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Form Design

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The Process

You will be provided text for the form, as the client would provide it to you. You need to read and make sense of the content. Organize it in logical sections. Sketch the organization of the information. Decide which type of static input devices you will use: check boxes, underlines, etc…

Step 1

We will edit a copy of the original text file, removing what's not necessary and re-organizing the info.

Step 2

We'll design the form's major areas, first with paper and pencil, then on an InDesign page.

You'll choose one font family to use in your whole form. That's right. One.

Step 3

Set up an InDesign document. It must be letter, portrait format. There's no reason to bleed.

Step 4

We'll import the text and execute the layout.

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Know Your Subject

A form holds two categories of data: static and dynamic. Static data is the information you design. Dynamic data is what the customer fills in. In designing a form, pay attention to sequence (what comes before what). Group the information into large sections that present the details in a way that makes the information easy to understand, easy to fill in and easy to retrieve.

Identify who is filling out the form

Remember to place information in sequence. You want to know the person’s name before you find out their address and postal code.

What do you want to know?

This is the heart of the form. The section where questions are asked, products are ordered and so forth. Forms experts refer to this process as “capturing” information.

Verification or Routing area

Signal clearly when the subject changes. The verification area accommodates approval or validation signatures. It can also contain routing instructions and other miscellaneous information. Condition statements and small print usually sit at the bottom most part of the form.

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InDesign Skills

• Use tab leaders to create spaces to enter data
• All tab spaces must be defined. Never have more than one tab character at a time.
• All text must be associated to a Style Sheet.
• Make sure your form is easy to fill. Leave enough room for the type of info you're asking for.

Your Approach

There are more poorly designed forms out there than good ones. Often, forms are cluttered and disorganized. Questions are not clear. The sequence of answers is often not obvious. The form needs to welcome the person to write on it.

If you could imagine the form in three dimensions, the static areas need to fall back into the distance. This makes it easier to write on the page. If the form fills the page too much, the respondent won't feel welcome to write on the page.

Achieving this depth could be done with size, spacing, colour selection, etc…

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Grading

InDesign Skills

• Your document cannot have two consecutive carriage returns.
• Your document cannot have two consecutive space characters.
• All Tab spaces must be defined. Never have more than one tab character at a time.
• All text must be associated to a Style Sheet.
• Paragraph and Character Styles must be used in the proper circumstances.
• All punctuation must "hang" where appropriate.
• You must not have any other fonts than the ones that print.

• Hand in your files using the Package function in InDesign

  Name your folder "lastname, firstname, 010" according to your section number.

Aesthetics

Your form must be well organized. It must welcome the respondent to fill it in.

Font selection must be appropriate to the subject and the audience. The type treatment must conform to typographic standards.