Discuss: Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist

by Brian Crescimanno

61 Preaching to the choir

Good article – too many websites have lengthy forms that require way too much information. I think people forget it’s an inverse relationship between the number of form fields and the successful completion rate of a form.

posted at 12:55 am on February 2, 2006 by Rob Bolton

62 Address Fields

Any good suggestion out there for address inputs?

What is a good UI design to capture user’s address
information in a order form for example? I’ve tried using two or more normal input textfields and also single textarea. Both with different feedbacks from users.

posted at 06:42 am on February 7, 2006 by Edwin Tong

63

Regarding address fields: in my opinion, the textarea leaves users a bit too free to choose their own formatting. Take for example the following two representations of one address:

6314 Baker St. Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30333
USA

6314 Baker St.
Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30333
USA

Now, while you can differentiate between them in code, it become increasingly difficult as the number of different ways of representing an address increases. I like to use the following:

Street Address:
Suite / Apt Number:
City
State (let users type, don’t give them a select box to look through)
Zip

All separate fields which have a clear purpose.

Obviously, the rules change if you’re dealing internationally. I like to add a “country” selection before “city, state, zip” so the appropriate boxes can be disabled as necessary.

Hope I’ve been of some help.

posted at 06:02 pm on February 23, 2006 by Brian Crescimanno

64

ALA seems to have gummed up my formatting on those two addresses.

6314 Baker St.

Suite 300

Atlanta, GA

30333

USA

6314 Baker St. Suite 300

Atlanta, GA 30333 USA

posted at 06:05 pm on February 23, 2006 by Brian Crescimanno

65 Really, Really Dumb Question...I know.

Ok, here goes, please be gentle. I understand that one is encouraged to use a checkbox for yes or no; but I can’t understand why! If a radio button is either one or the other, and a checkbox can be for many, why the preference?
Thank you,
B.

posted at 10:59 pm on March 1, 2006 by Benjamin Westafer

66 Required Fields and the asterick

I’ve found a few recommendations to show the asterick after the label or field. And I disagree. I’d like to see the asterick appear before a label so that a user’s not forced to read the labels and fields before noticing the asterick. What do you think?

posted at 07:03 pm on March 22, 2006 by Karen Johnson

67 The Asterisk

Yes, placing the asterisk after the field is sometimes inconvenient to users. Not to mention, it sometimes means they won’t see it, defeating the purpose.

I like to stay flexible, and do whatever works best for the particular form. Just be consistent, and use similar placement for all mandatory items within the form.

posted at 05:30 pm on April 12, 2006 by Michael Straker

68 So many websites, so little time...

Splendid article in many ways.

What continues to astound me is that, whether it be a multi-million dollar company or your local muffler salesman, websites are riddled with elementary usability problems. As an experienced writer, I am always more acutely aware of content and am often over zealous with my criticisms. As a usability analyst, however, such harsh criticism is inspired by the apparent lack of thought that is apparent on so many sites. Simple, effective, changes deliver a much better user experience but, apparently, such components are just not important to the company and thus, neither are the customers’ experience. Incredible.

posted at 04:05 pm on April 18, 2006 by Dr Tim Thomas

69 be careful with captions

As far as I can tell, captions must have a table as parent element. And it seems like it’s one caption per table. http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_caption.asp

They might work for you now, but I doubt their accessibility. And their future behavior is anyone’s guess.

posted at 12:35 am on April 26, 2006 by matthew willse

70 Form layout preference

I would think that the division of a medium/long form into multiple columns (possibly two) would have the advantage of appearing short (or not overwhelming eg. https://account.atlanticrecords.com/wallet/NewAccount.asp). Does this have significant disadvantages compared to a single-colum forum in which the user can move vertically without interruption? thanks.

posted at 05:47 pm on June 6, 2006 by sarahana shrestha