Forms are an essential part of just about any interactive website or app, whether you have an inquiry form, content uploader, e-commerce checkout, or comment section. But with audiences exposed to more apps, brands, and marketing each day, many forms have lost their magic and become a tedious chore. 

Here we go, time to enter my name, email, and payment info again… *yawn*

Savvy designers and developers realize that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can reclaim some of the fun and magic for users with a fancy, creative form design that helps make the experience more useful, engaging, and enjoyable. Plus a range of other benefits, too...

Why make your forms fancy

When you upgrade your forms to something a bit more fancy and creative, you’re more likely to:

• Stay on brand - When you customize your form styling, you can use colors, shapes, and styles that fit your branding (and the rest of your site).
• Modernize your look - Banish the old school drab gray colors and straight lines and give your forms a modern makeover.
• Get attention - When your audience is overwhelmed with content, brands, and ads coming at them from all directions, doing something different with your forms will mean more people pay attention and talk about you.
• Boost conversions - When your forms are more fun and enjoyable to complete, more people are going to finish them.
• Surprise and delight - Adding little details (like hiding an Easter egg) can bring an element of surprise and delight to the brand experience and make your customer or user smile.

Get the basics right first

Before you get fancy, you should always make sure you follow form design best practices, like:

• Accessibility
• Mobile responsiveness
• UX best practices

But if you’ve got a simple form that ticks all the boxes and works well, but you want to improve conversions, make it more on-brand, or attract attention, it’s time to try adding in fancy elements.

Fancy form elements with Aaron Iker

Aaron is a UI designer and front-end developer based in Germany who likes to create clean and user-friendly interfaces. He often uses the GreenSock library to create JavaScript animations and custom styled forms with modern CSS.