When building a public-facing web form we are often asked, "how many fields should we include?" Often, teams keep thinking of new criteria and keep adding them to the list, making long, and not very user-friendly, forms.

In general, students interacting with your forms want it to be quick. They will be more inclined to part with fewer data. Generally, the rule is The more fields you add, the fewer conversions you will get. Less (fields) is more (data)!

Don't forget, this isn't a one-shot deal. Once you've got their email address you can market to this student again and may get more details when they register for an open day or order a prospectus.

For Mobile Event Capture and Enquiry forms, which are often the first interaction with a student, we'd suggest going for the bare essentials. Too many questions can put them off making an enquiry or leaving their details. Better to have a little data than none at all. A big form with loads of fields can be a big barrier. A simple form is much better in this instance.

There is some debate over quantity vs quality. Do you collect more leads by having fewer fields or fewer leads that are more specific to your needs? The article "How Long Should Your Landing Page Forms Be?" discusses this.

A good place to start is what action you wish to take with the data you are collecting. If you don't 100% need it, don't collect it. If it's required and necessary for your segmentation then you should collect it.

We often build big complex forms for clients who at a later date decide to cut the form down to something much simpler which is more effective.

I realise that this doesn't exactly resolve the debate but its food for thought.