Best Practices

Forms are the core building blocks of your app. To create an effective app, it is essential to design comprehensive and well-structured forms.

Therefore, forms should be created after careful planning and consideration. Here are some priniciples that can be followed before you start building your form:

Purpose and Users of the Form

Understand the purpose of your form. What data are you collecting, who will be collecting and how will it be used?

Identify all the form fields and classify them

List all the fields and data points that need to be collected. Determine the input type of each field and map to Appverse form field elements. Group related fields together (e.g., contact information, demographics, etc.) to make the form more intuitive.

Plan the form Structure

This process involves organizing the form into different sections or groups, arranging fields within each section, and determining their order. Identify sections that may need to repeat, and either set them up as repeating groups or plan a new form that links to the original in a master-detail relationship.

Form Logic and Branching

Plan which questions should be shown or hidden based on user inputs, using conditional logic. Pre-populate subsequent fields with data from earlier responses to minimize data entry errors and improve the user experience.

Consider User Experience (UX)

Keep the form simple and concise. If needed, break the form into multiple forms and link them together. Identify fields that may be confusing and provide clear instructions for users. For short forms, use a single-page layout, while for longer forms, use a multi-page layout. In multi-page forms, ensure that related questions are grouped together on the same page.

Data Validation

Identify all fields where users are likely to enter incorrect data and set appropriate validation rules for each. This will ensure that data is entered correctly, minimizing errors and ensuring data quality. Provide clear and informative error messages to guide users in case of a validation error, helping them correct their input.

Data Privacy and Security

For sensitive data, consider using obfuscation or encryption techniques to protect the information. Additionally, mark fields that contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Personal Health Information (PHI) to ensure they are handled with the necessary level of privacy and security throughout the data collection, storage, and processing stages.

Offline or Online Form

Depending on the purpose of the form, decide whether it should be online or offline. Keep in mind that all Appverse web forms are designed to work only online, while both online and offline functionality is available in the Appverse Mobile app.

Testing

Test your form, verify that data flows are as expected, validation rules are working, all linkages are working properly and the form is correctly submitting the data.