Boosting usability: making forms impactful with interactivity

From requests and registrations to job applications, checklists or sales agreements – all forms benefit from interactivity. Online form managers can be used to create simple forms that are also dynamic forms – providing many features to help with form completion and so ensuring that users don’t simply give up halfway through in frustration, for example. When it comes to online forms, interactivity can offer your company a significant productivity boost.

Why interactivity is a standout feature for forms

Online forms offer many advantages compared with paper-based forms. Among other things, online forms obviously cut costs, as nothing needs to be printed, shipped, stored and potentially disposed of any longer. Form data is also easier to work with, as the information doesn’t have to be transferred from a document to a computer system. One of the most important benefits, however, is interactivity.

What is interactivity?

Interactivity is a dialogue – between two people or between a web application and its users, for example. At its heart, a dialogue involves the exchange of data and information, and the response from both participants. Seen from this perspective, interactive forms are forms that respond to user input, and can adapt and change themselves accordingly.

How do interactive forms improve usability?

Absolutely no-one looks forward to completing a long form. Interactive online forms accelerate this process by automatically showing or hiding individual questions – or even entire pages – based on the answers or options that the user has provided or selected so far. These dynamic form features mean that users no longer need to wade through long sections that have no relevance to their situation.

Online forms also support ‘autofill’. If input has already been stored in the browser from a previous form, this can be suggested at appropriate places in the new form and the form user then simply clicks to accept the text.

How do interactive forms improve data quality?

Online forms have several features that improve data quality.

1. A validation function checks input while it is being entered to confirm it is in the right format. If the user makes a mistake, they are notified instantly and can then correct the error immediately.
2. As web applications, interactive forms are permanently connected to company data sources. This ensures that the information provided is always up to date – making outdated forms a thing of the past.
3. Dynamic forms run checks to confirm that all required fields have been completed before the form is submitted. This means that the data received from form users is always complete.
   

And now, the all-important question: how do I create an interactive online form? The answer is, of course: with Formcentric! Alongside the functionality described above, our form builder offers many other benefits. Try it out for yourself, and improve your usability, data quality and productivity

Start your free trial today.