One-question-at-a-time vs single-page forms, which is best?

Do not index

Hide CTA

Hide cover

A small change can have a huge impact on your form’s conversion rate. Personalizing questions with information from earlier questions is almost always a good idea. The same goes for using interactive star ratings and date picker field types over traditional text boxes, for certain questions. But not every optimization strategy is clear cut.

Conversational forms, where users are presented with a single question at a time, are an excellent example. Sometimes, it’s a great way to make your form feel friendlier and easier to fill out. Sometimes, it has the opposite effect.

The right answer may not even be based on the topic of your form. Some users prefer to see all of a form’s questions before they begin. Others want to skip around, picking their own question order. If you’re trying to decide whether a conversational form format would help or hinder your conversion rate, here are a few things to consider.

When it makes sense to use the one-question-at-a-time format

There are a few use cases especially well suited for conversational forms. Simple registration, lead intake, and order forms, for instance, are great for the conversational approach. Type your name, hit enter. Type your email, hit enter. They’re short enough that the back-and-forth doesn’t feel tedious, and it’s unlikely users will want to go back and change an answer. Give users an idea of what to expect on page one, clarifying how many questions there are and how long the form typically takes, and they won’t find it restrictive.

Service and product feedback surveys with several of the same question type (e.g., likert scales) also tend to have higher completion rates when prompts are spread across several pages. There is a Goldilocks zone, though. If you only have a few fields, put them on a single page so users see how short the form is. Conversely, if you want a client to complete more than half a dozen 1-10 ratings, you’re likely better off grouping them by category and creating a multi-page form with a few fields per page.

Application and onboarding forms follow a similar logic. Answering 20 or 30 questions with the one-question-at-a-time format tends to feel like it takes much longer than when everything fits into five or six pages. There’s no hard and fast rule, but a conversational form will usually start hurting conversion rates around the time you pass 12-14 questions. Length isn’t the only factor, though.

The one-question-at–a-time design is also great when it helps your form feel more like a conversation. Start off with “What’s your name?” or “Where are you located?” and use answer piping to insert responses into later “How will you get from [location] to our event, [name]?”

But even these are broad generalizations. Some people bounce every time they see a one-question-at-a-time form, regardless of the topic. Others see a single-page form with a dozen fields and immediately feel overwhelmed. All it takes is a powerful Typeform alternative to make everyone happy.

One-question-at-a-time vs one-page forms: Let your users choose

All the way back in 1994, famed UX pioneer Jakob Nielsen released his 10 Usability Heuristics. Principle number seven was: “Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user so that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users.” Instead of dictating what type of form design is best, create multiple paths.

If you’re using a form builder that can create multi-page forms with conditional logic between pages, like Fillout, you can make the first page a single question: Would you rather see all of the fields on a single page or one question per page? Whichever option a user picks, that’s what you give them, with a branch for each preference.

One branch would be Page 1: Format Preference > Page 2: All Questions > Page 3: Thank you; and the other would be Page 1: Format Preference > Page 2: First Question > Page 3: Second Question … and so on until you hit the Thank you page. It’s a few extra minutes of setup, sure, but for some users, it makes all the difference.

Tips for improving form conversion rates

There are a few other ways to find the sweet spot between too much freedom and too little when creating UX shortcuts. Imagine you’re sharing a link to your form in several different online communities, and you know one of them will prefer the one-page format over the conversational approach. You might want to set up a URL parameter that skips the Format Preference page.

For the one-question-at-a-time branch, Fillout’s Auto-jump to the next page feature (in the Settings > Form behavior menu) is also a huge help. It won’t affect your All Questions branch, but for any single-question page with a specific question type – multiple choice, picture choice, dropdown, star rating, or opinion scale – selecting an answer will automatically transition to the next page.

Lastly, there are few form optimizations as important as setting user expectations early on. Consider adding a brief paragraph describing the two options on your Form Preference page. Tell users that they can select the single-page route, see the whole form, and then click the back arrow to choose the other route if they like. Assure them that their progress will be saved so you can come back later. Explain where the progress bar is. Show users how much freedom they have.

So, which converts better?

You don’t have to limit your form to a one-question-at-a-time and a single-page branch. Create a middle-ground option and add a branch that has a few pages with four to five questions per page. It just depends on your audience and whether or not a third branch would result in choice overload.

Giving users the freedom to choose their preferred format doesn’t just boost completion rates. It also acts as an A/B test to inform how you structure future forms. Maybe the data shows an overwhelming preference for skimmable one-page forms, or conversational back-and-forth forms. All you need to get answers is a free Typeform alternative.