Victorians want an easier -to- use form experience. Forms are most commonly used to apply for services in government such as applying for a Working with children check. However, form functionality can also be used to help people make decisions or understand their eligibility for a service - for example, How do I prove my identity?
Victorians who engage with Victorian Government services want digital services to serve them better during stressful and important life moments and events:
- an easy and efficient way to log in to their accounts
- information about how their data is used, shared and protected
- additional support if they’re affected by digital inequity
- integrated and connected services
- proactive communication based on their data and history (if they have control and there’s a clear benefit).
Source: Digitising Services Roadmap, Citizen Experience Research, 2023.
How to provide integrated services
The following platform forms are available through the Department of Government Services:
| Form features | Single Digital Presence | Service Victoria(simple functionality and workflow only) | Service Victoria (account integrated) |
| One page, standard fields | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| File upload | No | Yes | Yes |
| Contains sensitive information | No | Yes | Yes |
| Contains conditional logic/complex forms | Yes | No | Yes |
| Branding of website | Yes(if on SDP) | No, can add logo | No, can add logo |
Departments may also have form products available for use. Contact your departmental IT or digital team to see what is available to you. If you’re a vendor with a forms platform Buying for Victoria has tips on how to get known by the Victorian Government.
Digital signatures
The Victorian Government has moved away ‘wet signatures’ to digital signatures. Check-boxes are now included as a form of digital signature.
Other services
Check if your department has a form product available through your IT or digital team. All departments have access to Microsoft forms so consider whether that is appropriate also.
It will always be more efficient to use a product that is already available. If an existing product has limitations make sure your requirements are ‘must have’ rather than ‘nice to have’ before you cross it off the list.
If the services above have been explored and are not appropriate for your requirements the next step is to go out to market. Regardless of the platform you are using the following standards and processes should apply.
Standards
Form structure and wording should follow the Australian government style manual.
The Victorian government Ripple design system provides assets for common form design and functionality.
Privacy
Public sector agencies must follow the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act). This includes the management of personal information to the Information Privacy Principles (IPP).
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) will help you understand if you're following the Act. If you have a form or other project that will involve personal information you should complete a PIA.
Before you collect any personal information, you must provide a collection notice. A collection notice explains the purpose for collecting personal information. It also includes how the agency will use and handle the information.
Single Digital Presence provides a collection notice template that can be used as an initial point of reference.
It is important to consult with your department’s privacy team (or similar) if you’re unfamiliar with privacy law requirements for the handling of personal information. The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner also has useful resources. Resources for organisations – Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (ovic.vic.gov.au).
Standard language
To ensure consistency, the following language and layout should be used across common fields.
Provide details of interpreter or translation services available at the start of the form.
If the user will need to provide documents or other details let them know at the start of the form so they’re prepared.
- Full name: some cultures only have one name, so this is more inclusive than Given name and Family name.
- Specific address: ask for Residential or physical, postal, billing or shipping address. Autocomplete (an address finder module or the ability to complete an address based on a few characters entered) should be used where possible. If not, address information should be captured in 5 fields: postal address, street name and numbers, suburb or town, state and postcode.
- Email address: include a notice about how it will be used and request validation via a link rather than asking for the data twice.
- Daytime phone number: this can be a landline or mobile. If you’re sending text messages then ask for a mobile phone number.
- Indigenous status (sensitive information) the following language should be used: Are you of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent? No. Yes, Aboriginal. Yes, Torres Strait Islander. Yes, both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
- Gender (sensitive information). Don’t ask for gender unless the information is required. Inclusive language guidelines for data collection(opens in a new window) are still being developed. Contact the VPSC for further details.
- Dates: when collecting exact dates have a separate field for each number (e.g. date of birth DD MM YYYY). Add a calendar control if possible but only if the date range is standard so the calendar can be set close to where it’s needed. For example, a set date range for a natural disaster would be helpful but date of birth calendar controls can be a worse user experience as it can take a long time for users to get to the year they were born.
