Questions tagged [forms]

Forms are a collection of input fields and design patterns that collect and process different types of qualitative and quantitative data input from users. Can include the visible user interface components as well as the logic required for controlling aspects of its behavior such as form validation, data retrieval and storing of incomplete forms.

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410 votes
24 answers
188k views

OK/Cancel on left/right?

Should OK button be on left of Cancel button or vice versa? Are there any studies suggesting either of the solutions?
Art's user avatar
  • 4,503
345 votes
14 answers
91k views

Should I use Yes/No or Ok/Cancel on my message box?

Semantically, the Yes/No buttons are roughly equivalent to the Ok/Cancel buttons, but in general what would you recommend to use? Should I always use Yes/No or always use Ok/Cancel? Or does it depend ...
laurent's user avatar
  • 3,502
48 votes
4 answers
9k views

On forms, is inline placeholder text better than a label outside each field?

I am familiar with research on label placement to the left or above. I tend to go with right justified with the label to the left of the field for my form designs. However, inline placeholder text ...
Itumac's user avatar
  • 4,794
159 votes
19 answers
66k views

What is best practice for designing form error messages?

I've seen quite a lot of research on form design, but so far, I haven't come across any studies on error message design best practices. The only piece of advice seems to be that each error should ...
Virtuosi Media's user avatar
134 votes
8 answers
26k views

Why might right aligned field labels be better?

For the longest time, I've used left-aligned labels in my forms, like this: I did this because I thought having the labels left aligned made it easier for readers to scan the list of labels. However,...
Bevan's user avatar
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66 votes
10 answers
25k views

Is a cancel button necessary in a web form?

Personally I have never used it. I don't put information in a form and then decide everything needs to be cleared. I would edit one field. Plus cancel in a UI suggests canceling an action which is in ...
49 votes
12 answers
46k views

What's the best way to highlight a Required field on a web form before submission?

This seems subjective, and it is; a client of mine would like me to highlight the required fields on the web forms in their application with a red asterisk, and I'm looking for an alternative since ...
Ryan Shripat's user avatar
  • 1,991
93 votes
12 answers
33k views

Merging firstname/last name into one field

I am entertaining the notion of a single field for name entry on our scheduling web app. I think this is an excellent case for a "forgiving format" to make it easy to enter their names quickly. I ...
Itumac's user avatar
  • 4,794
84 votes
16 answers
20k views

Do you need a search button with a search box?

On websites with a search box, should you add a button they can click on, or will users understand a search box like on this site? The target group is not very technical, such as women aged 40-60.
googletorp's user avatar
  • 2,327
77 votes
13 answers
57k views

What is the best way to deal with very complex forms?

I'm trying to give the best experience to users of a very huge system (like a CRM). It has a lot of forms and much of these have a lot of fields. My doubt is about if I should use a single column form ...
Marcos Rocha's user avatar
  • 1,043
21 votes
9 answers
15k views

Should radio buttons be pre-selected?

I am working on a re-design for a eCommerce site and they have a section where they offer a free gift card if the user makes a purchase over $1000. The idea of the gift card is to get users to ...
Mervin's user avatar
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59 votes
7 answers
71k views

What should be the default option of a required dropdown list?

Given that there is no logically default animal from the list of animals below, what should be the "Default Value" below, according to best practice? <label for="animal">Animal (required):</...
Dolph's user avatar
  • 691
43 votes
6 answers
13k views

Disabled submit button on form vs allow submit then show errors?

We have a few different forms as part of a web-based medical application. These forms have quite a few fields - 10-20 depending on the form. Each has at least 5 or so required fields. We currently ...
Voodoo's user avatar
  • 1,777
33 votes
4 answers
14k views

Input form label alignment top or left?

Although I have researched on input form label alignment, I need solid suggestion on when to use form label alignment top and when to use left and why? For example in the below form username and ...
Pir Abdul's user avatar
  • 2,280
10 votes
5 answers
6k views

tables with lots of columns

I have a table that lists various attributes of an individuals personal development plan; objective, time to complete objective, comments etc. The table is editable so the user can directly add ...
colmcq's user avatar
  • 8,240
85 votes
10 answers
164k views

What is the best UI for multi-selecting from a list?

