructions automatically degrade the user experience    by diverting users' attention from their main task.

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