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Tue, 17 Jun 2003 13:39:52 +0000
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Clarification: by "ad hoc form elements" I meant elements that appear (and
disappear) based on form data.

Thank you Mitch and John for responding.

Best regards,

Doug Heathcoat


Original question
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A digital-web.com article by By Peter-Paul Koch, "Forms, usability, and the W3C
DOM", details how to use the W3C DOM to cause form elements to appear only when
needed.  I enjoyed the article--I thought the solution was very
creative.  Nevertheless, I'm left with several usability questions.

First, was there ever a problem to be solved?  That is, assuming they are well
designed, is there any empirical evidence long forms have poor usability?  It's
self evident a shorter form would be better than a longer one, but are long
forms inherently bad?  I searched, but did not find anything.

At one point in the article the author appealed to Jakob Nielsen.  The reference
combined with the topic reminded me of an AlertBox column.  In "Drop-Down
Menus: Use Sparingly" (Alertbox, November 12, 2000), Nielsen suggests designers
avoid using interacting drop down menus because, "Users get very confused when
options come and go."  If this statement is true, I think it would also apply
to ad hoc form elements--users would become confused with form elements
appearing and disappearing.  Nielsen, however, doesn't provide any information
in support of this statement.  This leads to my second question...

Is there any empirical evidence that users get confused when options
(elements) come and go?  Again, it seems self evidently true;
I searched and did not find anything.  (I did find some info on adaptive
menus--there seems to be emperical evidence both for and against using them.)

Finally, if long forms and forms with ad hoc elements are
both usability no-no's, what's the solution?  Employing a wizard interaction
pattern?


Response: Mitchell Gart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suppose you have 2 radio buttons, button1 and button2, and a text field
field1.  Field1 is needed if button1 is selected, but not relevant if
button2 is selected.  You don't want to bother users with asking for
extra information when it's not really needed, so you only want to ask for
field1 if button1 is selected.

One solution is to hide and show the field, depending which button is
selected.  This has the advantage that it's really clear, but the
disadvantage
that it may be confusing.  The other solution is to gray or otherwise
disable the field depending which button is selected.  This has the
advantage of not being confusing, but the disadvantage of still showing
extra information in a context where it is not needed.  I've seen designers

go back and forth a lot between these two alternatives, and am not sure
which one is best.

But it seems clear to me that it's better than just always showing the
field,
even when it's not needed.  A computer form that asks for information that's
not needed is really rude.

Now let's take it 1 step farther.  Suppose if button2 is chosen, field1 is
not just irrelevant but illegal.  If the form does nothing, it will ask
the user to fill in the field, and then spit back an error message telling
the user the field was illegal.  That's really obnoxious.

So to answer your question, yes, I think there is a problem to be solved,
and the 2 solutions are enable/disable or show/hide.


Response: John O'Donovan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The usability issues with long forms pre-dates the internet - it is an
established fact that long forms are more complex and make it more difficult
for the user to fill them out.

They can be intimidating, confusing, time consuming and difficult for
someone to remember what they filled in earlier thus users loose their
context. Many also contain optional elements that confuse the user as they
are not sure what they need to fill in.

For example, when the UK first produced an online tax filing system, of
130,000 people expressing interest in using the it, only 39,000 had managed
to file returns electronically by April 2001. Over 60 per cent abandoned

their attempt before completion.

Wizards are OK for short interactions. For example try this one...

http://www.sonyericsson.com/uk/spg.jsp?page=M8&B=ie&noredir=1

Configures your sony phone and leads you through choices in a nice simple
fshion.

What can work well is to have a long form divided into a series of steps
which can be split over pages. Clearly illustrate the steps and the current
status.

If on one page and form elements are appearing and disappearing then make
sure that users can get a view on how long the process is and how far they
have come. Make sure they can see what they have already entered.

We found on our intranet that an expenses form was more usable by having the
type of expense reveal the relevant detals to fill in than a seperate page
to choose the type or a series of more generic fields.

It is a more powerful approach to tailor the form to the current data being

entered by the user though there are likely to be accessibility issues which
will need addressing.

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