[Sigia-l] Cross posting: Phone number layout

[Jason Britton]

There is a third option you might want to consider, using a box for zip 
code and a second box for the seven digit phone number.

I would surmise that users would look at their seven digit number as a 
single entity. The area code would be looked at as a supplement to the 
primary phone number. I think Bell Labs researched how users perceive phone 
numbers, to test phone numbers against George Miller's 7 +/- 9 study. If 
you follow this line of thinking, then a phone number is made of two parts 
- zip code and number, hence reason for a two box layout.

 From a strict usability standpoint, I would argue that if your form fields 
are for personal (home) numbers, an automatic jump form (using either two 
or three boxes) would be acceptable since users would likely type in their 
numbers in quickly and with minimal error.

If the form field is for a number that is not familiar for users (such as a 
work tool where you have to enter in other people's phone numbers) then a 
non-jumping box might be better. These users will likely refer between 
their source document and the computer screen, and a non-jumping box enter 
allow data to be entered without having to constantly click to a previous 
field to correct errors.

I would probably pass on the single box. Users might waste time 
contemplating if they need to format the number. If you provide an 
explanation that users do/don't have to format the numbers, the end user 
either waste time reading it or won't read it at all.

Just my $0.25.

-- Jason Britton

At 12:40 PM 9/29/03 -0400, Jenn Coonce wrote:
>When asking for a site visitor's contact information, I've seen two
>different ways of asking for the phone number field. One is to have one
>field where users can type in all 10 digits (the best design is where they
>can choose whether to add hyphens or not).
>
>The other way is to have 3 boxes -- one for the first 3 numbers, one for the
>second 3, and one for the last 4.  I've been talking to my fellow team
>members about whether the cursor should automatically jump to the next field
>when the user fills the field with numbers
>
>It seems advanced users dislike the feature of the cursor automatically
>jumping because they automatically hit tab and the curser is moved to the
>wrong field. My guess is that less sophisticated users would prefer the
>cursor to automatically jump.
>
>So this leads me to:
>
>Why even three fields for the phone number? Should there just be one field
>or is there a good reason for having three? If three, then which is
>preferable? Jumping automatically or waiting for the user to move the
>cursor?
>
>Thanks,
>Jenn Coonce
>Senior Information Architect, DVC Worldwide
>
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