We have a web form and one of the fields is a multi-select list. Our options are: List of checkboxes Listview (select box but allowing multi-select) Both seem to be a bit ugly and unwieldy when the ...
leora's user avatar
  • 1,351
72 votes
9 answers
42k views

Dropdown vs radio button

User have to choose type of food (from 3 or 4 choices) in our application. Default selection is used in 60 - 70% of cases. What will be better: dropdown or radio buttons?
tomas.jerabek's user avatar
55 votes
4 answers
45k views

Character limits on textarea fields - pros and cons and best practices?

Some of our form fields have character limits. We're debating whether we should reflect the current size of data entry, or to simply hard-limit and inhibit data entry beyond that size. In HTML, ...
Erics's user avatar
  • 9,311
50 votes
9 answers
10k views

How much information should you ask for when users register?

So the company wants all the information it can get on the users of its site, but how much should be asked for upon registration? On one hand, it would be easier for the users to enter only personal ...
googletorp's user avatar
  • 2,327
32 votes
4 answers
10k views

Studies showing that the more form fields there are the less conversions you will get

Same old story really; another client is requesting that they need x number of fields on their Contact Us form, and no amount of explaining that less=more will suffice without providing objective ...
JonW's user avatar
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24 votes
6 answers
20k views

Hide or disable form options? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Don't hide or disable menu items? On a create/edit form, where the options available to the end user will depend on their previous input, in order to give the user some ...
dcarneiro's user avatar
  • 341
22 votes
7 answers
17k views

"Sign Up" vs "Create an Account"

Which pick is better for a service? Especially if I would like the website to resemble American style. Gmail and Dropbox say: "Sign In or create an account" Yahoo says: "Sign In. New here? Sign Up"....
ChatCloud's user avatar
  • 465
17 votes
6 answers
16k views

How do you indicate progress to users in a multi-step form?

What do you think of the following form design which I've prepared? there's a progress bar in the top on the right side the steps are listed, and every time the current state is indicated by ...
Roland Pokornyik's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
14k views

Disabling submit-button until the user has completed the form

How do you think about disabling the submit-button until the user has completed the form or the required fields? I find similar questions here on ux.se and somebody answered that the user will think ...
Robin's user avatar
  • 475
63 votes
9 answers
11k views

Adding a "none of the above" option to a list of checkboxes

I am working on a series of complex life insurance forms and trying to optimize using standard conventions... I have this nasty list of medical diseases and a mutually exclusive option, "None of the ...
Adam Stone's user avatar
48 votes
11 answers
32k views

Most User-Friendly Form Fields for Entering Date/Time?

What are the different ways to have fields in an application for date, time, or both? What are the pros and cons for each? The most common seem to be a combination of 2–3 drop-downs, or some form ...
GSto's user avatar
  • 1,684
31 votes
12 answers
88k views

Friendly format for phone numbers

Currently, on my website, users are required to input their phone number in a very specific format (555-555-5555). If you forget the dashes it breaks. Does anyone have a good suggestion for how to ...
user avatar
26 votes
7 answers
26k views

Single page or multi-page forms?

Would it be better to have one long form, and let the user scroll down the page, or split the form into 2 or more pages? Usability wise, one disadvantage I can think of for having multiple pages, is ...
Rich's user avatar
  • 3,542
26 votes
7 answers
4k views

What should ENTER do?

On a web form, what should happen when the user presses the ENTER key? I'm writing a sign-up form - name, email, password, sign-up button: the usual sort of thing. Since I'm using JavaScript, and the ...
David's user avatar
  • 363
17 votes
3 answers
1k views

Should first and last name be formatted?

When collecting first and last name from users, should the name be formatted if it will be shown to the user again? Example: BILL is formatted to Bill It seem almost impossible to account for all ...
user4427's user avatar
  • 375
15 votes
3 answers
8k views

Form validation - When should error messages be triggered?

I'm working on a registration form with real-time inline validation. I'm wondering when we should trigger error messages: before, when the field is in focus and until the user has entered a valid ...
user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
8k views

Best practice: card expiry date on checkout

What is the best format for gathering the card expiry data during the checkout process on an eCommerce website? So we need to collect the month of expiry and the date of expiry (as standard on all ...
Fraser's user avatar
  • 327
364 votes
23 answers
91k views

Is this rotating cube interface user-friendly?

I'm working on a prototype for an innovative form interface, where different parts of the form are shown on different sides of a cube. The cube rotates, and the user can fill it out as the cube spins. ...
Peter Olson's user avatar
  • 5,298
180 votes
18 answers
252k views

Why is it impossible to deselect HTML "radio" inputs?

