How to write good questions for forms - Write the supporting content for your form

As well as questions, your form or service may need an introduction, help text, error messages and a confirmation or thank you page. Think about content across other channels too.

Name your form

If you have not already done so, name your form or service. (See the GOV.UK guidance on Naming your service.)

Focus on the task, on what the user wants to do.

Introduce the form

Introduce and explain your form or service to users. This is your chance to stop the wrong people filling in the form and to set expectations.

You could try a start page, like the GOV.UK start page pattern. (We are developing an NHS start page pattern for the service manual in GitHub.) Be aware that users often ignore text under the start button (and any "Continue" buttons).

Also, user journeys rarely start with the start page and many forms or services do not need a special start page. Think about how users will get to your form or service as well as how to introduce it.

Give users help in context

If users need help or guidance with filling in a question, do not link to something labelled "help". Add just enough help text where they need it - and only if you see in research that they need it.

For example, users do not usually need to be told to "Select the answer that applies to you" with radios, but they may need telling to "Select all options that are relevant to you" with checkboxes.

Example

How would you like to be contacted?

Select all options that are relevant to you.

Phone

Text message

Answer users' questions in context, like:

"What's this?"
"Why do you want this information?"
"Where can I find this?"

Use it to explain:

any necessary jargon
where to find their NHS number
what format users should give information in
what you’ll do with personal information
the consequences of making 1 choice over another

Example

Do you know your NHS number?

This is a 10 digit number, like 485 777 3456.

You can find it on any letter the NHS has sent you, on a prescription or by logging in to a GP practice online service.

Yes, I know my NHS number

No, I do not know my NHS number

I'm not sure

Good help text saves having to write error messages.

Bear in mind that users may miss the help text. Sometimes a filter question will work better.

If you have to explain your interface, it needs more work.

How to add help text

We do not recommend tool tips. They can be hard for users to see and are not accessible.

Instead you can:

add hint text as a part of other form inputs, such as text inputs, radios and checkboxes, for help that's relevant to most of your users
use the details component to reveal expanding help text - this is useful if the help text is only relevant for some users

Use error messages to explain what went wrong

Think of error messages as a step in the conversation. Tell the user how to fix the problem as soon as you can.

If you begin prototyping with 1 thing per page, you can deal with errors for 1 thing at a time.

Read more about error messages in the service manual.

Also think about error messages if your service, or a service you use, fails. For example, GOV.UK has patterns for "Service unavailable" and "There's is a problem with the service".

End with a confirmation or thank you page

Consider how you can reassure users they have completed the form and help them understand what to do next.

You could try:

a confirmation page, like the GOV.UK confirmation page pattern (we are developing an NHS confirmation page pattern for the service manual in GitHub)
a summary list to summarise users' responses and let them check their answers, as in the GOV.UK check answers pattern
pausing to allow users to reflect, for example, for a declaration or "signature"

Look at your content across channels

Think beyond the form. For the user, it is likely to be a cross-channel experience. Remember to make your on and offline content consistent, including:

paper or downloadable forms
introductory emails or letters
confirmation emails or text messages
call centre scripts
follow up emails or letters

Help us improve this guidance

Share insights or feedback and take part in the discussion. We use GitHub as a collaboration space. All the information on it is open to the public.

Feedback or share insights on GitHub

Read more about how to feedback or share insights.

If you have any questions, get in touch with the service manual team.

Updated: November 2019