Form design
By Kristoffer Bohmann, Bohmann Usability
Form design. Banal design mistakes can make it hard to submit search words and email addresses through forms. I recently observed a user who was unable to submit an email address on my site because the user didn't see the Sign up-button. The user saw a collapsed form like this:
| Mistake: Button jump to the next line |
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Everything was done right except the final step. The form was easily found by the user. The email adress was entered correct. But the user forgot to hit the Sign up-button. The problem occurred because a small browser window was being used which made the button jump to the next line as shown above. Meanwhile, the user was so focused on spelling the email address that everything else was ignored.
Not only does business suffer when such usability problems happen (e.g., I didn't get the opportunity to send email updates to a client). Worse, users become disappointed and frustrated ("Why don't I receive the email notifications I signed up for?"). A clear loose-loose situation that is easily fixed if identified.
Kristoffer Bohmann
