Crystal's Adventures in Webdev Land » forms http://crysodenkirk.com/blog Luck smiles on me often. Usually, it's with derision. Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:30:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Form Usability and Design http://crysodenkirk.com/blog/2009/05/form-usability-and-design/ http://crysodenkirk.com/blog/2009/05/form-usability-and-design/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 19:41:42 +0000 Crys http://crysodenkirk.com/blog/?p=394
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    • ]]>     Most of the work I do right now, I can’t post here because it’s proprietary and client-facing only. However, there’s one application, Mortgage Loan App, that’s fairly new and is what we call a “consumer facing” (meaning our clients’ customers) application that I would like to use as an example to discuss usability in forms and other aspects of form design. I’ll be referring back to it quite a bit in the next couple weeks. This copy is our production environment test copy; clients can customize the application with their own logo, colors and contact information.

    A few forms topics (will link each when the post is finished, so feel free to bookmark this page to make it easy to find them in the blog):

    1. Label Placement
    2. Row Highlighting
    3. User Flow
      1. Tabbed Interfaces meet the Wizard
      2. Back/Next Navigation
      3. Button Placement
      4. buttons vs input=button vs input=submit
      5. Information breakdown, what’s on which page and why
    4. Why I use unordered lists in fieldsets for my forms
    5. Progressive Enhancement and Usability:
      1. dynamically hiding extra fields when they aren’t needed
      2. Making your form usable even when js and css are turned off by the user
    6. Making it Pretty
      1. CSS file design for multiple templates/themes
      2. Nifty 3d buttons without resorting to graphics
      3. Disabled Submit Buttons in IE and Firefox
      4. IE and empty divs

    Related posts:

    1. Must-read websites for UI Designers
    2. Mt. Mary Event Registration
    3. Usability seminar…

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