How to Set Required Fields Without Frustrating People
Ask what actually breaks without this field
A genuinely required field is one where the document or downstream process fails or becomes meaningless without it. Everything else is a nice-to-have, and treating a nice-to-have as required just adds friction without a real payoff.
It's worth periodically auditing which fields are marked required on a long-standing document, since requirements sometimes get added defensively over time without ever being reconsidered.
Communicate requirements before someone hits an error
A required field marked clearly from the start, with a visible indicator, is far less frustrating than one that only reveals itself as required after a failed submission attempt. The goal is to prevent the error, not just to explain it well after the fact.
For documents with many required fields, a short note at the top summarizing what's needed sets expectations before someone invests time in a form only to discover late that they're missing something.
Handling genuinely optional but commonly needed fields
Not everything needs to be binary required or not required. Some fields are conditionally important, a phone number that matters only if someone requests a callback, for example, and are better handled as optional with a note about when they matter, rather than forced as required for everyone.
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