designing forms

best practices?

[decbrad]

Hi everybody...

I'm designing a sign-up form which I think is definately too long. Basically, i'm looking for advice on how best to optimse it for best conversion rate possible. As it stands, i'm worried that by the time the user gets to the payment part, they will be completely fed up and stop!

In total, there are 19 fields for the user to complete. For legibility and convenience, I have broken these down into 3 separate sections on screen:

1. Club details
2. Personal details
3. Pay Now.

Can anybody advise me on the best way forward, seen any neat tricks you can share?

Thanks in advance
Decbrad

[jtara]

Without getting too specific, what is this a sign-up for?

I assume some kind of social-networking site? (I'm guessing from "club details".)

Why not let users fill in the details later?

You don't need any more than an email address (if you require that), login information (user ID, password) and payment details.

Why make it difficult? Most people would rather think a bit first about what they put in their profile. While they are thinking, they aren't buying.

[decbrad]

Hey Jtara

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I guess it's social network of sorts, not quite a myspacer though! It's all to do with golf, on the mobile! Just getting back on topic... we've already done the hard sell at the point of signup, so all the form fields are actually required. Displaying the form onscrreen in the most effetive way is the challenge.

By the way, I see from you profile that you're into mobile. I'd love to get your opinion on our new interface, if you like to take a peek! Let me know and i'll send you the URL. I think it against the TOS to post it here!

talk again soon!

rgds,
D

[rocknbil]

decbrad - once paid for, does the member get an interface to update their data?

Here is what I would do: you say **all** the fields are required. They are required to participate, but not to purchase.

I would strip the purchase form down to essential info: name, email address, billing address, club name. Then once logged in, they don't receive the benefits of the membership until they complete their "profile." You can even make this easier by breaking the required info down into sections, always accessible from their main login screen (address info, profile info, etc.)