[Sigia-l] "clear" button on web forms

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Listera
>  
> You check (which means optional) only the fields that you want to
> carry onto the next page. This has nothing to do with clearing the
> form. It's meant to aid repetitive data entry when you don't know
> which fields (and when) the user may want to avoid re-entering.

When a page has persistable fields, persisting them is often the right
treatment. Thus, users have learned to depend on it as a default form
behavior. They don't have to do anything to have the field values
persisted.

By making field persistence optional, you are asking users to pay
(i.e. perform extra steps) for something that they expect to be free.
Thus, the checkbox approach will be viewed as cumbersome.

Since the checkbox approach was suggested as a replacement for the
"clear" button, let us consider a scenario. After checking beside the
persistable fields and the next page has been rendered, users want to
clear the persisted fields. What should they do? Go back to the
previous page and uncheck the checkboxes individually? Or should they
stay in the current page and clear the persisted fields individually?
None of them is as clean as clicking on the "clear" button.


Boniface