Conditional Form
A set of fields that appears only when a condition is met, so a form asks what applies and nothing else.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Datastores — the datastore, then Table Designer to add or edit a field
What it is for
Questions that are relevant to some records and not others. "Do you have a vehicle?" followed by six questions about the vehicle, shown only to the people who said yes.
The alternative — showing everything and asking people to skip what does not apply — makes forms longer, slower and more error-prone.
Shorter forms get finished
Length is the main reason forms are abandoned, and most of the length in a long form is questions that do not apply to the person filling it in. Conditional sections attack that directly.
The gain is real on public-facing forms, where somebody who stops is simply gone.
Hidden is not the same as unanswered
Worth thinking about carefully. If somebody answers a conditional section and then changes the triggering answer, the section disappears — and what happens to what they entered is a decision you should make deliberately rather than discover.
Stale answers to a question no longer asked are confusing at best and misleading at worst, particularly if they appear on a report.
Keep conditions simple
One clear trigger, ideally a single field. Conditions depending on three fields in combination are hard to reason about, hard to test, and produce forms where somebody cannot work out why a section will not appear.
If you find yourself drawing a diagram to explain the logic, the form design is the problem rather than the condition.
Do not hide things people need to see
A conditional section is for irrelevant questions, not for inconvenient ones. Hiding a warning, a cost or a consequence until somebody has committed is a dark pattern, and it produces complaints rather than completions.
Test every branch
Each condition doubles the paths through the form. Walk every one — including changing an answer back — because that is where the surprises are, and it is not somewhere ordinary use will take you.
Consider the printed version
Conditional sections make sense on screen. A printed or exported version showing empty sections, or omitting them entirely with no indication, can be confusing. Check what a completed record looks like outside the form.
Worked example
A grant application asks whether the applicant is a registered charity and, if so, shows four further questions. Roughly a third of applicants see them. Abandonment fell noticeably after the change, and every branch — including switching the answer back and forth — was walked through before release.
Recommendations
- One simple trigger per condition.
- Decide what happens to answers when a section is hidden again.
- Never hide something unwelcome — only something irrelevant.
- Test every branch, including reversing an answer.