Caroline's Corner - Long Forms: Scroll or Tab?

As some of you will know, I’m pretty much a diehard forms obsessive and there’s nothing I like more than a question about forms – especially if I have some experience or data to support my answer. So I thought I’d devote this month’s Corner to one that comes up quite often, but was neatly expressed by Cindy Lu of HFE Consulting, LLC.

She was working recently on a long form, and asked: 'If the form is 2 pages long, should we present them in one screen that requires vertical scrolling or organise them into tabs or pages? What about the forms that are 4 pages long?'

So here are my rules of thumb for answering this question.

ONE FORM = ONE PAGE
What we're really aiming for is "one form = one page". If that isn't feasible, then "one topic = one page". It’s best if we can get a coherent, related group of questions together.

SCROLL UP TO TWO SCREENS
So what to do when the form or topic exceeds a screenful? I’ve seen forms working well when they scroll a bit. One screenful is fine, and I’ve seen up to two further screens work acceptably. After that, we seem to get a 'lost in the page' effect.

I also take into account whether the user is likely to want to print the form. There are several reasons:
- to keep a record
- to review the answers
- to help collect answers if the answers have to be gathered from other people or by consulting other documents.

If so, then it's really quite helpful to have about two screensful per page as this usually fits neatly onto ordinary letter/A4 paper.

SCROLL OR TAB?
If you are splitting the form into pages, should you use tabs to display the pages?

Tabs are problematic, because it isn’t all that clear whether changes made to one tab should be applied when moving to another tab. And there’s always a risk of overlooking the tab navigation altogether, with confusing results ('where’s the rest of the form?').

So I've found that designs based on whole screens are more frequently successful than designs that rely on tabbed panes. But it's certainly possible to create acceptable tabbed designs - provided that there is a maximum of one row of tabs.

ONE COLUMN OR TWO COLUMNS?
Cindy also asked: one column or two columns? She pointed out that for ease of reading, we could present the fields into one column. The user will fill out the form from top to bottom. Or, to take advantage of the screen space, like windows applications, we could group the fields and place them into two columns. We can reduce the scrolling. Is there a chance that user may miss some fields?

My view: With two columns, there is a chance that the user may miss some fields. The problem arises because using two columns creates an ambiguous reading order. We start with the box in the top left corner. Now where to go? Across horizontally or down vertically?

ONE COLUMN WORKS BETTER, USUALLY
I've seen it work acceptably on paper when there is a very strong visual grouping that makes it quite clear that columns go together rather than
rows, or vice versa. But note that I said 'acceptably' rather than 'well'. This was a compromise between overall visual length of the form and accepting that some users would go wrong.

On screen, I'd be worried about potential accessibility issues in the reading order - as well as the visual issues. Using a tab sequence doesn't necessarily sort it out. People's eyes will move to wherever they expect the next field to be, and they don't sit back to wait for the flashing cursor to tell them where to look. Also, screen real estate is a lot more flexible than paper so it's usually better to use it generously.

EXCEPTION: INTENSIVE DATA ENTRY
BUT - and here's the big exception. If these forms are being filled in repetitively and/or constantly referred to, then it works better to crush as much as possible onto the screen - then make sure you allow plenty of time for training/familiarisation..

If you have any comments or suggestions about this article then please contact Caroline Jarrett at:

Caroline.Jarrett@Effortmark.co.uk

Caroline Jarrett is a usability consultant specialising in forms, questionnaires and data capture.

© 2005 Caroline Jarrett, all rights reserved.

Associated Link: Effortmark

Increase data Usability, save Billions
Source: ZDNet, 6 September 2010
 
Data usability? less sexy than social emotional interfaces, more money than you can imagine.

Three Things Steve Krug Didn’t Tell You About Usability Testing
Source: George Saines, 2 September 2010
 
Don't make me think. Well, ok, maybe a little bit.

Trace exactly what Users are doing
Source: killerstartups, 30 August 2010
 
A new tool lets you watch all of your website activity, in real-time replays.

Google boosts Usability with Gmail revamp
Source: V3.co.uk, 28 August 2010
 
Long overdue improvements to Gmail may increase its appeal to business users.

Tech4Africa conference runs in Johannesburg
Source: bizcommunity, 26 August 2010
 
A new conference in Africa recognises usability as a central concept to IT uptake.

Top 3 Usability Tips for Building Better Blogs
Source: CMS Wire, 24 August 2010
 
If you're compelled to blog, may as well get it right.

Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain
Source: New York Times, 23 August 2010
 
Fascinating account of how heavy use of digital devices changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects.

Tips for International In-home User Research
Source: System Concepts Ltd, 20 August 2010
 
In-home user research can provide richer, more illuminating information than lab-based studies. Here are some tips for a successful in-home international research.

New Study- Gender differences in Web Usability
Source: Demystifying Usability blog, 18 August 2010
 
Comscore has released a new study (June 30 2010) entitled Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet.

UX Myths: Usability testing is Expensive
Source: UX Myths, 16 August 2010
 
Many organizations still believe usability testing is a luxury that requires an expensively equipped lab and takes weeks to conduct.