> Is there any evidence, or illuminating experience, > about the benefits of locating form labels > to the left of the input fields or above them > using a smaller font? > The forms are very long, say, 100 fields and more. > Will be paginated, sort of a wizard, with next/prev buttons. > The audience is rather illiterate, > ages ranging from 18 all the way through > the sixties and seventies. > These are forms for applying for gov subsidies > and the like, the fields contain mostly personal > data of the family members and the like. > > I would like to be able to tell myself which layout > is more usable: two columns or one column.
Hi Juan As mentioned in previous posts, Luke W does discuss this issue in his book. I've also got a discussion of the problem in my book: "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability" (available from any bookshop - details on www.formsthatwork.com) But here goes on giving you a direct (free) answer. If you read the popular advice on where to put labels on forms, you will see that it mostly relates to very short form labels that are asking very easy questions. Luke's and my books are two places where we actually talk about more complexity, such as longer labels. You can read a summary of my advice in this column: "Label placement on forms" http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3507.asp For your forms, you also mention that the audience is somewhat illiterate and also includes many older people. For people who do not read easily - which certainly includes your audience - 'smaller font' is definitely a really bad idea. Putting long labels in smaller font just makes the labels harder to read, which is exactly the worst idea for those audiences. For people who do not read easily, left-aligned text in a good, large, legible font is really important. It's not quite so clear whether putting the labels to the left of the boxes or above the boxes is the better solution for this particular type of audience. Dr Kathryn Summers of the University of Baltimore is definitely *the* expert in designing forms for people with low literacy. I'll write to her and ask her what she thinks. Meanwhile, here's what I know from my extensive experience of testing government forms with a wide range of people, including older people: *provided* each label is clearly and unambiguously associated with the appropriate field, then the placement of the labels is far, far less important than what the questions are asking, and somewhat less important than the overall length of the form. I have many times seen people give up on forms because they don't understand the question or don't know how to answer it or the answer that they want to give doesn't fit within the allowed answers on the form. I have also seen people fail to start the form, or give up on it, because it just seems overwhelming. So far, I've never seen anyone bail on a form merely because the labels were in the wrong place. If I were you, I'd choose either method and then spend a lot of time testing with the real users and iterating the form design based on what you find. Summary of advice: 1. Make sure you: - use a large, legible font - place the label so that it is clearly and unambiguously associated with the correct field 2. It is definitely preferable to place the label above or to the left of the correct field 3. Test, fix, and test again. Several times. Best Caroline Jarrett www.formsthatwork.com "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability". ________________________________________________________________ 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
