I have a long form with many inputs and I've chosen to not show any labels for the inputs but instead use the input placeholder to show what they should contain:
The problem is, when they fill out the form, it's no longer obvious what the inputs actually are. I really don't want to show a label above each input since it would make the form longer and longer (and there are more inputs to come):
Any ideas how to tackle this?
Placeholder text within a form field makes it difficult for people to remember what information belongs in a field, and to check for and fix errors. It also poses additional burdens for users with visual and cognitive impairments.
For more information, please read this from Normal Nielsen Group https://www.nngroup.com/articles/form-design-placeholders/
Having read that, it includes the solution that I was going to give you:
Furthermore, I see one more issue in your design: The units The units should be outside of the box so that the user knows always what is the unit that you measure with. You could choose to place it either on the label or on the right of the box, something like the following image.
Put labels to the left of the text fields.
You mention that you don't want to put labels above the text fields, because it would make the form longer. If you put labels to the left of each field, the form remains the same length, labels are tied clearly to their fields (which sometimes isn't the case if you put labels above), and you reduce the width of the text fields (since it looks like most of the field values are short, having fields fill the full width of the page seems excessive). I think this would improve the experience.
It would take a bit more work, but to keep all the fields lined up, you could right-align the labels and left-align the fields so that everything is centered around a straight line.
