Hi Todd
Sorry for not responding to your query sooner.
I suggest approaching your form with the question: "what actions will
users of this form want to perform" and providing those actions. As
Susan mentioned, there are times when a Reset makes a lot of sense. I
would also argue that while users can close a window to effectively
"cancel" an online form that they are filling in, many (non-expert)
users will not necessarily be aware of this option, or comfortable
that their application has actually been cancelled. Providing an
explicit cancel button helps provide that user control and
reassurance. (I'm not a programmer, so I can't be sure of this, but I
think having a "cancel" allows you to explicitly end that session
too, freeing up server space.)
I do agree with Luke that actions secondary to the main one should
have different visual styling. They can be a different colour, be
spaced separately from the primary action or be links rather than
buttons.
And of course you want to support the principle of error recovery, so
confirm any cancel or reset before applying the action.
Hope this helps. If you want more input, I suggest emailing the
Business Forms Management Association members via their mailing list,
Formspace. You don't have to be a BFMA member to use Formspace.
Details are here: http://www.bfma.org/formspace/main.htm.
Cheers
Jessica Enders
Principal
Formulate Information Design
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http://formulate.com.au
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Phone: (02) 6116 8765
Fax: (02) 8456 5916
PO Box 5108
Braddon ACT 2612
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On 24/02/2009, at 4:03 AM, Todd Budnikas wrote:
A question came up today inquiring about a design my company has
recently completed. There is currently in the design an option to
reset the form on one of the pages. Does anyone have any opinions
on the usefulness of that feature, or statistics on whether or not
people use it?
Luke Wroblewski argues that "actions like Reset and Cancel are
unnecessary and should be either removed or de-emphasized in the
user interface to avoid mistakes."
http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms/blog/undo_a_reset_form/
I tend to agree. However, I think Cancel can be useful. Thoughts on
form resetting, cancel options and usability?
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