I need to allow users to enter a number between X (minimum number) and Y (maximum number). X and Y will have different values depending on the specific client set-up of the tool. These values could be quite different from client to client.
What control can I use for enabling users to enter a constrained number from potentially 1000's, without relying on error validation?
Thanks :)
When you say "without error validation", do you mean validation upon submitting the form? Or are you open to the idea of inline-validation that checks the input values as user tabs over to next field? I think it is certainly easier than the slider method that you've already tried.
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This type of inline-validation is highly reusable and doesn't require extensive development effort. You can even get fancy, and apply other conditions for each input field, such as decimal point, minimum increment value, etc.
While it depends on the range and accuracy of the numbers that need to be input, as well as the number of numbers that need to be entered, on possible solution (and I know some won't like this idea) would be to use a slider.
The advantages of a slider is that it can quickly show users the min/max values, and can also be easily adjusted to have increments as coarse or as fine as the application configuration requires. It is also relatively easy for the user to quickly jump from a value at one end of the spectrum to another.
There are a number of examples of good sliders here on UX.se, but one in particular that I like allows the user to set the slider value in a text box on the sliding element. The benefit this has is that it allows very fine-grained control using just a keyboard, so it is highly accessible and also better able to handle scenarios where a power user needs to enter a large amount of data quickly.
