tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11599526.post217944228262016210..comments2022-12-15T20:47:08.015-08:00Comments on Looks Good Works Well: Inline Form ValidationBill Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12024727845077253669noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11599526.post-88731236668356471852010-05-23T13:43:35.505-07:002010-05-23T13:43:35.505-07:00Loved your video of battling to fill in the date f...Loved your video of battling to fill in the date field. So recognisable, so annoying for you. <br /><br />Aspects I liked:<br />- annoying persistent error message<br />- several attempts to work out the correct format.<br /><br />I'm guessing that you didn't notice the hint about the correct date format. Watching the video, it's obvious that the hint is there - but when filling in the form, you were doubtless focusing mainly on your input and the label for the field, thus rendering the hint invisible. (I call this the 'narrow focus' effect). Maybe I'm wrong, but I've seen this a lot in usability tests.<br /><br />I'm also guessing that some programmer is rather proud of the nifty in-line validation. Hmmm. Wouldn't it have been a nicer user experience if that programmer had invested time in more intelligent validations instead? For example, accepting a wider variety of report formats?<br /><br />You may be interested in the slides from my uxlx workshop: "Label placement in forms - and other timeconsuming forms controversies" where I have some more material about the narrow focus effect and what it means for label placement. Available from my LinkedIN profile or on Slideshare.Caroline Jarretthttp://www.formsthatwork.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11599526.post-81774573806890823182010-04-16T08:58:50.941-07:002010-04-16T08:58:50.941-07:00I hereby nominate "Draconian Date Input Handl...I hereby nominate "Draconian Date Input Handling" as a candidate for the Blog Post Section Header of The Week Award.Derek Peplauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04831951871865929431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11599526.post-87356040713682022652010-04-11T07:31:21.562-07:002010-04-11T07:31:21.562-07:00I think single-field date inputs like this are pre...I think single-field date inputs like this are pretty much doomed in any case. They need either to be very forgiving (eg allowing any delimiter between numbers, using today's date to correctly interpret input, etc.), or be supported by a calendar control. <br /><br />In terms of preventing errors, ye olde day, month, year dropdowns are probably the safest option I think.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com