UI oppinion needed

[gwrman]

I need your oppinions on a UI debate that I can not reason one way or another for an ecomm site.

The question relates to a form, for registering for, and updating your account.

i use vbscript for validation, so if the input doesnt comply, it kicks back to the form page, with fields in place (except password) and with the error highlighted in red.

The form also has a captcha at the bottom, that would have to re-entered on subsequent tries if there are errors.

The question is whether i should also highlight the now empty password fields red, and the empty captcha fields red as well - since the users attn needs to be called to them, as well as the area where the errors occur. what do you all think?

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

Why not do client side validation and not allow the page to get submitted until the fields are all valid?
That way the user wouldn't have to keep re-typing the password or captcha.

Trojan.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

You'd want to do both client AND server-side validation, OR just server-side validation, in case the user has JS disabled.

But to answer your original question, it's probably one best left for the "Web site designers" forum, as it's not really an HTML or CSS question.

Hope this helps,
Dan



Coedit Limited - Delivering standards compliant, accessible web solutions

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[Foamcow]

Web Designers forum is Forum253

You are using red to denote an error. If there was an error in those fields then, yes, colour them red.

If however they were fine but simply need to be re-entered then perhaps they should be indicated in some other way.

Either that, or leave them "as is" and empty.

But the point about validating that required fields are filled in with "something" is a good one. Then check the sanity of hte input server side.

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2

 

[BabyJeffy]

I get annoyed when I "fail" to complete all fields of a form, but I do complete the captcha... yet I get returned to the form and have to fill out another captcha again. Since the purpose of these things is to identify the user a human (versus an automated form filler)... it always seems daft that people who implement captcha solutions don't deal with this better.

Cheers,
Jeff

[tt]Jeff's Page @ Code Couch

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