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Imagine a form where the user has some required fields, and after scrolling down a way hits the "submit" button. On most forms I've seen, trying to submit with missing required fields will trigger some message to the user and the missing fields will be highlighted red - Amazon is a good example of this.

What I am wondering is at the bottom of a form, before hitting the submit button, would it be a bad idea to have a live-updating checklist of missing fields you need to fill in still? I've yet to see this anywhere, though I feel it could help users who may have skipped over a required field and forgotten. Something along the lines of a box that would say

The following fields still need to be filled in:

  • Name
  • Address

but still bring up a message/red-highlighting if they click submit anyway.

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  • Many registration forms do this for data as you type, such as valid email/password/username checking. I don't know of any specifically that have a 'before you click' message with unfilled forms, but client-side javascript is often used to check it before submitting it.
    – Tyzoid
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 22:11
  • If there are more than a handful of fields, wouldn't this take up a lot of space initially? e.g. on a form with 15 fields, the checklist at the bottom starts off with 15 warnings about missing data.
    – Vince Bowdren
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 14:48

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It's actually pretty common these days for forms to show correct/incorrect data entry as you go. Usually I see it in the form of either a green check mark or red X showing up on next to each entry. Usually it either happens while you're filling the field out, or as soon as you move on to the next field. It definitely makes it easier to fill out a form if you get instant notice you've put in invalid data.

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