Websites are for solving problems and increasing impact, and forms are one of the most useful tools in the website toolkit.
Not everyone likes forms, but they are often the solution to various real-world problems that organizations face. So here are some of the most common reasons you should use a form.
Forms catch the eye and say, “Fill me!”
A form literally takes up more space on the page than an email address. People know what good simple forms look like and how to use them. When you have a short clearly labeled form, a website visitor immediately knows how to fill it out and hopefully get what they’re looking for.
Important Caveat: Accessibility
Make sure your forms are accessible! If the tool you are using doesn’t correctly label fields or uses inaccessible form elements, then your form may actually be preventing some people from using it effectively or at all. This is one reason that I do think providing an email is a valuable backup to any form, but a well-made form should be as usable as an email for almost anyone.
My preferred form tool for WordPress can build very accessible forms.
Forms reduce email back-and-forths
A properly designed form asks for just the right information to address the visitor’s need. Unlike the blank canvas of an email, forms guide the visitor to provide the information you need to help them. If you receive lots of emails that immediately require a request for additional information, a form could help get all the information you need in the first exchange.
Forms standardize data
There are times where it’s crucial to have data in a standard format for every request. For instance, maybe you’re placing a large order of t-shirts. An email where people write what size they need could include “medium”, “Medium”, “mdeium”, “m”, “med.”, “md”, “medium? large if you don’t have that” and who knows what else!. When it’s time to place an order, how do you get an accurate count? Using a select or radio button leaves no doubt what sizes you have available and ensures that every requested size is represented by the same, single value of your choosing:
Important caveat: Usability and data equity
Many forms go wrong when they request too much data, force people to make artificial choices like a gender field with only “male” and “female” (DON’T DO THAT!), or use a frustrating complex form input. If you need a date in a specific format for a reason, then you may have to use a complex date picker, but if you don’t, just let people type in the date in whatever format they want!
For more on this, check out page 9 of NTEN’s Equity Guide for Nonprofit Technology [PDF] with basic guidance for data collection. Collect as little data as possible as flexibly as possible. Be clear about all data is used.
Forms can direct people to the right place
More and more, I’m helping organizations use forms to help people…not fill out the form! In many cases, people can get the support they need immediately on an existing page of the site.
However, it’s really important to not go overboard with these types of features and provide a “general” default subject.
In other cases, there may be common requests or situations in which an organization cannot help a person at all. Even if it may be frustrating for a person to be told not to contact an organization, that is often a more honest, transparent, and helpful means of supporting website visitors to get what they need as quickly as possible.
Forms can be safer
The National Network to End Domestic Violence’s (NNEDV) Safety Net Project recommends that organizations provide a web form so that people contacting them will not have a message in their outbox or “Sent” folder that someone could find. This is part of a number of recommendations that try to support the safety of people experiencing gender-based violence when they are using technology.
Forms allow workflow automation
Once you have data flowing, you can route the stream in various ways. Two common ways I support nonprofits with this are:
- Route form submissions to different staff / addresses depending on data in the submission
- Automatically send all or some submissions to a 3rd-party tool like a Constituent Relationship Management tool (aka CRM, e.g. Salesforce or Little Green Light), newsletter tool, payment processor, etc.
These are things that would otherwise require manual human data entry every time, which can increase the risk of errors, use valuable staff time, and potentially cause problems when data entry falls behind.
Forms can provide insights
When someone presses a form’s submit button, you can learn about the page they were on and how they got to that page. When an organization is ready to responsibly use data like that, forms are a way to track “conversions” and optimize how people get to and use forms.
And somewhat similarly, having all form submissions in one place—rather than emails all over the place—means it is easy to analyze the frequency of contacts, common questions, and more. When trying to understand frequent user issues, reviewing general contact form submissions is a great way to hear from a real slice of an organization’s stakeholders.
Important Caveat: User privacy and consent
When sending data to 3rd-party systems or analyzing form submissions for reasons beyond replying to the form, it’s critical that your organization have a considered set of data privacy and usage policies and practices. Clearly documenting what data is collected, how that data is used, and who has access to that data is necessary to respect your visitors’ privacy.
How I like to build forms
The example screenshot and all the features I mention are possible with Gravity Forms (affiliate link). I have used Gravity Forms for nearly as long as I’ve been building WordPress websites because it’s one of the most accessible WordPress form building tools available, it has tons of add-ons and useful 3rd-party integrations, and it’s powerful conditional form tools allow building complex user-friendly forms.
I’m sure I’ve overlooked a few other benefits of forms (share more in the comments!), but these are more than enough to show how useful forms can be.
Remember: The best forms are for clear purposes and collect the least data possible. Like I said, don’t use forms because they are cool; use them to solve problems and help people.