Comments on: Better HTML Forms

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:39:24 +0000

Thanks for the post and good luck with your book!

By: Caroline Jarrett

Caroline Jarrett — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:31:02 +0000

Good list of tips. Like you, I agree with all of them apart from I’m not at all convinced by the idea of putting the submit button at the top of the form as well. Might work, I just haven’t had the opportunity of testing any forms with this idea to see if it really does work.

(And now a little bit of self-promotion: our book on forms has just been published: “Forms that work: Designing web forms for usabilty”. Steve Krug has been very nice about it and even wrote the foreword for us).

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:29:30 +0000

Well, I’m glad I mentioned it, then. I remember reading about the hazards of the reset button like 8 or 9 years ago but it’s still so common to see them. I agree with you on the two submit buttons. Thanks for your comments!

By: lespaulsf

lespaulsf — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:32:41 +0000

Ouch on the reset button. I have included them in most of my forms that require user information. Although come to think of it I guess it’s really not needed. I can see how users would inadvertently click it instead of the submit button.

I think only one submit button is needed not one at the top also. Most people are used to clicking it when they see it and would click it and just get a error message telling them to fill in the rest of the form.