How to analyze a Form

Set up: 

Zoning Analysis

Create a zoning of your form - if your form has several steps on different pages, add snapshots of each step/ page to your zoning.

Form Analysis

Open the zoning of your form and navigate to Form Analysis. In edit mode, create the zones in your form needed for your analysis. 

Objective

• Define what’s the objective of your form - is it for lead generation, newsletter sign up, or to create an account?
• Lastly, define where users have to click on to submit the form, e.g. on a ‘submit form’ CTA. 

Step-by-step: 

With Form Analysis, you are able to dive deeper into how users are interacting with your forms. Use the Form report to understand how many users successfully submitted vs struggled to submit, and the UX metrics available to dive deeper. 

Analyzing user interaction with the form

Using the form report, analyze how many users:

• Left the form without interacting with it
• Interacted with it, but did not submit the form
• Tried to submit the form but failed
• Successfully submitted the form

High percentage of users leaving without interacting

If a high percentage of users loaded the form without interacting with it, it indicates that users did not see the value of filling out the form. It could for example mean that they didn’t want to provide the requested data, or that the form is too long. 

Dive deeper

• Shortcut from the form to Session replay. This can provide insight into how users are experiencing the form. Did they only have a quick look at the information required, or are they considering (hovering) the fields before leaving?

High percentage of users trying to submit but failing

If a high percentage of users tried to submit the form but failed, it indicates that they either failed to fill out the form correctly or that they encountered an error. For example, they may have missed to fill out a mandatory field, or that the submit CTA is broken. 

Dive deeper

• Use the metric Blank rate: See if there are any fields left unfilled. If users are leaving mandatory fields blank, it could be what is preventing them from submitting. It could also be that users don’t want to submit that particular information. 
• Use the metric Refill rate: Look at if there are fields users are struggling to fill out. If users tried to submit, then refilled the field, and still did not manage to submit, it indicates that the field is confusing to fill out. 
• Use the metric Click recurrence: If a field has a high Click recurrence, it could indicate that users are struggling to fill it in or that it is broken. If the field has a click recurrence of two, it could mean that users are pasting in the information. However, if it is the submit zone that has a high Click recurrence, it indicates that the zone is causing frustration. 

High percentage of users leaving after interacting

If a high percentage of users left the form without interacting with it, it could indicate that they didn’t see the value of completing the form, that they didn’t want to submit specific data, or that they encountered an error. 

Dive deeper

• Use the metrics Blank rate, Refill rate and Click recurrence: are there fields users are leaving blank, refilling several times, or struggling to fill out? Shortcut to Session replay to dive deeper.
• Look at scroll reach: are users seeing the whole form? Are they scrolling down to see how long the form is without filling out fields further down? 

Take action: 

• If a high percentage of users are leaving the form without interacting with it, analyze how the form can be made shorter and appear less time consuming. It’s also recommended to go through the type of information you are requesting - are there any fields that you could remove? 
• If a certain field has a high Blank rate, it indicates that users are unwilling to give a certain type of information.  Analyze what type of information users are being asked for - is this information necessary, or can it be skipped?
• If users are trying to submit without filling in mandatory fields, consider making the fields non-mandatory. If this information is necessary, analyze if it’s clear to users that the fields are in fact mandatory - are there enough visual cues for users to understand that they have to fill out certain fields?
• If users are leaving the form without interacting with it, analyze whether there is enough reassurance on the page. Is the length (e.g. number of pages) of the form clearly explained so users know how much time they need to spend?
• If needed, create a segment of users who didn’t submit the form and another segment of users who did submit the form. These segments can later be used in other modules to analyze further, such as Journey Analysis - are users who didn’t submit the form showing other types of frustration, such as page reloads or looping behavior?

Go further: 

Visit our university to learn more about Form Analysis:

• Optimize your forms