Structure your form content

Use a consistent structure for online forms so they are familiar to users and easy to complete. Each section has a specific goal, and related questions.

Follow this form structure:

• Introduction—tell users about what the form does and what they need to complete it.
• Login—use the Digital Identity Broker (optional).
• Establish eligibility—help users understand if they are eligible for the service.
• Service questions—collect the necessary information required to fulfil the service request.
• Contact details—collect user contact details, this may be pre-filled if you’re using an identity provider.
• Review—provide users an opportunity to review and edit the information they have provided.
• Declaration—ask users to confirm they accept terms and conditions and privacy statements.
• Submission page—confirm the form has been submitted successfully.

For longer, complex or multi-step forms:

• use multiple pages for the service request pages
• include a progress indicator to show users how far they’ve progressed and how many steps are remaining
• enable customers to save their progress.

Introduction

Sometimes title 'Before you begin', the first page of a form sets the tone for the user experience and helps orient user:

• About the service—brief explanation so a user can easily identify what the service is for and if it is relevant to them.
• Eligibility—clear explanation of eligibility requirements before they start.
• What you’ll need—information or documents a user will need to complete the form.
• Estimated time for completion—how many minutes it will take the user to complete the form.
• Ready to get started—important information about completing the form, such as login requirements, timeouts and saving drafts, and other ways to apply.
• After you submit—what they can expect to happen after they submit the form, including next steps and processing timeframes.
• More information—how they can get help while completing the form. This may include translation or interpreting support. Include links to related content, if relevant.
• Include a  privacy statement in the callout component (use generate a draft privacy statement)—this is a mandatory field and tells the user how their personal data will be handled.
• Offer a non-digital way for users to complete the form.

Login section

Use the Digital Identity Broker, if possible, to offer users a secure and easy identification process. The layout will be defined by the identity broker.

Eligibility section

The aim of this section is to collect information about the user to validate they are eligible for the service:

• Show eligibility questions to the user one at a time.
• If a user’s answer to a question deems them ineligible, alert them immediately at the point of failure and provide them with a clear, specific reason why, and any alternative actions they can take.
• Prevent ineligible users from being able to continue completing the form.
• Only show users subsequent questions if a user meets the criteria for the previous question.

Service questions section

This content will be unique to the service you are delivering.

• Only collect information where there is a genuine and demonstrated need.
• For simple forms use sections or steps to break up the page, grouping related questions together.
• For multi-step forms, create separate pages for different types of information, grouping related questions together on a single page—include a progress indicator to show users how far they’ve progressed and how many steps are remaining.
• Enable customers to save their progress if the form is long with multiple steps.
• A form field should be mandatory if it is required to complete the transaction or for legal or security reasons.
• If a field is optional, consider if it needs to be included.
• Use progressive disclosure by revealing options based on user interactions to reduce the cognitive load on users.

Contact details section

You may already know the user’s contact details from the identification process used in an earlier step. Pre-fill fields with known information to reduce the effort required from users.

Review section

Provide the user with the opportunity to review and change their responses to questions before they submit.

Declaration section

The declaration screen is a required step in all online submissions. It requires the user to confirm they understand and accept the terms and conditions and privacy statements:

• Communicate how a user’s personally identifiable information will be handled and stored.
• Write it in plain language and make it specific to the service.
• Provide a link to the privacy statement and any terms and conditions.
• Provide an opt-in checkbox for a user to actively tick to confirm they agree, have read and understood the information in the declaration (unchecked by default) prior to submitting.

Writing a privacy notice

A good privacy notice should:

• be specific to the service
• be written in plain language
• clearly state:
  • what information is being collected
  • what the information will be used for
  • who the information will be used by.

Find out if you can collect personal information using the privacy statement generator, or contact your agency’s legal team for advice.

Submission page

This final section helps users know that their service request has been received and what will happen next:

• Provide the user with a ‘success’ message confirming the form was successfully submitted.
• Provide them with an application reference number for their transaction.
• Set up the form to trigger a confirmation email to the user on submission.
• Offer the option to download a copy of the submitted form.
• Tell the user what will happen next, including expected processing timeframes.
• Provide any additional relevant content (e.g. how to withdraw your application).
• Tell the user who they can contact if they need further help.

Get help

For help, more information or feedback, email designandcapability@chde.qld.gov.au.