Edip Kilinc is the founder of Webwavers. Together with his team, he develops websites, brands, and digital presences for ambitious companies – with over 250 completed projects and accolades including the German Design Award 2026.
A form is a negotiation. On one side is what the company would like to know. On the other is how much effort someone is willing to make who isn't even sure yet if they want to work with you at all.
This willingness is limited and decreases with every field. Three types are particularly costly: the phone number, because it heralds a phone call that nobody wants. The company size as a dropdown list, because it smells of pre-sorting. And the budget field, because it demands the answer that the inquirer does not yet know themselves.
This does not mean that you should never ask for these fields. It means that each of them has a price that you should pay consciously – not out of habit because the form has looked like this for five years.
A form is a negotiation. On one side is what the company would like to know. On the other is how much effort someone is willing to make who isn't even sure yet if they want to work with you at all.
This willingness is limited and decreases with every field. Three types are particularly costly: the phone number, because it heralds a phone call that nobody wants. The company size as a dropdown list, because it smells of pre-sorting. And the budget field, because it demands the answer that the inquirer does not yet know themselves.
This does not mean that you should never ask for these fields. It means that each of them has a price that you should pay consciously – not out of habit because the form has looked like this for five years.
Four fields are enough for a project inquiry.
Name. One field, not two. Separating first and last name serves the database, not the user.
Email. The only technically mandatory field.
Company. Short, optional to fill in, helps with classification before the callback.
Message. The actual field. Everything that matters is in here – if the question above is well asked.
The phone number can remain optional. Anyone who wants to be called will enter it; this is also a signal about the urgency.
Everything else – industry, timeframe, budget, preferred date – belongs in the initial conversation, not in the form. A conversation clarifies in three minutes what a form needs five fields for and still produces misunderstandings.
This is where the greatest underestimated leverage lies. Most forms label the text field with "Your message". The result is inquiries like: "Please call back".
Instead, whoever asks a concrete question gets concrete answers. For example: "What is the task, and what should be different at the end compared to today?" Or: "Briefly describe your project and what you have tried so far."
Three to four lines of placeholder text cost nothing and change the quality of incoming inquiries much more significantly than any dropdown field. The reason: a dropdown field forces the inquirer into a category they might choose incorrectly. An open question allows them to describe the problem in their own words – and that is the information that really helps in the initial conversation.
This makes the form shorter and delivers more.
Four points cause drop-offs that nobody notices because they leave no trace.
Validation only after submission. Anyone who finds out after clicking that three fields are incorrect, and loses their text in the process, will not return. Validation must happen when leaving the field, not at the end.
Error messages without a solution. "Invalid input" says nothing. "Please use the format name@company.com" says it all.
No state after the click. If the submit button remains unchanged after clicking, people click again – or assume that it did not work.
No confirmation page. A message that disappears after two seconds is not a completion. A dedicated page with a thank you, processing time, and a meaningful next step builds trust – and is the prerequisite for being able to measure completions at all.
On smartphones, a fifth point comes into play: the keyboard. An email field should open the email keyboard, a telephone field the numeric keypad. This is a single line of code and saves every user several seconds of frustration.
Consent is mandatory, but how it is handled is a matter of design.
A pre-checked box is impermissible. A checkbox with four lines of legal text in front of it is permissible, but it slows things down. The practical approach is a sentence under the submit button that states in clear language what happens, with a link to the privacy policy.
The phrasing is important. "Your data will be used exclusively to process your inquiry and will not be passed on" is a sentence that addresses concerns. A reference to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR is a sentence that raises them.
For questions regarding the specific design in individual cases, it is worth consulting a specialist lawyer – this article does not constitute legal advice.
Without measurement, every change is just an opinion. Three metrics are enough.
Form views to submissions. How many people see the form, how many submit it? Under five percent points to a problem, over fifteen is good.
Drop-offs per field. Where do people stop? Most analytics tools can track this. A field where an above-average number of users stop is the first candidate for removal.
Quality of inquiries. How many of the incoming inquiries lead to a conversation? This is the only metric that truly matters. A shorter form that brings in twice as many, but poorer quality inquiries, is not progress.
Changes should be made one at a time. Anyone who changes three things at once won't know afterwards which one worked.