- Title: don’t ask for title unless necessary and make it optional.
Form building
Check you’re building each form in a solution that’s appropriate for its privacy classification before you start. Your privacy officer can help you with this.
Follow best practice in form design. Following the Nielsen Norman Top 10 webform usability recommendations(opens in a new window) will prevent the most common user errors.
The Victorian government Ripple design system(opens in a new window) has also incorporated form best practice and Victorian government branding.
An example of a form with high satisfaction ratings and completion rates:
- Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office our team:(opens in a new window) search for a team member (98% completion)
Websites also have security on forms to block bots from spamming forms.
Do the following to avoid your form being blocked by security:
- Avoid keywords that sound like code: words used for code will have been added to a list for blocking. This includes words like select, update and delete.
- Use clear and descriptive field names: field names should clearly tell you the content and purpose of the field.
You should also test the forms both before and after you publish them to make sure a form submission is not blocked.
Completion
Your form should have a success message on completion or if progress is being saved. It should include a customer number so users can get support, if necessary, from a service centre.
Generally, form data should not be sent to an email address as this increases the risk of security and privacy vulnerabilities. The exception to this is if the data in encrypted.
Sometimes, an individual may request access to their personal information held by the department. You must provide the individual with access to the information on request unless an exemption applies (see IPP 6.1). Form data should always be dealt with to follow the PDP Act.
Sign in and registration
If sign in or registration is required you should contact Service Victoria.
Any form that has save functionality should include both ‘begin application’ and ‘resume saved application’ buttons available in the same place.
Service Victoria
To explore using Service Victoria forms contact them via their partner with us form.
Single Digital Presence
Use of Single Digital Presence (SDP) forms is self-service. You must already be an approver and have a website in order to build forms. Log a support ticket(opens in a new window) for any questions around configuration. Find out more about working with SDP.(opens in a new window)
Testing
Test your fields for potential errors such as:
- Apostrophes e.g. D’Arcy
- Hyphens e.g. Gordon-Levitt
- Diacritical marks e.g. Müller
- Space e.g. Emma Lee
- Slashes e.g. 4/67 Church Street
- Parentheses e.g. (03) 9707 3001
The following is a basic form testing checklist. Use and adapt it as required:
- Check all form labels are correct.
- Check the properties of each element are correct.
- Submit a blank form then ensure each error message is removed as you correct each field or on resubmission (depending on functionality). If you get a server error, it may be because the system is not handling empty fields (nulls) correctly.
- If a maximum data limit exists, submit maximum field data in every field and ensure these don’t get cut off or go missing when the form is submitted.
- Ensure all error messages are relevant and correct.
- For each field, enter strings of symbols and try to submit (e.g.
use ~!!@#$%%^&**&*(*()__)_)<>?::”{)_)Do this incrementally until a form submits okay then repeat in reverse order.
- Check each form field in the frontend and backend to make sure data is displaying correctly.
- If you add a new form element to a form, check that it displays and functions on the front end and that the new data writes to the back end on submission.
- Verify that the form is accessible by using voice/read aloud functions and check the labels are read correctly.
- Ensure that a user can use manual navigation (keyboard only) to get to each part of a form and input data and select features such as radio buttons and checkboxes.
- Ensure forms can be submitted on recent versions of Android and iOS.
- Ensure the form resizes responsively on desktop and mobile.
- Ensure the form meets design requirements.
- Verify display and function across a selection of popular browsers.
- Check all links in the form open in a new window.
- Check the privacy collection notice is present and links are correct (see Privacy section above for more information).
Monitor and improve
Make sure the data is being removed from the Content Management System (if it’s being kept in one) in the time frame agreed in the PIA.
When the form is live its performance must be monitored and the form improved if needed. At minimum, monitor the completion rate (to measure the form's effectiveness) and average time to completion (to measure its efficiency).
Check these stats, as well as user satisfaction data, regularly (no less than every 3 months) and update the form or the page to keep improving it. For more details on measuring performance see the Measure how content performs digital guide(opens in a new window).
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