[Sigia-l] Form Entry Best Practices

[Bryan Haggerty]

I had recently done a form at my previous work place for a housing  
application, which you can imagine requires a significant amount of  
information.  I implemented a few techniques for alerting the user of  
errors which you might find useful.

http://www.radcliffe.edu/about/resources/housing/cronkhite/academic/ 
step1.php

The idea of a script breaking up a single address field  can prove to  
be a problem when dealing with international addresses since there is a  
multitude of variations. (this obviously depends on who your users are  
going to be).

Plus providing just one field can lead to the user omitting data which  
you are seeking to find, for example if you require say the +4 zip  
code.  That is something you cannot guarantee to get if you provide the  
user with just a single address field.

Bryan Haggerty

On May 6, 2004, at 1:54 PM, Christopher Fahey [askrom] wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> Can anyone point me to a concise but detailed overview of best  
> practice on
> long web-based form design (registration forms, application forms,  
> etc.)?
> I'm looking for thoughts on:
>
>   * Indicating Required Fields
>   * Address field formats
>       * zip, zip+4?
>       * Separate fields for house number and street?
>   * Date field formats - pull downs, free entry?
>   * Phone number field formats (multiple fields?
>   * Validation best practices:
>       * Instant in-page validation
>       * Javascript no-reload validation
>       * Form-submit page reload validation
>   * Where to put instructions and examples
>   * Tab order & auto-tabbing
>   * Field layout and alignment
>   * etc.