Renovating Your Forms: Step 7

Test and finalize your form

Once your form is designed, you will want to test it to make sure the changes you have made solve the problems you were having with the form.

First, share the new form with people inside your department. They may have some valuable suggestions. Next, share the form with people who use your program. Depending on the volume of your form, you could test it with as few as 5 clients or as many as 20.

When you provide the clients with the draft form, whether online, in person, or by mail, make it clear that this form is undergoing revision and that you are seeking client feedback on the form.

You may wish to provide this explanation in a one-page document that includes a short questionnaire about the usability of the form.

When testing forms, be sure to clearly mark the form DRAFT, so it cannot be submitted to or accepted by a program by mistake.

After a number of clients have completed the draft form and provided their written or verbal feedback, make adjustments as required and proceed to the next step.

Focus Group Testing

Another way of testing your form is to hold a focus group discussion with a small number of clients. This method would be suitable for programs that interact frequently and have established relationships with clients. A caution about focus groups is that they give opinions and feelings, not actual results. For example, a group may say they prefer the look of the bright green paper, but in actual use this may interfere with people’s ability to read and complete the form.