Re: [Usability] Indicating required fields

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005, Kalle Vahlman wrote:

> Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 08:58:05 +0300
> From: Kalle Vahlman <kalle vahlman gmail com>
> Reply-To: zuh iki fi
> To: Usability gnome conference <usability gnome org>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] Indicating required fields
>
> 2005/9/20, Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>:
> >
> > On Mon, 19 Sep 2005, David Zulaica wrote:
> >
> > > Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:57:24 -0700
> > > From: David Zulaica <david pseudo-cyb org>
> > > To: 'Matthew Thomas' <mpt myrealbox com>,
> > >      'Usability gnome conference' <usability gnome org>
> >
> > > Subject: RE: [Usability] Indicating required fields
> >
> > > The required fields could have a different color border.
> >
> > Subject [             ] (required)
> >
> > It is ugly but it is accessible and unambiguous.
> > Colour alone is not likely to be enough.
>
> Colour can be a good start at least, if it goes away when text is
> entered. The colour should signal "hey, here's a field you haven't
> filled in yet!" so if you forget to put a value in and the action you
> were going to do is not availabe, you'll spot the missing one more
> easily as it will have different colour wrt to the filled fields.

As Matthew already mentioned the thing to do would be to focus the cursor
on the first field which has not already been filled, complete with
preselected text.

> > I'd be happy enough with the star like what you see on the web as it would
> > meet common user expectations, principle of least astonishment.
>
> I'm pretty clueless about accessibility, but I hoped there was a way
> to implement the "mandatory" hint without adding text. Your
> "(required)" example shows why, the relatively unimportant hint (when
> compared to the "what I need to write here" and to the input area)
> takes up as much space as the label and entry.

Without a specific example in mind it is hard to tell (and this is all
ridiculously hypothetical but fun nonetheless) but if a field is not
important why show it at all?  Unimportant fields could be left hidden
(behind a disclosure triangle or by some other method) or not shown at
all.  If a field is not mandatory do not waste the users time asking them,
design for the user not just the paymaster.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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