Cards or Classic: Which One Should I Use?

It’s time to make a decision – Classic Forms or Card Forms?

We know this is solely based on preferences, but we put together a list of differences between the two types of forms. It is important to know the advantages, along with some typical use cases for each of them. Hopefully, the key points listed in this article would give you a better understanding of when it’s ideal to use a particular layout.

Which Features Are Only Available in Card Forms?

There are a few features and options unique to Card Forms.

Form Fields

• Yes/No Question – a straightforward field to answer with yes or no, or anything that indicates a positive/negative response.
• Image Choice – these images are configured to behave like radio buttons (where only one selection is allowed) or checkboxes (where multiple selections are allowed).
• Multi-line Question – an element requested by many users. It allows you to have more than one field on a single card.
• Emoji Slider – an intuitive slider with emojis which uses icons for scale rating.

Micro Animations

These are subtle animations added to the form to spice things up a little. Of course, these are not just eye-candy additions, they also serve a purpose.

When there’s an error, the card will shake a little to get the user’s attention.

When navigating from one card to another, transition effects are added.

Built-in Email Verification and Error Checking

The Email element now provides email address verification right off the bat without using widgets nor 3rd party platforms.

The Email element also has a built-in error checking and suggestion feature for misspelled email addresses.

Built-in Address Autocomplete and Geolocation

The Address element also provides cool Autocomplete and Geolocation features.

Built-in Icons, Image, and Video Backgrounds

On various sections of the form builder, you will see a variety of icons (tons of them) that you can use.

Along with images and videos that you can use as your form background.

Continue Forms Later

See also: Setting up the Continue Forms Later Feature in Card Forms

Remember those times when you needed to set up two forms just to save your user’s session data in our servers? Well, this time, this is achievable with a few clicks in a single Card Form.

To set it up…

1. Go to the Form Builder’s Settings tab.
2. Click on the Show More Options button.

3. Scroll down to the Continue Forms Later option and set your configuration accordingly.

• Enable when form has 10+ questions – it is the default option. It saves the progress of the user once the form has more than 10 fields.
• Enabled – it saves the progress of the user. It does not work on forms with less than 4 fields.
• Disabled – no data will be saved in the form. The users must start all over again if they do not submit the form.

Embed Options

Smart Embed

To further simplify things, we have a smart way to embed Card Forms on your website. Instead of designing your form to match your website’s design, the form will automatically try its best to adapt to the look and feel of the page.

Fullscreen

In addition to the Smart Embed feature, Card Forms have a fullscreen mode for users to click or tap on the fullscreen icon to get a full-blown immersive experience. If you want your form to open automatically with fullscreen, just enable this feature.

Inline Embed

When viewing an embedded form on your website, you’ll notice a blue pencil icon at the top-left-hand corner. This pencil allows you (as the form owner) to change the inline embed settings of your form.

Once you click on the icon, you’d see a variety of embed options:

Floating Feedback Button

This new embed code can be found under the Publish tab of the Form Builder. The Floating Feedback Button embed method will place a button on any corner of your web page. You can also customize the button according to your preference.

Welcome Page

While this is doable in Classic Forms with the use of Paragraph, Page Breaks, Image, and Header form elements, we made it a built-in feature in Card Forms this time.

At the top of the Form Builder, you would see an Edit Welcome Page button. This would allow you to customize the texts displayed on the first page, change the icon used, show or hide the number of questions on your entire form, or remove the welcome page altogether.

Which Features Are Not Available in Card Forms?

Some features were intentionally removed in Card Forms. These were done on purpose to match the overall look and feel of the new layout.

Thank You Page

This was moved from the Settings tab to the bottom of the Form Builder to keep the building process streamlined.

This way, users start with the Welcome Page at the top, add form fields in the middle, then finish up with the Thank You Page at the bottom.

Custom CSS

Yes, many users have asked us why we removed this feature, not just in the Form Builder, but in all widgets too. Card Form’s goal is to make form building as easy as possible. The goal is justified by the amount of readily available color palettes, images, and built-in features in it. Advanced customization using CSS codes is intended for advanced users who want to further customize the look and feel of their forms.

If you feel like this feature should exist on both layouts, feel free to post your comments and suggestions below or open a new Support Forum thread so we can share your feedback with the team.

Widgets

Some widgets were purposely removed from Card Forms to keep everything in line with the overall functionality and design of Jotform Cards. If you search for a widget and it’s not there, that means it cannot be used in Card Forms (for now).

When Should I Use Card Forms?

Do you want to create quick and short forms? Use Card Forms! Ideally, Card Forms are more suitable, but not limited to, Sign Up forms, Newsletter Subscriptions, Registration forms, and Surveys. The goal here is to get better user engagement and form completion rates.

When Should I Use Classic Forms?

Are you building a client intake form or a job application form? Use Classic Forms! These kinds of forms are intended to have lots of fields to fill out. So, using the traditional layout is the right approach. Moreover, if your form requires a pixel-perfect design, then choosing the Classic Forms is your first choice for CSS customizations.

Our thoughts? The decision on when to use which layout still boils down to personal preference. This shouldn’t prevent you from using Card Forms in any scenario. The guidelines and suggestions listed above are the ideal use cases, but you can still create long and complex forms using the Card Forms layout.