1

Which is the best way to design a form which contains 5-6 editable text fields to be entered by the user.

Q1
Editable text box for answer1
Q2
Editable text box for answer2
Q3
Editable text box for answer3
Q4
Editable text box for answer4
Q5
Editable text box for answer5
Button for submission

Above approach would be very basic and user will never be delighted by this interface; and tend to skip. I have used very few mobile applications and never saw a form. It would be very helpful if I get to see few good examples for designing forms which delight user.

My second approach is:

It can be something like a Gtalk chat. Q1 will be asked along with a logo, below which there will be user pic along with editable text box to enter answer and a button to continue, which will display Q2 and so on (basically one question at a time) One issue with this approach is that user need to click a button after every answer, so user is unaware of how many total questions he needs to answer.

Which is the better approach from above two?

2
  • Some more context would be useful here… is this a registration form, or product order form, or a 21-questions type game, or what? The appropriate UI will vary for each case. And almost never do you want a back-and-forth type exchange between the phone and user if the results of this form are urgently important to the user. Jun 13, 2012 at 15:29
  • This form is to submit details about a Product. Registration form and such will be filled only once and moreover it is mandatory. But posting details of a Product must be out of user interest and must be done number of times. So if it is not delighting user will skip this module
    – Housefly
    Jun 14, 2012 at 3:16

2 Answers 2

1

For approach 1, I do not completely agree that it will not be used by user as it is not delightful. Here user get to see all the questions in one go, and so he can decide whether to answer Questions or not. There is nothing hidden in this approach.

For Approach 2, Keeping logo/image thumbnails for questions, users and answers hardly matters. In fact I wouldn't suggest to go for using images cos these type of pattern is used for conversation/chat in between 2 or more users. Here we are attempting simple Question and answer format. Now regarding interaction, As you pointed out, user wont keep answering to no of questions one by one. If at all you want to go for this approach, total and remaining no. of questions need to be mentioned. System visibility is quite important.

I think approach 1 is better than 2.

1

As of now, approach 2 should be better. Let us see if we can come up with something better.

So similar to linkedin.net, following approach 2 you could first prompt the user if he wants to improve your product (I am using linked in images here, you could design your own).

enter image description here

Then you could go about asking questions with skip and save buttons and some feedback on right showing overall progress

enter image description here

After you are done, you could appreciate his effort ( give him some goodies for all his time spent :) )

enter image description here

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.