[Sigia-l] Form Usability - Search & Cancel location

[Joe 10 Enterprises]

At 7:29 PM -0400 6/25/02, Christopher Fahey [askrom] wrote:
>>  a question has come up about the
>>  placement of certain "action" buttons - namely the
>>  Submit and Cancel buttons. (note: Cancel is a required
>>  option for this application because of the multiple
>>  step nature of the form.)
>
>To me having Cancel on the left is plainly obvious, particularly in a
>multi-step process. The dialog-box analogy several people have made is
>sort of inappropriate: First, most dialog boxes are atrocious in terms
>of usability, and secondly a multi-step web form is not really a dialog
>box at all.

Not inappropriate, just not entirely appropriate.

>
>Also, I would suggest that you consider using GIF images (with
>Javascript form-submittal code) for the buttons (instead of standard
>browser form buttons) for two reasons:
>
[SCHNIP]

Graphic buttons do have one (at least) downside and that is dynamic 
delivery and localization...

>Anyway, secondly (and I may be wrong about this) with GIF buttons you
>can probably control the tab order as well.

Yep, just like with standard html/form buttons.

>
>You can also do stuff like use a Javascript dialog box to confirm the
>Cancel button before the user screws up their form completely.

Could also add confirms for the confirms like
"Do you really, really, really want to Reset that form?"
;-)
or, perhaps:
http://www.joe10.com/test/onclick_everywhere.html

later,
/Joe
-- 
Joe Tennis
Information Design Honcho
Joe 10 Enterprises
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