Forms design tips

As you design your form, keep in mind that 'Forms' in QSToolbox aren't a stand-alone thing. They only augment existing content with extra fields to structure the data you collect. Forms are used when you're adding records in the system - asset records, training records, contact records, corrective actions to issues & incidents.

The forms module in QSToolbox is a simple form builder. If you need complex functionality like conditional questions, branching, offline access, marking of correct answers, etc., then you'll need to look at integrating a more fully featured form builder. Get in touch to talk about what you need and we can help you find a suitable solution.

Here's some tips on planning and designing Forms to use in QSToolbox.

#1 Start simple

Before you launch into a 5 page form, try a 1 page form with 10 rather than 50 questions.

Use Forms where all the information is captured at one time. Most users won't have permission to edit the record (with the form data) once it has been saved in QSToolbox.

You will probably need to adapt your existing paper form for it to work well as an e-form.

#2 Don't duplicate

Because forms provide additional fields for existing content, so there's no need to duplicate information that is already collected in QSToolbox.

For example, if you're building a form to use in the Assets module, you won't need form fields for:

record date - because that's already in an Asset record
which Asset - because you're adding a record to an Asset in QSToolbox, we already know which asset the record is for
'who filled in this record" - because QSToolbox automatically tracks who adds the record.

#3 Test and revise

Don't expect to get your form perfect on the first go. Test the form usage yourself and with some of your users to see what works well and what doesn't. Then revise it. It's a process of PDCA continual improvement!