One important addition to any website, is the website contact form. This is essential for allowing your consumers to contact you directly, from your website. Social media links, email links and even call links are often included in the page header, but a contact form simplifies this whole process. Or rather, it should. A contact form should allow your users to contact you, with whatever question or issue they have, directly from your website, without needing any other tools. And for interested customers, this can even be an essential step for closing a deal or a making a sale. But many of these contact forms are poorly designed and implemented. So how should you design a contact form to increase use? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design experts. We work with companies and businesses across Manchester, and the surrounding area, including Wigan and Southport, to provide web design solutions that can help businesses grow. As a result, we have produced these tips to improve your website contact form.
Common problems with website contact forms
Website contact forms need to be simple and straightforward for your users to want to engage with them initially, but also for them to successfully complete the form too. Too many website contact forms use:
- too many columns which makes the boxes hard to see and hard to use, especially on mobile device
- too many questions which can deter users from filling them out at all
- font that is hard to read
- buttons that are hard to interact with
As a result, designing effective contact forms is imperative for long term success.
Tips to improve your website contact form
So how can website contact forms be improved? Well, there are several options that can be navigated to improve the layout, style and practicality of the contact form. These options include:
- removing unnecessary questions- for a website contact form, you generally only need the name, email and a box for the users message. For any other details or specific questions your business may need to include, you should make these as easy as possible to complete. Use drop down boxes or tick boxes where they would be useful.
- reduce the clutter- outside and around the edges of the contact form, increase the whitespace or negative space. This will hep draw attention to the form, and make it visually easier for the user to concentrate on.
- include error capture- if you have questions that require specific answers, like a telephone number for example, you should include the opportunity for error capture. This will signify which questions need to be completed, and where any errors or mistakes have been made. As a result, your website user will be able to identify and change these quickly and easily.
- make font legible- on a practical note, make sure all your font is easy to read. This means ensuring that the typography is suitable, as well as the size of the text and the space around it. People cant answer questions that they cant read.
For more information or advice, or for high quality, professional web design solutions, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.