The Role of UX in Contact Form Design

There are more than 1 billion websites on the web right now, and that number continues to climb.

So, what are the odds that someone lands on yours? When they do, what are you doing to keep them there and encourage them to come back for more?

Your contact form is the perfect place to turn a casual browser into a long-time customer. By providing a spot for visitors to reach out, ask questions, and learn more about what you do, you’re encouraging them to invest in your brand.

Yet, many companies fail to take advantage of this valuable opportunity, creating a contact form design that’s bland, incomplete, or difficult to use.

Today, we’re talking about the importance of incorporating user experience design (UX) into your contact page.

Ready to learn more? Let’s dive in!

Incorporating UX into Your Contact Form Design

Put simply, UX design is user-centered. It means approaching every aspect of your web design from the user’s point-of-view.

As a webmaster, pages that you think are intuitive and easy to navigate might not be quite as simple for someone with limited design experience.

And the first thing web visitors do with they encounter a confusing website? They leave it.

To make sure your visitors find and use your contact form, it’s important to make it as accessible and user-friendly as possible. Doing so will boost your page’s performance and build brand credibility.

Let’s talk about some considerations to keep in mind.

Optimize Your Input Fields

Your input fields are the places in your form where visitors can type in their information, along with any questions they might have.

These fields offer the client the option for you to contact them, rather than the other way around.

For example, American Voicemail allows visitors to enter their name, email, phone number, and company name, with a promise that the company will call to chat.

When designing the layout of your fields, try the following tactics:

Place all titles and labels above their input fields rather than below
Simplify questions to one per row
Provide an input field that’s the appropriate length for the answer you expect (i.e. don’t leave a one-inch space for an email field).
Limit your form to 3-5 fields.

Highlight Important Data and Minimize the Rest

When someone quickly scans your form, is all the important information front-and-center? Or, will visitors have to dig around to find your phone number, address, and input fields?

One way that these key elements can get lost is by adding too much information to your contact form or muddying it up with too many anti-spam measures.

A Busybody Design

To improve conversion rates, keep your contact data and information short and sweet. Your headquarters address, phone number, and email address, along with operating hours and your input fields are often all that’s needed.

A contact form design that’s filled with maps, images, and individual contact information for your executives can be confusing to follow. Stick with the basics and delegate the rest of the info to your “Team” page or a similar section.

A Note on Captchas

It’s important to ensure the security of your website, as well as safeguard user information. One way to do this is to add a captcha form to your contact page.

From clicking “I am not a robot” to repeating a series of jumbled letters and numbers, there are a few ways companies accomplish this.

Yet, studies show that time-consuming captcha forms can reduce a company’s conversion rate by 3.2%.

By brushing up on your HTML and JavaScript skills, you can easily create a form that’s both spam-free and user-friendly without this user verification step.