1.4 Building the Public Side
Build the student intake form — your professional front door.
What We're Building
The intake form is the first thing a parent or student sees when they want to work with you. It needs to:
- Look professional and trustworthy
- Collect the right information without being overwhelming
- Save submissions to your database so nothing gets lost
The Form Fields
Start with the essentials. You can always add more later.
- Student name
- Parent/guardian name (if applicable)
- Email address
- Phone number
- Subject(s) they need help with
- Grade level or age
- Any additional notes
Building It
Work with your AI assistant to:
- Create the form page — a clean, single-page form
- Add form validation — make sure required fields are filled in, email looks right
- Connect to the database — submissions should be saved automatically
- Add a confirmation message — let the person know their request was received
Design Principles
- Keep it simple. Seven fields, not seventeen.
- Make labels clear. "Student Name" not "Name" — parents are filling this out for their kids.
- Mobile first. Many parents will fill this out on their phone.
- One action. Submit the form. That is it.
Testing
Before moving on, test your form by:
- Filling it out yourself on desktop and mobile
- Submitting with missing required fields (it should show errors)
- Checking your database to confirm the submission was saved
Next: 1.5 Building the Admin Side — your dashboard for managing students and sessions.