Getting Forms Right: from Checkboxes to Dropdowns
08:30About presentation
Nobody wakes up in the morning hoping to finally create a new account that day. Web forms don’t have a decent reputation, and rightfully so. Very often they are inaccessible and difficult to use, with awkward live validation and notorious error messages; not to mention painful dropdowns like a country selector, a birthday date-picker starting from 2020, a tiny newsletter checkbox, a disabled copy-paste for email verification, disabled “submit” buttons and horrendously evil CAPTCHAs in the disguise of street signs and crosswalks.
Whenever a customer will interact with the interface, it will happen via some sort of a web form. In this session, we’ll learn common pain points that customers experience way too frequently, how to solve them, and how to create an interface that excels at getting the information from the customer in a way that’s friendly, accessible and obvious — helping conversion and business KPIs along the way.
Keep in mind: you won’t be able to unsee the things you’ll see in this session.
You’ll leave with a toolbox of practical techniques that you’ll be able to apply to your work right away. And potentially some tips for saving money on airfare, too!
About speaker
Vitaly loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany.
While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing. After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years.
Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of all Smashing books, and a curator of all Smashing Conferences. He currently works as editor-in-chief and creative lead of Smashing Magazine and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with European Parliament, Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and a few other companies.