Minimal Form Interface

Today we’d like share a very simplistic form interface with you. You’ve probably seen this kind of single input view form in several modern websites. We spotted one in the end of the PageLanes website and thought that this is a really nice and user-friendly concept for a form.

So, the idea is to show the user just one input field at a time, without any clutter or distractions, but only with elements that are helpful in indicating how much needs to be filled. On the PageLanes form this is done by adding the step information to the button that will show the next question. But we tried a slightly different layout, with a tiny progress bar and a number indicator on the right side below the input field. We also added some subtle effects when showing the next input.

Please note that we are using some modern CSS properties like pointer-events and animations which are not supported in older browsers.

Initially, we don’t show the navigation arrow. When we focus on the input field, we’ll make it fade in.

The numbers in the bottom right tell the user how many questions there are in total and which question is the current one. Once they advance to the next question, we’ll show a progress bar that indicates the level of completion of the form.

The next question can be reached by clicking on the arrow icon or by hitting enter. In case there is an error, the error message is shown below the input:

A minimal form like this can be really useful for questionnaires or simple contact forms. The advantage is that the user is less distracted and the filling of this form seems like much less work. Clearly, an approach like this has its disadvantages, too. You can’t go back or have an overview of your answers. But that are features that could be implemented in some sort of way. What would be interesting to see is how a form like this performs and if it’s preferred by the user.

We hope you find this inspiring and we’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic!