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Which field type should each question be?

The commonest mistake in a first form is making everything a text box. It is quick to build and slow to answer, and it turns analysis into reading. Match the field to the answer you want and both problems go away.

Short text

Names, references, job titles. Anything longer than a line wants Long text instead — a single-line box tells people to be brief whether you meant it or not.

Email

Validated on submit, so a typo is caught before the response is stored rather than after you try to reply to it.

Multiple choice

One answer from a known set. If the set is not genuinely exhaustive, add an 'Other' option with a text box or you will collect wrong answers.

Checkboxes

Several answers from a set. Say how many may be picked — 'all that apply' and 'up to three' produce very different data.

Dropdown

A long known list: country, department, plan. Under about six options a choice list is faster, because it needs no tap to open.

Rating

Strength of feeling about one thing. Keep the scale identical across a form — mixing 1–5 and 1–10 makes answers impossible to compare.

Date

A calendar picker rather than a text box, which is the difference between 03/04 meaning March and meaning April.

File upload

CVs, briefs, photos. 5 MB per file on the free plan, 10 MB on paid.

How long should a form be?

Shorter than feels comfortable. Every field is a small negotiation, and the fields you add 'while we are asking' are the ones that lose you responses. A useful test: for each question, name the decision the answer changes. If you cannot, cut it — you are collecting it because it is easy to collect.

Contact or enquiry

Three to five fields. Name, email, and what they want. Anything else can be asked in the reply, when they are already talking to you.

Lead qualification

Six to eight, split across two pages. Ask who they are first and what they need second — people abandon a budget question far less readily once they have already invested a page.

Survey

Under ten questions. Completion falls sharply beyond that, and the drop is steeper than most people expect.

Application

As long as it needs to be, but multi-step and with a resume link. Nobody fills in a job application in one sitting, and pretending otherwise costs you candidates.

Required fields cost more than you think

A required question that someone cannot honestly answer is a dead end: they cannot proceed, so they leave. That is one lost response for one field you probably did not need. Require only what you genuinely cannot use the submission without — usually an email address and one or two others — and let the rest be optional. You will get more answers overall, including to the optional questions, because people who are not fighting the form tend to keep going.