The 8-part Form Development Cycle

Introduction to the Development Cycle

Everyone is too busy to bother filling out questionnaire forms. Almost always, such forms are an intrusion. As a forms designer, you need to create motivators for your respondents.

What is it that will entice them to fill out the form? Is a product or service involved? Will they receive a gift? Is there some way that filling out a form will make their lives easier? Will the information they supply help to make some project or venture run more smoothly? You must ask these questions and provide convincing answers.

In any questionnaire form, ask only for information that you really need; always keep your forms as short as possible. If, for example, you don’t need to know the respondent’s age or home address, do not ask for this information.
In explaining your reason for requesting information, try to make your purpose the respondent’s purpose as well. How can you phrase your objectives clearly and persuasively? How can you convince your respondents that their filling out the form really matters?

Tutorial on the Cycle

What follows in this tutorial is my take on an 8-part development cycle for building forms. This cycle has been developed over the years, based on broad and deep experience in my building information-seeking devices that can be implemented with minimal pain.

Here is the entire cycle. Feel free to click on any area of the image to learn more. Or, of course, use the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Form Cycle