How to display minimum required tags information

Question

I develop a form where I need to add multiple items for one field (multi select) and the submit button is disabled as long as all fields are not valid.

This field needs to have 1 minimum tag to validate the form.

For other fields I have this view:

I have 3 possibilities :

• Enabled submit button all the time and when the user clicks on it, I display fields on error with theirs error message
• When the user cleans the multi select field I display the error message
• I display all the time an information message below the field which indicate the rule for this field

What is usually done for this? And maybe another idea?

Answer 1

To be consistent I would use the same method for all type of fields. It is not clear in your screen if the "required" text below the first name is always displayed or only after leaving the field empty.

With the multiselect list you could do the same. If the rule is always displayed, show the rule below the multiselect filed (same color, same font).

If you show the rule only after leaving a specific field, do the same with the multiselect list.

About the submit button: it helps when the submit button is always active it it is not absolutely clear why it is not active. In Forms with a lot of fields this might not be the case. So leave the button active and show a validation text at the button AND below the field with the validation error. This way the user will find the wrong input very easy.