> After reading Luke Wroblewski's book, > "Web Form Design: Filling In the Blanks", > I have to agree with his sentiment about > indicating the MINORITY of the form elements:
This is one of very few (and possibly, the only) point where I disagree with Luke. And perhaps, I don't even completely disagree. My experience has been that very few users pay any attention to the required field markers. Those who do tend to be highly internet-savvy, and they also tend to look first of all to see where the asterisks are. An acceptable alternative is using some distinct, small, asterisk-like graphic (I'm assuming appropriate handling for screen readers etc). They interpret these asterisks or whatever as meaning 'required field'. What they don't do is look for the instruction that tells them what the indicator is signifying on this form. If you mark optional rather than required, you're trying to work against this automatic behaviour. That's rarely a good thing to do. The place where I don't completely disagree is this: if you do mark optional fields, then use the text "(optional)". That is, spell the word out rather than using a graphic indicator. This lessens the probability that your indicator is misinterpreted. The only really sensible way to resolve this issue is to ensure that all your fields seem appropriate and non-invasive within the context of what the user is trying to do and what is expected within a transaction of this type. Then it doesn't really matter how you decide to mark them. Unfortunately, making your fields appropriate is a much harder problem than deciding which indicator to use. best, Caroline Jarrett [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07990 570647 Effortmark Ltd Usability - Forms - Content We have moved. New address: 16 Heath Road Leighton Buzzard LU7 3AB ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
