26. February 2003 14:37
Making HTML forms easier for the user is no easy task.
Make good use of Radio buttons, Check boxes and drop-down menus within the form instead of text boxes where possible to keep the users typing down to a minimum.
Use the "Tabindex" HTML form attribute to set the tabbing order if your HTML forms are large and complex.
Make clear which elements of a form are compulsory with and * or similar, stating what the asterix is for at the top. If you think any of the fields might be filled in wrongly, then think about adding help pages (pop-ups) for the form.
If your form is asking for personal data, then link to your site's privacy policy on the page. Information such as Credit Card details should only be submitted over a secure SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection, you will need to set this up if you don't already have one.
If you already have data on the user then pre-populate the fields and ask for confirmation where necessary, this will save the user re-typing them.
Finally you will be able to judge your forms usability by how many badly filled forms you receive.
HTML tabindex
