Topic

Forms

Labels, validation, errors, and the structure of usable forms.

Forms are where products collect commitments: sign up, checkout, settings, applications. Small label and validation choices have outsized effects on completion.

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GuideUI CoachForms

Form Design Best Practices

Form UX for labels, structure, validation, and completion, written for product interfaces rather than marketing lead-gen templates.

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From the community

Latest articles

Adam Silver · Jun 11, 2023

Don’t mark required fields with an asterisk

Back in 2008 I worked at a software house. We built e-commerce sites for Boots, Argos and Homebase. Registration, sign in, checkout - all the usual forms. And we always did the same thing: little red asterisks next to each required field. We never tested it. We just followed what everyone else did. Fast forward 15 yea.

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Adam Silver · Apr 12, 2026

The perfect file upload pattern

Last week I listened to episode 10 of the Complimentary podcast, “Taking Interaction Design from Good to Great”. Anthony Hobday, one of the hosts, gave an example of applying for a driving license on GOV.UK. He said that instead of asking you to upload a photo, the form said: “We notice that you’ve already got a passp.

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Eleken · Jun 12, 2026

Search Bar Examples: 30 Designs With Great UX Design

Explore 30 search bar examples that balance form and function. Learn UX tactics that turn simple inputs into powerful product experiences.

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Adam Silver · May 28, 2023

The problem with nested fieldsets and how to avoid them

In 2016 I worked at the Department for Work and Pensions. I was working on a complex form field made up of nested fieldsets. It was inaccessible which surprised me because I was only using fieldsets, legends, labels and radio buttons. Nothing fancy. But as I did more research, it became clearer that nested fieldsets c.

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Adam Silver · Jul 21, 2025

The first law of form design

Two weeks ago, a new subscriber asked me: How can we bring joy to people who use enterprise applications for 40 hours a week? It’s a good question because it shows empathy for people who use the same product day in and day out. If you can bring users joy, you should. But it all boils down to what you mean by joy. If y.

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Manuel Matuzovic · Oct 20, 2022

Day 19: the placeholder-shown pseudo-class

You can use the :placeholder-shown pseudo-class to select input fields with a placeholder that haven't been filled out yet. input:placeholder-shown { outline: 5px solid blue; } Name E-Mail input:placeholder-shown { outline: 5px solid blue; } Name E-Mail PS: Yeah, I know, that one has been around for quite a while alre.

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Adam Silver · Jul 19, 2026

Why I don’t use interruption pages

Last week, someone paid me to review their form flow. One thing they wanted advice about was interruption pages. Coincidentally, the following day the GOV.UK Design System added the interruption page pattern. Interruption pages are designed to pause the user within a journey - usually to warn them about a possible mis.

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Webflow Blog · Jul 26, 2026

How to add SendGrid email delivery to a Webflow Cloud form

Build a contact form on Webflow Cloud that validates input server-side and sends both a branded confirmation and an internal notification via SendGrid.

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Adam Silver · Feb 2, 2020

Building an accessible autocomplete control

This is an excerpt from my book, Form Design Patterns. This article starts in the middle of chapter 3, A Flight Booking Form where I’ve been looking at ways to let users enter a destination country. Unfortunately, native HTML form controls aren’t good enough for this type of interaction. And so we need to build a cust.

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Adam Silver · Jan 19, 2025

Why the ‘none of the above’ checkbox pattern worries me

I recently read a blog post about how a GOV.UK service redesigned one of their questions in their application form. The original question looked like this: If you select ‘Yes’ you go here: Looks good. But research showed that some users who had a condition and were happy to disclose it, selected ‘No’ because they didn.

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Adam Silver · Feb 22, 2026

The problem with HTML reset buttons

Last week I read a post by designer and frontend dev, Theodore Soti: Stop clearing forms with JavaScript. The browser already knows how. I still see a lot of apps using custom code to track inputs and reset state. But for many forms, you can just use the native reset button. That reset button restores every field to i.

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Adam Silver · Jul 28, 2025

The second law of form design

Last week I shared the first law of form design which is that: Nobody wants to use your form. Like I said last week, it’s crucial to know because it emphasises respecting the user over trying to make your form fun, engaging, novel or “on brand”. And showing respect means doing everything we possibly can to get that fo.

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