9 Registration Form Ideas

Have you ever registered or attempted to register to an event and spent half an hour trying to figure out what you needed to do?

Or have you used an online registration form that lost your data or was so complicated that it seemed like more work than faxing the form?

When used properly, online registration is an extremely powerful tool that makes registration easy for event participants. If not used correctly, event participants can be left extremely frustrated and in some cases reluctant to attend the event

We have put together a list of nine design ideas to help you create user friendly registration forms and give your event participants a positive registration experience

1. Make the registration form easy to access
Make the link to the online registration form very obvious. Event participants may not be familiar with your website and will become frustrated if they have to look for the registration form. If you are sending a URL (web address) in printed material make the address as simple as possible so participants aren’t entering a long string of characters. Also, only put a registration form in a password protected part of your website when absolutely necessary. People often forget their passwords, which will cause more frustration and possibly generate calls and emails to the event planner

2. Make your form familiar and secure
Event participants need to be reassured that their data is secure. A good way to do this is to brand the online form to match your website. This way, the transition to the online from is seamless and event participants will remain comfortable with the process. Also, make sure that appropriate security icons such as the lock symbol in your browser appear when collecting credit card numbers

3. Make the registration form clear and easy to use
A well laid out and visually appealing registration form encourages event participants to register. On the form, keep text to a minimum and make it clear what you want participants to do. Use logic to guide participants through the form and give warnings if something is wrong

4. Have appropriate payment options
If you have a fee associated with your event, make sure the payment methods you offer are appropriate for the people registering. For example, large companies may require an invoice before a cheque can be issued and some groups of people may not have credit cards

5. Display your privacy policy
Many people are concerned about who will have access to their information and how it will be used. Make sure you have a privacy statement available on the online form to reassure participants that you are protecting their information

6. Anticipate questions participants may have
Do not overload the form with information, but have information on the form that you think may be useful when registering such as prices, dates or special instructions. It is inconvenient for participants to have to click back to search for the information on your website and in some cases clicking “back” will delete the data in a partially complete form

7. Only request necessary data
The less information people have to provide the more comfortable they will be with the process and the quicker they will be able to complete the form. If you are asking for personal information such as birth date it helps to add a note saying why you are requesting the information

8. Do not over use mandatory fields
Mandatory fields help to get fully complete registration forms, but too many mandatory fields can frustrate an event participant. This is especially true if there is information that is not readily known such as the fax number for someone else in their group

9. Avoid making participants sign up with another company before they can register to your event
Some online registration companies require people registering to events to first sign up as a member with them. A system like this has its place, but many event participants will be turned off providing information to a third party

About REGIS Software:
REGIS web based event management system is the leading European software solution for meeting and event organisers to manage their events
Email: Regis@missioneventsoftware.eu
http://event-master.com/