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 in big ones I would add a note at the top that all fields are required, but I wouldn't necessarily do that on small ones.
What do you think is the right approach?
You'll often find that users will just fill in all fields on a form regardless of whether they're required or not. People don't really read instructions and don't want to risk encountering an issue if they haven't filled in any fields, so they'll often just fill in them all regardless. (This has been somewhat supported by testing by the Baymard Institute - although in their case they were looking at how users interact with forms directly following on from previous errors). A better approach is to add in the text at the beginning of the form that 'All fields are required unless indicated as optional'. (Which as LukeW finds goes down well with users in testing)
That covers off the accessibility issues as you've introduced at the beginning of the form what is required of the user (although with HTML5 you can add the 'required' attribute into field tags to also cover this off) but it also removes much of the confusion from filling in forms as to what the user should and should not do.
If you have all the fields as required then you risk the user scanning all of them to see which ones aren't required. However if just just mark the optional ones as '(optional)' then that removes the confusion. And in your situation none of them are optional so you won't even need to display that against the label.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
This is a similar approach to how sites like Facebook do things. As shown in this image below (as taken from the Smashing Magazine article on web forms) they don't provide any indication about what is and isn't required unless the user tries to submit the form without filling anything in. It could be assumed that they do this because they too have found that users generally fill in all fields they're presented with just to make sure).
Unfortunately people read less and expect more during action. So regardless if all fields or only a set of fields are required, fields that need input need indication in some form. Every field in your case.
Maybe you can group them. Separate the required fields somehow, maybe inside of a box or with a dotted line. For example.
in this way you will remove the redundancy.
Error prevention is better than cure. True in 1995 and always will be - http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
I had a usability test of a form only recently where, when presented with a message saying the equivalent of "D'oh! Fool! We only accept your answer in this format" the participant rightly said, "Well why didn't you tell me that first?"
If all your fields are required, say so. And the asterisk is, I believe, the universal shortcut for that.
I don't feel it is necessary to mark fields as required when there are far neater solutions available for this. In the same way that fields are highlighted green/red for form validation, this would also suffice to highlight a field that is required or not validated correctly.
I guess the only user disadvantage to this however would be colour blinded people where red/green isn't much use to them - it is these cases where additional markup such as an asterisk would be most beneficial.
Similar to the below:-
Definitely, no asterisks marking required fields. And in simple forms like the one attached, I use no instructional text. I could place a note above the form asking users to "Please complete all fields" but I don't think it will be read by most.
I recommend displaying an error message on submit if they forget to fill out a field. The error message should be inline, have clear instructions, and use an icon or large change in tone/color.
If a few fields are optional you can add (optional) to the label. If most of your fields are optional I would question why they are there. Perhaps there is a better way to capture the optional info than including it with data that is required.
Including a line of instructional text (as some have already illustrated) that states "All fields are required" should suffice. If you wait until users have submitted, this "surprise" will detract from the overall user experience. Inclusion of the instructional text will facilitate error mitigation efforts.
Color coding has limitations, especially when (not if) color-blind people use the form.
I try not to ask for anything unless I need it. It should be clear to the user why providing me what I'm asking for will help them.
There are a few cases where something is useful to the user yet not required to get the job done such as providing a Description. I don't usually find it necessary to put (optional) by these fields because a user isn't harmed if they assume it is required and always supply one.
Disabling the submit button usually works pretty well and providing both a hover text on mouse over and even red text below if the disabled button is clicked can inform the user why.
You all make really good points, always nice to get other people's opinion.
I also prefer not to provide an indication at all, only show it after the user tries to submit.
Coloring before submission is to distracting in my opinion, and in general I only think coloring should be used for validation of fields that require a special formatting, like a date or email addresses. These should be validated live when the user types, and not when the user submits.
In a way to avoid form abandonment since the user may become overwhelmed with the number of rules he must apply and to reduce cognitive overload in, other words, mark only the fields that are not required by creating a cleaver design. Another option if management wants to mark the fields at any cost... write the word "Required" on the appropriate fields and mark only the field that is not required with an "informative" look.
You could mark the mandatory fields with a stroke of a certain colour, like red. Non-mandatory fields can be unmarked. This way you dont have to add an additional asterix, and you also avoid adding a statement explaining the reason for the asterix.
