Write form labels and help text people can use

Name the answer you actually need

Begin with a concrete noun or a direct question. A label such as “Details” leaves people to guess how much to write. “What would you like help with?” establishes a useful purpose. If a label could describe three different answers, make it more specific before adding a long explanation.

Read the questions without the surrounding page copy. Would “Email address” mean the visitor's address, a colleague's address or an address where a problem occurred? Where more than one person is involved, name the person in the label. Keep the same term throughout the form and its confirmation.

Use help text for a specific uncertainty

Look for the decision a person must make before answering. For a website field, is the home page enough or do you need the exact page with the problem? For a date, are you asking about an event or a preferred follow-up? Resolve that uncertainty beside the question.

A useful editing exercise is to finish the sentence “People might not know…”. If there is no plausible ending, the question may not need extra help. If the answer needs several paragraphs, first consider whether the question itself is too broad. Put background explanations in the page introduction and keep the field's instructions focused.

• Explain an unfamiliar term in everyday language.
• State a genuine limit before someone starts writing.
• Give one representative example when a format is unfamiliar.
• Explain why information is useful when the reason is not apparent.

Keep the question visible while someone answers

W3C's guidance connects controls with meaningful labels and associated instructions. Place essential guidance in the visible label or help text. A placeholder disappears while typing, so it should never carry the only explanation of what belongs in a field.

Review the completed form as well as the empty one. A visitor should still understand what each answer means after every field contains text. This matters when someone returns to check their work or correct a mistake. Avoid adding an example as an actual prefilled answer: a hurried visitor could send it unchanged.

Review wording with realistic answers

Try a short answer, a long answer and an answer from someone unfamiliar with your organisation. Ask a colleague to explain what they think each question means before they fill it in. Where their interpretation differs from yours, edit the wording rather than treating the misunderstanding as their mistake.

Check labels at a narrow screen width and with enlarged text. A long label is not automatically wrong, but it should wrap without becoming disconnected from its field. Finally, submit an incomplete test form and read the labels inside the resulting errors; the wording should make sense there too.

Using Accessible Forms

Write the question in the field label and its supporting instruction in help text, then review the result on the intended WordPress page.

In Free: Free requires meaningful visible labels, associates help text with controls and offers a private preview for checking your questions.