From: "Bob Sampson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

:I think a major contributor to usability in fields like that are
: watermarks in the textboxes to make them stand out more. Kind of like
: the "Search Archives..." searchbox on this ixda site in the
: rightnav. I think nowadays you can even dump the labels and put them
: right in the textboxes.
:
: [Email                 ]  [Password             ]
:


Not necessarily. I have seen users make repeated mistakes with watermarked 
fields. The 'empty box' is a very powerful thing on a web 
page and it says 'type into me'. A box with a hint text or label already in it 
is a box that already has input. I've often seen 
users fail to recognise that these boxes require input, and skip right over 
them to the next empty box.

They aren't _quite_ as dangerous on pages where there are no empty boxes. But 
nearly - because users may then not recognise that 
there is anywhere to type on the page.

Best,

Caroline Jarrett
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
07990 570647

Effortmark Ltd
Usability - Forms - Content

We have moved. New address:
16 Heath Road
Leighton Buzzard
LU7 3AB
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