5 Tips to Improve Your Mobile Form UX

For the first time ever, we surf the online world more with our mobile devices than with our desktop computers. This is an interesting development that shows the sheer power of smartphones, tablets, and phablets (if consumers are even buying those anymore).

As we search the web with our iPhones and Samsung Galaxy devices, we are more likely to conduct our personal affairs on the go, whether it is paying a bill or buying a pair of jeans.

With this in mind, as a business, you need to develop a mobile application and a mobile form that present sublime user experiences. No frustration, no sluggish speed, no complications. And that is what you need to accomplish when you’re designing mobile forms.

Remember, should a customer abandon the process, then that means one less sale in the books.

Here are five tips to improve your mobile form UX in minutes:

1. Condense Fields into One Page

How many fields do your forms have? Although it would be best to have as few fields as possible, your ultimate goal is to have all the fields condensed into one page. If you’re having multiple pages, causing the user to keep clicking “next,” then you risk irking the customer.

During the design phase, determine how many fields you really need, and then attempt to find out how you can get everything onto a single page.

2. A Progress Bar Will Help

Should you have multiple pages for your mobile forms, one of the best things you can do to avoid having frustration users is to install a progress bar on the top. This will ensure that users are updated as to how much longer they have to complete the form, which will limit any abandonment rate.

Imagine having a dozen pages, filling in every field, and then wondering how much longer this is going to go on.

3. Think Vertically, Not Horizontally

Here is an honest question: aside from when watching YouTube videos or streaming Netflix, how often do you use your smartphone horizontally? The answer is likely very little.

So, why would you ever produce mobile forms with a horizontal interface in mind?

You wouldn’t.

Simply put: as you create your mobile forms, you need to always think vertically. Everyone users their smartphones vertically, rarely horizontally.

4. Large Fields Will Limit Annoyance

Touchscreens can already be a headache for many smartphone users. Our fat thumbs or index fingers often cause us to click on the wrong key, field, or button.

A rudimentary solution to this conundrum is to enlarge the fields to make sure that you won’t annoy any of your shoppers.

By having larger fields, you enable the user to clearly read what information you need, and to easily insert all of the necessary data in the boxes.

5. Have a Call-to-Action? Make it Clear

It may seem like common sense to any mobile app developer, but you would be surprised how many retailers, even some of the big brands, fail in this regard.

Call-to-actions (CTAs) are essential for the success of a retailer and a mobile app. It informs the customer what you want them to do, which is, in this case, to buy the product.

Moving forward, you should keep in mind a few of these ideas:

  • Make your CTA a minimum of 44×44 pixels.
  • Use colour to draw attention to the CTA.
  • Be sure to have white space surround the CTA.
  • Ensure that it is clear what you want the user to do.

The CTA is your opportunity to generate a sale or nab a newsletter subscriber.

Mobile form apps are the way of the future. For the most part, we use mobile forms to purchase a product, join a newsletter, sign up for a free seminar, or receive sales updates. This will change in the coming years, as more of the more mundane forms will go mobile. In the meantime, concentrate on the user experience and you will avoid irking your client base.

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