Single or Multipage Form

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1

All,

What’s the consensus on multipage forms? I have a survey with about 13 fields. The fields can easily be grouped into 3 sections : 1) About You 2) Neighborhood and 3) Review.

Should I split the sections into a 3 pages? Or should I keep the form one page and put headers for each section?

Thanks,
Casey

2

13 fields doesn’t seem a lot and if I were a user I would prefer them on one page rather than waiting for three pages to load.

Use fieldsets and legends to separate each group appropriately.

Some people get scared away by long forms so splitting them may make them easier to manage but 13 fields isn’t much (although it may be unlucky :slight_smile: ).

3

For only 13 questions, I would definitely keep it as one form, probably with fieldset/legend to split it into the three sections.

The advantage of having multi-page forms is that a user is never asked for too much information at once, which can make it look less daunting.

The disadvantages of having multi-page forms are:

[list][]it can be frustrating for users if they think they’re only being asked to fill in a few questions and then it keeps going on and on and on, especially if there is no progress indicator
[]the additional page loads add a time penalty and provide additional scope for technical failure or boredom to kill the process
[*]unless you code and present it very carefully, there’s a danger that users will not be able to edit questions on previous pages, or that they will use the ‘back’ button to get back to them and then lose everything they’ve entered subsequently.[/list]

I would always try to keep a form on one page if possible, because it makes it so much easier for all concerned.

4

Thanks Paul and Stevie! I’ll try to keep the form to one page. I did have progress indicators on the multi-page… but I believe with good grouping I can make the form look good on one page.

Thanks,
Casey

5

Definitely using one page for your 13 fields form is the best choice because as Paul, and Stevie mentioned using multiple pages will result in more time, and high probability that users would simply get bored, and leave the site without completing the survey.

I recommend you use Yahoo Like Registration Form.

6

It depends on the size of each field. I mean if each field needs a longer space then separating into 3 pages is advisable. Also consider the final output of the page when all the fields have details already.

7