The power and flexibility of the ServiceNow platform allows organizations to extend existing applications and develop new ones to meet their needs. Users interact with these applications through forms and lists. It's critical that these forms and lists be simple, intuitive, and consistent across the platform, so that users can quickly work with a new application without having to learn another interface. In this installment of our best practices series, we look at some best practices for creating forms that are easy to understand and use.
Overview of form elements and their functions
Check out this video on our NowSupport YouTube channel:
Every table needs a well-designed form to manage the data
This is often overlooked for simple tables with only a few columns, or for tables—such as logs or statistical information—accessed only by users with the admin role. But well-designed forms can facilitate all users' activities in the instance. So make sure each table has a user-friendly form.
Design forms for consistency and ease of use
You should design your forms for the end-user to utilize without confusion. There are a few general rules of thumb that you should keep in mind while creating and editing forms for your organization. Here are tips for good form design:
- The form should read from left to right, top to bottom.
- Important fields should appear at the top of the form.
- The reference name or number field should be the first field on the form, in the top left position.
- The form should be as short as possible. If it contains many fields, do one of the following:
- Arrange the topmost fields in two columns by using form splits.
- Use form annotations to provide on-screen instructions to users.
- Use form sections to organize fields into logical groupings.
- Large string fields, such as short descriptions and comments, should span the full width of the form below the columns of shorter fields.
These tips are illustrated in the incident form:
Create multiple form views
When creating a form, you may want to create multiple views to meet the needs of various users. A view defines the elements that appear when a user opens a form or a list. For example, here are two different views of the User form displaying Ethan Taylor's record. The Default View shows a lot of detail about him, including his roles and groups. The ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) view shows less personal data but includes information of interest to service desk agents: Ethan's incidents and configuration items, such as his laptop and peripherals.
Default view:
ITIL view:
Thoughtfully constructed form views for different purposes and audiences can help users perform tasks more quickly. To see which views exist in your instance, navigate to System UI > Views. View rules define conditions you can apply to certain predefined views for forms. This can be useful when you want to streamline forms or when requesting additional information. To define a view rule, navigate to System UI > View Rules.
Avoid adding the same field to more than one section of a form
Avoid adding the same field to more than one section of a form unless the field displays read-only data. Having two or more occurrences of an editable field can cause data loss and prevent the proper functioning of UI (user interface) and data policies.
For more information on forms
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