Deconstructing the lead form
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 6:45 am
Each of us has filled out a number of interactive forms, from the usual surveys that we are invited to take part in on various web resources to order confirmation forms in online stores and landing pages. These elements of web interfaces have been with us since the early days of the Internet, and today they look, by and large, exactly the same as they did back in the 90s of the last century.
Forms still consist of lists of questions that are difficult to answer even on a personal computer, let alone on mobile phones, where filling out a lead form becomes a test of the user's patience. Along with pop-ups and auto-playing audio files, forms have become one of the main sources of irritation for Internet users.
However, lead forms are what is called a “necessary evil”: hardly anyone would say that they like filling out forms, but we all have to do it from time to time.
lead forms
A traditional online form can be overwhelming
A lead form overflowing with information gives the user an new-zealand phone number data unpleasant underlying feeling that on the other side of the display there is some kind of "virtual clerk" who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and is ready to start screaming. It is clear that we all have enough of such impressions in real life, so there are very few people who want to relive such moments online.
Remember: if your interactive form makes your landing page visitors feel like they have to fill out a tax or customs declaration in a noisy, crowded room in a matter of seconds, then prepare to see a decrease in lead generation and closed deals.
Questions themselves are not something unpleasant - they are the basis of everyday conversations and small talk. Questions are an important and sometimes funny part of human existence, if, of course, you ask them in moderation.
But if all of the above is true, then why not develop a lead form with which the user will interact according to the scheme of a normal conversation, sequentially answering questions as they come?
Here's what a text-based conversation with a computer in WarGames looks like: the machine asks a question, waits for an answer, and then asks another question. This type of interaction with the user interface requires about the same amount of mental effort as filling out a regular lead form, but it feels much more like a regular conversation simply because the virtual interlocutor asks the user only one question at a time.
So, we've established that the future potentially belongs to more "human" lead forms that ask users questions one by one in a way that makes people want to answer.
Forms still consist of lists of questions that are difficult to answer even on a personal computer, let alone on mobile phones, where filling out a lead form becomes a test of the user's patience. Along with pop-ups and auto-playing audio files, forms have become one of the main sources of irritation for Internet users.
However, lead forms are what is called a “necessary evil”: hardly anyone would say that they like filling out forms, but we all have to do it from time to time.
lead forms
A traditional online form can be overwhelming
A lead form overflowing with information gives the user an new-zealand phone number data unpleasant underlying feeling that on the other side of the display there is some kind of "virtual clerk" who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and is ready to start screaming. It is clear that we all have enough of such impressions in real life, so there are very few people who want to relive such moments online.
Remember: if your interactive form makes your landing page visitors feel like they have to fill out a tax or customs declaration in a noisy, crowded room in a matter of seconds, then prepare to see a decrease in lead generation and closed deals.
Questions themselves are not something unpleasant - they are the basis of everyday conversations and small talk. Questions are an important and sometimes funny part of human existence, if, of course, you ask them in moderation.
But if all of the above is true, then why not develop a lead form with which the user will interact according to the scheme of a normal conversation, sequentially answering questions as they come?
Here's what a text-based conversation with a computer in WarGames looks like: the machine asks a question, waits for an answer, and then asks another question. This type of interaction with the user interface requires about the same amount of mental effort as filling out a regular lead form, but it feels much more like a regular conversation simply because the virtual interlocutor asks the user only one question at a time.
So, we've established that the future potentially belongs to more "human" lead forms that ask users questions one by one in a way that makes people want to answer.