I just add this article in my bookmark.

If I stumble across a form for a product I’m interested in and they ask me everything under the Sun, they lose my business period.

And to all reading this post and the great comments, don’t forget that Grok readers can get a 10% discount on any Rosenfeld Media book; just use coupon code GROKDOT at checkout.

On the anti-CAPTCHA question, click on my name above and you’ll go to one option, which is a Web service my firm developed called Form Armor.

We’ve been compiling research data on form abuse since 2002, and the only other non-CAPTCHA solutions I’m aware of involve scripting that requires a fair amount of weekly code maintenance to stay ahead of the spammers. In terms of stopping spam, effectiveness for the scripts we tested has also been about the same as CAPTCHA — pretty dismal — but it’s definitely a less intrusive option for the end user.

Have you tested different anti-spam solutions on your Web forms to see what might work best? If so, what kind of responses did you see — both for conversion rates and the level of staff complaints? If you’d like to talk about this further, you can use the contact form on our Web site to reach me… or I’m sure Brendan and the smart folks here at FutureNow would be glad to help you with testing different scenarios, too.

50% sounds pretty solid from my experience. I have seen numbers ranging from a few percent up into the 80% ballpark depending mostly on the context and the type of newsletter. For instance, a request to sign up for a price alert after checkout might have a very good conversion if the purchase was something purchased regularly like pet food. I am curious to hear what others have seen too though.

- CAPTCHA – Lisa Reynolds mentioned this is a no no. I couldn’t agree more. However as I attempt to fight the good fight and minimize end user friction I get more requests to “stop form SPAM”. Can you explain or highlight the “newer (and more effective) technology for stopping form spam and abuse”?
- Does anyone know of an industry average for email newsletter signup conversion? I can’t find anything online. Due to development limitations our newsletter sign up feature is actually a separate page on the site. We are around 50% conversion rate which would be outstanding for a purchase but I’m not sure about an email signup.
- I’ve read some good things about adding trust icons (like hackersafe) to forms. I believe they are supposed to increase conversions. We target boomers and seniors who in my opinion might like the extra reassurance these seals allegedly provide. Thoughts?

One of my colleagues, Rick Starbuck, once said, “the war is lost one little sodier at a time” as we argued with legal staff at a top ten bank to try to eliminate yet another low value input field on a new account opening form. We used to keep a scorecard of how many input fields we had, and how many each of our competitors had, with the goal always being to have the most streamlined application possible. As a result of attention to these details, the sites I have been working with have almost always had the best conversion of any banking sites.

There is a LOT of upside in everything in forms. My checklist would include the following at least:
- Call to action button position and design
- Which form fields are present, absent, required and optional
- Terms acceptance methods
- Form field labels
- Order that you present form fields in
- Instructional copy
- Help availability and identification

One issue I wish were covered more often in the context of form design is the use of CAPTCHA images to stop form spam and abuse. For most marketers it’s a no-brainer to avoid CAPTCHAs on a landing page, but I’m always amazed when (as a user) I get to the end of an otherwise pleasant form experience and then face the insult of proving that I’m “qualified” as a human being.

CAPTCHA is a Web relic that currently fails to stop spam as much as 90-92% of the time. Regardless of how many resources we use to create engaging forms, using CAPTCHA to stop form abuse just means more abuse for users.

I’d suggest that when taking that good, hard look at your Web forms, the first item on the optimization list should be to abandon CAPTCHA in favor of newer (and more effective) technology for stopping form spam and abuse.

My pet peeve is forms on which the most promient button (lower right) is either “Clear Form” or “Cancel”! Such buttons should be lined up against the wall and shot.

Thanks for the book suggestion.