[Sigia-l] Multi column forms in web based applications

[Anders Ramsay]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:58:24 -0500, Chris Daly <chrisdalynyc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi folks...
> 
> I read through the archives and found some nice comments about Form
> design - however I couldn't much research around form layout/design
> that pitted a single column format against multi-column format.
> 
> Wondering what the community's opinion is on the issue:  Here's my situation.
> 
> - I am part of a team that is creating a fairly complex form oriented
> web-based application.
> - The end user group is a pretty controlled environment (IE - just
> employees, and only after some training).
> - Many of the forms in question have 50+ fields (each with a field
> descriptor and an entry box/pulldown/radio button etc.

Before thinking about 1 or 2 columns or whatever, you should take a
hard to look at any patterns in the values that would be filled in.
Are there values that are generally the same across many forms? Can
those fields not appear by default?  Also, if you are dealing with
trained users, consider concatenating fields using a standardized data
entry nomenclature, such as standard divider values.  In addition, do
these fields divide into a set of sub-groups?  Each logical group
(such as address info or whatever) could be one page - having many
pages is not necessarily a bad thing, and may be better than one large
form.  Another thing--especially for such a large form--that you
should strongly consider, is inline field validation, meaning that,
whenever possible, the field is validated as soon as the user
completes the field and moves to the next, which would reduce the
frustration coming from filling out the whole thing, clicking on
submit, and then getting 14 errors or whatever.

 - Anders