In HTML, there are currently two types of "checkbox" style controls: Checkbox: Allows toggling on/off, multiple values can be selected Radio: Only one value in a group may be selected, does ...
Mog's user avatar
  • 2,715
59 votes
10 answers
29k views

How can I deal with diverse gender identities in user profiles?

I'm trying to work out the wording for (preferably) a gender dropdown in a user profile of a site I'm working on. I want to be inclusive of people who don't gender orient to either male or female ( ...
DorkRawk's user avatar
  • 1,112
34 votes
4 answers
6k views

Auto Advance to Next Field

When is it appropriate to 'auto advance' from one text field to the next, as in phone numbers and SSN?
user15676's user avatar
  • 343
26 votes
2 answers
16k views

Inline editing vs Edit view

I've seen this question asked a few times, but none that relate to my particular scenario. I'm working on a large, complex UI that involves many user types. For this screen, there are 4 types of users:...
Lynn Cyr's user avatar
  • 317
25 votes
5 answers
5k views

Text Field Validation vs Prevention

I've been having a debate (mostly with myself) over the best approach to deal with invalid input in text fields -- validation versus prevention. Taking a numeric text field as an example, is it ...
Bill Dagg's user avatar
  • 844
22 votes
4 answers
4k views

Right-Click menu awareness on Web Application

The web application I am building has a custom right-click menu. I'm concerned that the user might not find this menu as normally right-clicking will only display the default browser's menu. Is there ...
dCrook's user avatar
  • 253
18 votes
4 answers
20k views

What's the best way to make a user read terms and conditions before continuing a form?

What's the best way to make a user read terms and conditions before continuing a form? Structure of Form: Label1 [Textbox] Label2 [Textbox] Terms and Conditions [Textarea] Checkbox ["I agree to the ...
Margaret's user avatar
  • 183
18 votes
5 answers
6k views

Pros and Cons for having same form for login, register and forgotten password

I have notice some sites have the same form for login, register and forgotten password. Below the form you have 3 buttons i forgot my password register log me in What are the pros and cons on ...
Gabriel Solomon's user avatar
17 votes
7 answers
5k views

What makes a good form?

I've recently been given the challenge to create a preferably 'fun and engaging'-form, consisting of about 40-50 fields. The form consists of four parts, Employee-contact-info, Employment-description, ...
Soroush Hakami's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
4k views

Usability of hiding the submit button (and using the enter key to submit)

More and more commonly, I find that websites elect to hide or remove the submit button from forms. One obvious example is this site (along with other StackExchange sites), whose search field lacks a ...
peterjmag's user avatar
  • 243
14 votes
11 answers
2k views

How to tell a client in a form that they can enter their email OR their tel # (but both are not necessary)?

In a contact form, I need either their number or email. I've thought of these ways: Have field label be "Email or Tel #", or "Email / Tel #" Have the above, but placeholder text in the input saying "...
Voriki's user avatar
  • 505
13 votes
3 answers
8k views

Behavior of the Enter button in a form

What is a better experience for a user if they press enter when using a form? Should it submit the form or move to the next field?
Lee's user avatar
  • 187
9 votes
3 answers
965 views

Design recommendation for a button

I have a form in which the user requests a report to the system by clicking the Send Report Request button. The system then produces scheduled reports according to the interval the user selected (...
lamostreta's user avatar
449 votes
10 answers
190k views

Why do credit card forms ask for Visa, MasterCard, etc.?

You can tell if it's a Visa or MasterCard based on the number it starts with, i.e. 4 for Visa, 5 for MasterCard. Why do most billing forms request the type of card? It's not a barrier for bots (to my ...
Aaron Hall's user avatar
  • 4,003
109 votes
12 answers
35k views

Should form 'Continue' button be disabled if validation is incomplete?

In forms we often see the 'continue' button inactive until all the required fields are complete: download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups Is this actually a help to the ...
JonW's user avatar
  • 37.4k
68 votes
19 answers
43k views

Form for inputting operating hours of a business

I am designing an interface where restaurants need to input their operating hours. I am thinking of using a slider control for timings for a single day, and then let the user choose days of the week ...
Adnan Khan's user avatar
  • 4,633
41 votes
11 answers
45k views

Mark or don't mark required fields if all are required?

If all fields in a form are required should they be marked somehow (eg. with an asterisk)? I see this done a lot and find it redundant? There could be a difference in big forms and small forms, but ...
Anders's user avatar
  • 1,108

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