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A Few Simple Ways To Design a Better Form
We all have to fill out forms from time to time...at Dr.’s offices, taxes, shipping...you know—the almost archaic kind that are printed out and you have to use an ink pen to complete. I don’t know if this is just because I am a designer, so I notice these things, but rarely (if ever) have I filled out a nicely designed form. It always makes me furious when I realize that I have written my address on the phone number line because it wasn’t immediately clear where I should be writing what. Are graphic designers not hired to create these ugly, confusing forms? If this is the case, why are companies choosing to use an Office Manager (or the like) to create the forms? Forms are used to gather very important information, and you would think there would be more focus on making the gathering of this information an easy task for the user. Or, do the designers of these forms just think that because it is a form it has to be ugly? I hope not—I think forms can be pretty, and dare I say, they should be! People usually hate filling out forms. Why should the process be made worse by an unsightly, cluttered page of lines and boxes? Although designing a form is not the most glamourous of jobs, I always find it very fun, (a little tedious) and rewarding. Design at its best is organized, communicative and engaging—exactly what the goal should be when designing a form or chart. Here are a few simple tips that will make for a better form. Please feel free to make additions to my list.
1: Use thin lines! don’t use the underline key on your keyboard!! Draw your own lines and don’t go thicker than .25 points. Lines may look okay on screen at 1 point, but when printed they are much too visible.
2: Use a simple san serif typeface. Many forms require a small font because of the massive amount of information—san serif type is more readable at a small size. Resist the urge to use 12 point type! You can probably get away with using 8 or 9 points depending on the information and the audience.
3: Use only one typeface and be sure that you pick a font family that has several weight options (ex: regular, bold, semi-bold, italic). My personal go-to font is Frutiger. It is classic, but relevant and has plenty of weight options. Don’t over use the different weights—keep things simple and only use them when necessary.
4: If you have rows of information in a chart format, use lightly shaded boxes behind the type on every other row to help the viewer’s eyes differentiate each line easily without getting lost.
5: Use plenty of line spacing!!! I am so sick of seeing a block of suffocating text stretching from one edge of the paper to the other. I end up reading the same line of text twice.
6: Make sure to provide adequate room for writing—not everyone can fit their name on a line suited for John Smith.
7: Don’t put descriptor type under the line people are supposed to write on—it is confusing. Try to put the type before and on the same baseline as the line, with sufficient space between the end of the line and the next item to fill out.
8: Leave a sufficient amount of margin around your page—no less than a quarter inch on each side—I recommend to leave a half inch.
9: When designing a form that is intended to be filled out (not an informational chart), try to avoid boxing everything in. Boxing in all information is the easiest way to lose your viewer’s eye resulting in the address being printing on the “city” section.
10: Print your page out several times throughout the design process—things look much different on screen then they do on a piece of paper.