Pattern #3: Fewer Form Fields

Pattern #3  Tested 13 timesFirst tested by Herman Klein Recently tested by Alexander Krieger on May 12, 2023

Based on 13 Tests, Members See How Likely Version B Wins Or Loses And By How Much

LOSSES
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
FLAT
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
WINS

Measured by the sum of negative and positive tests.

A B
Fewer Form Fields (Variant A) Fewer Form Fields (Variant B)

Expected Median Effects Of B

?

Progression

(6 tests)

?

Leads

(5 tests)

?

Signups

(1 tests)

-

Engagement

?

Sales

(4 tests)

?

Revenue

(1 tests)

-

Retention

-

Referrals

?

ANY PRIMARY

(13 tests)

Tested on

Tests

Pattern #3: Fewer Form Fields
Was Tested On Volders.de by Michal Fiech

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Isolated

Test # 300 on Volders.de by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Michal Fiech    May 25, 2020 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 23,356 Visitors

  • Measured by successful form submission

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Signup

In this experiment, a password field was removed on a contract cancellation form (Volders).

In the control version, users were required to enter their email address and a password. If the email address was associated with an existing account, then the password was used to authenticate the user (and validated). When users entered a new email address, then the password field was used to create a new account. 

In the variation, the password field was removed, as the authentication happened after the conversion itself using other backend mechanisms.

 

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The Same Pattern Was Also Tested Here

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Isolated

Test # 470 on Formelskin.de by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Alexander Krieger    May 12, 2023 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 8,839 Visitors

  • Measured by product purchases

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Signup

In this experiment, a password field was removed from a signup / account creation step. Instead of asking for a password, users received an email with an auto-generated password. This experiment ran on mobile and impact on sales (post-signup) was measured.

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Test # 422 on Volders.de by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Daria Kurchinskaia    Jul 22, 2022 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 20,345 Visitors

  • Measured by next step visits

  • Measured by completed transactions

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Shopping Cart

A birthdate field was removed during a signup process for a paid contract cancellation service. Impact on progression (next step) and sales (completed transactions) was measured.

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Test # 415 on Learnwithhomer.c... by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Stanley Zuo    Jun 09, 2022 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 2,286 Visitors

  • Measured by completed trial starts

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Checkout

Do fewer confirmation form fields matter? In this experiment, redundant password and email confirmation fields were removed during a signup / checkout funnel. Impact on signups was measured.

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Test # 86 on Vivareal.com.br by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Rodrigo Maués    Feb 28, 2021 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 101,914 Visitors

  • Measured by form submits

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Product

In this experiment, the telephone field was removed from a lead form on a property page. Impact on leads was measured.

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Test # 280 on Volders.de by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Alexander Krieger    Jan 24, 2020 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 24,301 Visitors

  • Measured by progress to next payment screen

  • Measured by contract cancellations

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Signup

In this experiment on a contract cancellation funnel, one field was removed - a secondary contract ID. The control and variation both had a primary "customer ID" with which to identify and cancel someone's contract with.

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Test # 224 by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Alex James    Feb 11, 2019 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 97,074 Visitors

  • Measured by total searches completed

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Home & Landing

This experiment reduced the search form by removing the distance field.

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Test # 85 on Vivareal.com.br by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Rodrigo Maués    Mar 01, 2017 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 102,331 Visitors

  • Measured by lead form submits

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Product

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Test # 11 on Prizegrab.com by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Greg Van Horn    Oct 20, 2016 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 3,142 Visitors

  • Measured by form submits

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Home & Landing

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Test # 42 on Adoramapix.com by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Herman Klein    May 11, 2016 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 15,516 Visitors

  • Measured by visits to shopping cart

  • Measured by post-purchase page visits

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Shopping Cart

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Test # 28 on Digitalmarketer.... by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name Justin Rondeau    Mar 01, 2016 Test link

Find Out How It Did With 6,315 Visitors

  • Measured by form submits

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  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
A
  • ?% (? successes out of ? visits)
B
Home & Landing

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Test # 121 on Bionicgloves.com by $conducted_test->test->user_->first_name . ' ' . $conducted_test->test->user_->last_name VWO    Mar 13, 2015 Test link

Variation B Was Better

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A
B

Source: vwo.com/blog/promo-code-box-ecommerce-website-bleeding-dollars-ab-test/

Shopping Cart

VWO.com published this test which removed two coupon fields on a shopping cart: a gift card code and a special offer code.

Leaks

Leak #9 from Booking.com   |   May 15, 2019 Home & Landing

Booking A/B Tested 3 Search Bars Challenging The Fewer Form Fields Pattern

A - Feb 4, 2019
B - Feb 4, 2019
C - Feb 4, 2019 IMPLEMENTED

I've been watching this Booking experiment closely ever since sharing a very similar concept some months ago. Their homepage was openly challenged with the UI hypothesis of exposing a "room quantity" field right in the search bar (instead of hiding it in a pulldown menu). And their team took the initiative to run a test. Based on the observed outcome and roll out decision it turns out that the UI concept was better than their control. View Leak

-0.5 Evidence

Leak #46 from   |   Feb 25, 2020 Home & Landing

Booking Discovers That Two Search Bars Are Not Better Than One

A - Jan 13, 2020 IMPLEMENTED
B - Jan 13, 2020

In this experiment Booking added a second search bar on their homepage. The intention might have been to provide users a way to filter more destinations by country. Could this scenario have created an akward uncertainty about which form field to engage with? Whether this explanation is true or not, I'm not sure. What we do know however that in the end, the control version with the single search bar prevailed.  View Leak

+0.5 Evidence

Leak #53 from Netflix.com   |   May 25, 2020 Home & Landing

Netflix A/B Tests Displaying A Password Field Which Fails And Gets Rejected

A - Mar 31, 2020
B - Mar 31, 2020 REJECTED

It looks like Netflix has been iterating on showing additional fields upfront on their homepage. After they succeeded at displaying an email address upfront, this experiment now takes next step of showing a password field. The result of the leaked experiment however suggests a negative outcome as they reverted back to the control version - without the visible password. View Leak

+0.5 Evidence

For each pattern, we measure three key data points derived from related tests:

REPEATABILITY - this is a measure of how often a given pattern has generated a positive or negative effect. The higher this number, the more likely the pattern will continue to repeat.

SHALLOW MEDIAN - this is a median effect measured with low intent actions such as initiating the first step of a lengthier process

DEEP MEDIAN - this is derived from the highest intent metrics that we have for a given test such as fully completed signups or sales.