# Build a form
URL: https://docs.awellhealth.com/docs/design-care-flows/build-a-form

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.awellhealth.com/llms.txt).





A form collects data from a patient or a care team member. This page covers building **the form
itself**. Attaching it to a step is covered in
[Add a form to a step](/docs/design-care-flows/add-a-form-to-a-step).

## Form answers become data points that drive the rest of the flow [#form-answers-become-data-points-that-drive-the-rest-of-the-flow]

<img alt="The form builder, with the element palette, the question list, and the options for the selected question" src="__img0" />

What a form collects becomes **data points**, and data points feed:

* **Calculations**, like working out a body mass index from height and weight.
* **Conditional logic**, like showing a follow-up question only when that index is over a threshold.
* **Track triggers**, like starting an "Overweight follow-up" track.

So decide what an answer is for before choosing the question type.

## Create a new form [#create-a-new-form]

After a step has a [form action](/docs/design-care-flows/add-a-form-to-a-step), choose **Add form** in
the dropdown. That opens the **form builder**: name the form there and start adding questions.

## Import a validated questionnaire before writing questions [#import-a-validated-questionnaire-before-writing-questions]

Look in the library first. Rebuilding a validated questionnaire that already exists wastes the effort,
and library questionnaires arrive with their matching calculation. See
[Import and export form questions](/docs/design-care-flows/import-export-form-questions).

For new questions, pick the question type that matches the answer needed. Some types have their own
settings worth knowing:

* [Slider questions](/docs/design-care-flows/configure-your-slider-question), for a visual analogue
  scale.
* [ICD questions](/docs/design-care-flows/configure-your-icd-question), for a condition coded to the
  International Classification of Diseases.
* [File and image uploads](/docs/design-care-flows/file-upload), which need storage configured first.

## A form can hold the flow until another system answers [#a-form-can-hold-the-flow-until-another-system-answers]

A form can also act as a placeholder for machine-to-machine work: the care flow pauses at the form and
waits for input arriving from another system at runtime. This suits a flow that shouldn't move on until
an external result arrives.

## Next steps [#next-steps]

**Next:** [Encode questions and answer options](/docs/design-care-flows/encode-questions-and-answer-options).
Coding questions makes the data findable later, and it's much easier to do now than to retrofit.