Form design has a very long history, in print, online and digital.

“There’s a major difference between form validations and warnings. Form validations enforce a set of rules and won’t allow the user to proceed, while warnings alert the user about possible problems but will allow them to proceed.”

(Jamie Appleseed a.k.a. @jamieappleseed ~ Baymard Institute)

Forms (digital and physical) are always the orphans of information design.

“Though some decry flat user interfaces as pure fashion, or the obvious response to skeuomorphic trends, many designers have embraced the flat approach because the reduction in visual styling (such as gradients, drop shadows, and borders) creates interfaces that seem simpler and cleaner. The problem is that most flat UIs are built with a focus on the provision of content, with transactional components (i.e. forms) receiving very little attention. What happens when flat and forms collide? User experiences can, and often do, suffer.”

(Jessica Enders ~ A List Apart)

But where’s the magic from these wizards?

“When I find myself designing an application that is complex, either in terms of its length or its logical dependencies, my natural instinct is to take a wizard approach. Wizards are cool; forms are dull. Product managers love wizards because they are so Web 2.0. Developers like wizards because they involve more programming expertise than just cranking out forms.”

(Mike Hughes ~ UXmatters)

“One of the nice things about working on your own product is that you can try new ideas at your own discretion. So over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring new interactions for common Web forms on Bagcheck and I’ve been writing articles about the results.”

(Luke Wroblewski a.k.a. @LukeW)