Web forms. They’re the heart of product design (most products are, from the user standpoint, just a bunch of forms) and usually the most important part of any web page they appear on. Given that importance, you’d think that, after 25 years of building them, we’d have forms nailed.

But we totally don’t.

Or rather, we do have forms pretty well figured out, but the good word seems to have spread somewhat … unevenly. So let’s take a look at some of the most common problems web forms present us, and dig into how to do things better.

Label all the things, in the field

You know what I love? Field labels that disappear when I click into the field. Because I totally do remember what it was asking me.

Sure, in-field labels feel like an elegant solution to the problems of form design. Forms are often the most important thing on a page. But because they’re far from aesthetically pleasing, it’s not hard to imagine why you’d want to save a little space on the page.

In fact, I bet the first designer to move those field labels into the field felt like a damned genius for a day. Actually, I genuinely hope they did.

But like many seemingly genius ideas put into practice, this one falls flat. It poses significant accessibility issues for the cognitively impaired — and, honestly, for the rest of us. Because most of the time when we’re filling out forms, we’re on autopilot. We’re not carefully attending to each field’s label and what we’re entering into that field.

So having the field visually present to remind me what I’m doing is super-handy. Helps me achieve my goal faster, and ensures I don’t have to delete or cut entries I’ve already made just to be sure I put the right content there.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to just stick with standard form design practices. It’s all good if you want to magically whisk the label out of the field and settle it above when I click in. If you feel that’s a good use of your time, go for it, buddy.

But I, for one, honestly don’t care.

‍If you do want to use in-field labels, make sure they persist somehow.

Definitely don’t allow me to sign in with social

Because seriously, who wants something so convenient as one-click sign-in?

Okay, so I probably shouldn’t feel so free handing out my social credentials to any ole app that wants them. And I agree that it’s not the most future-friendly of possibilities. As the recent closure of Vine should remind us all, these “networks” we practically live on can vanish in a moment.

But damn it’s satisfying. Using a social login feels like I’ve got a key to the whole internet. I’ll I have to do is let you use it, and bam! I’m in. So much nicer than filling out a bunch of fields.

Note how Medium gives me both social and email-based login options — and lets me know what they’ll do with my social account access if I give it.

Granted, there’s lots of reasons not to use social login, so I don’t score too heavily on this one. But I hope you at least considered making things this easy on me.

Oh—and if you do use social sign in, make sure to also: