>From Hugh Griffith > Does anyone know of any data, or have an opinion, about laying out forms in multiple columns?
I'm really keen to see your results from your testing. Meanwhile, I wrote an article called "Two column forms are best avoided" http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2992.asp so you can guess from the title that I advise against two-column (or extra column) layouts. There's a longer version of the same views in our book, available from mid-November: "Forms that work: designing web forms for usability" (Jarrett and Gaffney) http://www.amazon.com/Forms-that-Work-Interactive-Technologies/dp/1558607102 /ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223486164&sr=8-1 http://tinyurl.com/3mo3sl By the way, I completely agree with Oleg's observations: - you need to match the layout of the online form to the layout of the source material - if users are using the form all day for data entry, then there's benefit in crushing as many data entry fields onto the form as possible. I'm not quite so sure about tables. I've seen them work well for trained users in intensive tasks, but I've also seen them fail badly for approach-and-use users on occasional tasks. Best Caroline Jarrett ________________________________________________________________ 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
