From a web designer’s perspective, creating a better and more usable form usually means coming up with a nice, clean design. That’s definitely true, but it’s not 100% accurate, because how usable your form is also depends on how well you’ve written the instructions contained within it.
Say a new visitor to your website finds you through a search engine. They’re impressed with your content, which was written to get their attention. They like your professional design, which establishes that you’re a trustworthy brand. So then what? Give them a call-to-action and tell them what they should do, that’s what!
We all know that different types of people use and read websites differently. Most of the time when you think of who the target audience is, the answers are in broad demographic categories: gender, age, people who have an interest in this particular topic, etc. Add to that category higher vs. lower literacy users.