If the number of questions this form asks is fixed by legal/business reasons (it's a loan application form for a bank), what is a good way to break it down into bite sized chunks?
The two options I see are either paged or something like a vertical accordion. Personally I don't like forms that are broken over several pages which take time to load. I also don't like a form that's a mile long.
Group the information fields into categories and put the categories in a multi-page form with a progress indicator/page counter. Every page filled must be persisted to the back-end or cached such that the user can return and finish later.
I definitely agree that a long form wouldn't go over well, even an accordian style. I'd go with tabs at the bottom for each part with a small check to display if that particular part has been completed.
You'll actually find that the responses for UI (and your question) is variable and based on both gender and age.
To design a form that will appeal to an older generation, you'll want to avoid peripheral information. This is a design decision that Apple stumbled upon - and with the passing of Steve Jobs, it appears that apple marketing is attempting to capitalize on this "discovery".
So - what is a good way to break it down?
That depends on your demographic.
If reducing application abandonment is the fundamental issue, Good design that is relevant to your key demographic will increase form completion.
If the customers have already committed to the process and it is a mandatory process that just happens to be done online? Then the UX is more than just UI preference.
I recently designed a form like this that was overwhelming to have so much in one view that it may frighten users and prevent them from signing up— it was a sign-up and software installation wizard.
So I grouped the options / questions into slides. Then have js navigate to the next slide once the previous / current slide's questions were answered.
They were grouped into 2-3 related questions.
