Jerome Ribot > Here's an interesting eye-tracking study that was > done recently by > Chui Chui Tan that highlights > some good guidelines for form design: > > http://www.cxpartners.co.uk/thoughts/ > web_forms_design_guidelines_an_eyetracking_study.htm
Hi Jerome Thanks for drawing my attention to this study. It's a nice piece of work but it's also the last straw. /start of rant I'm just so *tired* of seeing a study of rather trivial web forms (in this case, four registration forms) used as a basis for making claims for *all* forms. /end of rant /start of more considered discussion This study carefully, and thoughtfully, investigated small differences between four quite good registration forms. I'm not sure I'd totally agree with every guideline, but you probably wouldn't go far wrong in following these guidelines IF, and only IF, these assumptions apply to your forms: - your organisation is a massive, brand-name web presence that every web user knows - your users are strongly motivated to fill in the form because it allows them to make use of crucial features that are only offered by the specific organisation - your form confines itself to straightforward questions that are appropriate in the context of the relationship between your users and their current goals, and your organisation and its current goals, and anything slightly unusual is justified appropriately right on the form - your form is appropriately legible and properly marked up for use by people using assistive technologies and/or amending the display of the form in their preferred browser I'll just unpick one of the recommendations in this piece: "Use coloured or shaded grouping headers ONLY if they are important" This isn't bad advice. It's quite good advice - if you know how to judge when the grouping headers are important. That judgment arises from considering the users, their goals, your organisation, its goals, and the overall conversation of the form (as well as its appearance). This study said "From the eye-tracking study, we found that the participants did not pay much attention to the headers". Well, no, they wouldn't. These forms were quite well designed, rather simple, and appropriate to the relationship and conversation. Grouping devices, such as these headers, are rarely needed by people in these circumstances - so they don't look at them. But: think of a more complicated form, with more difficult questions, in a more complex relationship. Users may need to break out of the form to find answers and then return later. They may need to ask someone about something in the form. In those circumstances, the grouping of the form can be really important, as a locating device and as a way of helping users to talk about the form to someone else. The grouping can also make the form appear less daunting, which is worthwhile. I know we all want simple rules that we can apply easily, and we all want to avoid yet another 'it depends' answer. Trouble is: we really do have to *think* about what we're designing - not exactly a surprise to IxDA people, of course, but not the easy answer. Oops - gone off into a rant again. Hope you understand why. Best Caroline Jarrett www.formsthatwork.com "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability" foreword by Steve Krug ________________________________________________________________ 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
