It sounds like you are discussing is "selection-dependent inputs".
Selection-dependent inputs are, in essence, a pretty simple concept:
Once a user initially makes a selection from one or more options in a
form, the user must provide additional input related to the selected
option before submitting the form.
Bout three years ago, I laid out a series of solutions for these with
the pros/cons I had seen across a myriad of implementations:
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2007/02/selection-dependent-inputs.php
In Web Form Design, we tested these against each other. There's a
whole chapter on the results. We actually found something different
than Caroline in the usability test she mentioned. Our participants
(and other tests I was part of before) showed that hiding irrelevant
form controls from people until they need them results in forms that
are easy on the eyes and completed quite quickly.
That said there is a lot of nuance in how to display the interactions.
Interestingly Apple recently updated their checkout to use the
horizontal tabs model of selection-dependent inputs: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?968
And I suspect they are experiencing some questions around mutual
exclusivity. From my testing:
Vertical and horizontal tabs actually perform quite well in all-around
usability, satisfaction, and eye-tracking metrics but come with the
gnarly problem of mutual exclusivity. I’ve gotten conflicting data on
which of these options resolves this issue so they both seem to be
stuck with it. If you can get around mutual exclusivity through clever
interaction or visual design, good performance is yours to be had with
these solutions.
There some solutions for that listed here:
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?764
http://uipatternfactory.com/p=stacked-tabs/
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?505
hope this helps? thnx.
On Dec 17, 2009, at 7:28 AM, Don Habas wrote:
Jared, I have. Page 28 begins to address this. The application will
definitely be broken out across several pages. It's more the
question of whether this is the best approach:
(follow-up page)
"Earlier you've indicated that you have xxxxx. We're now going
to ask you some further questions about your xxxxx."
::
:: Luke Wroblewski -[ www.lukew.com ]
:: Principal/Founder, LukeW Ideation & Design
:: [email protected] | 408.513.7207
::
:: Blog: http://www.lukew.com/ff/
:: New Book: http://www.lukew.com/resources/web_form_design.asp
:: Book: http://www.lukew.com/resources/site_seeing.html
::
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