Announcing FormLinter

Ben Orenstein

Between running FormKeep and completing dozens of client projects each year, we spend a lot of time thinking about forms.

Here are a few questions we ask ourselves for each form we write:

  • Did we remember to give every input a label? (No, placeholders are not an adequate replacement)
  • Do our labels’ for attributes match our inputs’ ids?
  • Did we take advantage of the url, email, and password input types, or did we forget and just use text?
  • Are our required fields marked as such?

Doing all these things right is worth the effort: improvements like these improve accessibility and increase conversions. However, checking this sort of thing by hand is tedious and error-prone.

Important but tedious? Sounds like a job for a program. So we wrote one!

It’s called FormLinter. Bet you can’t guess what it does. (It lints forms.)

Just supply the URL of a public page containing a form, and we’ll do the rest. We’ll show your form’s letter grade, a list of issues that hurt your score, and tips on fixing each one.

Better accessibility, more conversions, and no tedium.

Sound good? Give it a try.

About thoughtbot

We've been helping engineering teams deliver exceptional products for over 20 years. Our designers, developers, and product managers work closely with teams to solve your toughest software challenges through collaborative design and development. Learn more about us.