Optimize your form with conditional logic

What is conditional logic?

“Conditional” according to wikipedia is “In computer science, conditional statements, conditional expressions and conditional constructs are features of a programming language, which perform different computations or actions depending on whether a programmer-specified boolean condition evaluates to true or false. Apart from the case of branch predication, this is always achieved by selectively altering the control flow based on some condition.”
In much simpler terms you can say that : In logic, a conditional is a compound statement formed by combining two sentences (or facts) using the words "if ... then." (According to Regents Exam Prep Center geometry online lesson: )

What is conditional logic used for in web forms?

Yatin Khulbe, in his post “How to Skyrocket Your Business Profits with Online Forms” shares a conversation with he had with Aytekin Tank, in which he said: “Conditional logic allows you to configure the form to show or hide form fields, sections, or pages based on user selections. It lets you control what information your form visitor is asked to provide and tailor the form specific to their needs.
For example, if you’re conducting market research, your respondents can select their city from the drop-down menu. Depending on their selection, follow-up questions will be centered on the same city.”

Why is conditional logic considered form optimization?

CRO rules recommend users many ways to optimize their forms and get more leads.
One way is by using conditional logic in your form.

But how does it really optimize the form?
Well, conversion is greatly influenced by the form length. Steffi Sekar, talks about this in her post “4 Tips To Improve Landing Page Conversion”. She says that “The longer it takes them to reach the goal, less likely you will have them converted.”. so we can see that keeping the form shorter, with less fields in it will optimize it. However, what do you do when you need to collect more information from some people? Or different information from some people? Can you use the same form for this? It seems that laying down all the questions can scare the form filler and drive him away. So how do you get the information without making the form always longer?

Miranda Booher, in her post “Smart Thinking Behind Smart Forms to Boost Conversions“ talks about CRO and smart forms. She says that “Forms that automatically show or hide fields based on the user’s response are known as ”smart forms”.
She also quotes Jay Baer, a renowned marketer and founder of Convince and Convert: ”Keeping forms as short as possible is a best practice, but sometimes you really need extra data in particular circumstances. That’s where conditional form logic is very handy.”

When you use a “smart form” it actually contains all the questions you need to ask, but it shows the minimum number of fields the users needs to answer, and reveals more questions to him only when it is relevant to him.

Since filling in forms with a mobile phone is harder it is even more important to keep it short for mobile.
Hazel Bolton talks about this in her post “How to Optimize Your Checkout for Mobile Devices”. She shows the differences between shopping on mobile VS. shopping on desktop: "
 - Users navigates and types with their fingers.
- There’s no full keyboard. Keyboard needs switching to input numbers and symbols (such as are required for providing contact details/verification details and passwords).
- The screen is smaller. This might sound duh duh but of course it’s rather an importance difference between mobile and desktop browsing.
- Users have less time. A study conducted by WebCredible found that users “don’t like performing lengthy processes on their mobiles”.

So we can clearly see how conditional logic in your form can optimize it for mobile.

Ajay Prasad claims that “Conditional logic is great for mobile because it keeps your form as brief as possible for your users”.
“Mobile Optimization: The Relationship Between Simplicity & User Experience”

Are there any form builders that provide conditional logic?

Yes, there are. The conditional logic is a very important feature that may be found in a few form builders. FormTitan, for example, is a platform that emphasizes on form optimization more than any other form builder.
Not only do some form builders lack this important conditional logic feature, but it seems that those who do provide it are mostly limited.

FormTitan, currently offers 2 levels of conditioning:
Form conditions and element conditions.
Using form conditions you can create rules that will either change your “thank you message”, send an email or push the data to a 3rd party platform.
Using element conditions you can create rules that will result in show/hide of elements.

Ok i get it...but how do i add conditions to my form?

We’ll use this small example to show how easy it is:

Let’s say you have a simple support form in which you want to allow your users to contact you for assistance.
The form contains the following fields: Name, company, Phone number, email and Problem type.
Now let’s say that if your user’s problem is technical you would need him to provide some detail. In this case you can add a condition rule to your form in which:
if Problem type = technical > then show “Problem Detail” textarea field.

Following are steps to add the condition in FormTitan:

1-	Enter you form in the form builder
2-	Add a textarea element - don’t worry - the condition will make it hidden in the form
3-	select the “Problem type” drop down element and go to its “elemen settings” > “advanced” tab. Press on “Configure Conditions” button
4-	create your condition rule: choose “Contains” from the drop down and write the value “Technical” under it. Open the results dropdown and change the Textarea chosen value to “Show” This will make sure that if a form filler enters the value “Technical” the textarea element will show (until then it will be hidden) Press on “apply”
5-	if you check this in your published form you will see that the textarea is hidden by default and will only show if the value “Technical” is entered. This is how your published form will look if the form filler will choose "Technical".