An Ode To Good Form Design
Luke Wroblewski wrote a piece over at UX Matters on the topic of Selection-Dependent Inputs. In short, these are forms that have fields that depend on a choice made previously in the form. Luke goes on to give 8 solutions/patterns for this type of UI problem. While the solutions are good, it got me thinking about good experiences that I have had with forms.
There is one form that sticks out in my mind as a great experience and that is the Last.fm signup form. The form does nothing new, but what it does, it does really well.
The Form At Rest
Here is a screen shot of the form when you first visit the page.
As you can see, the form doesn't look like anything special. But the magic is in the interaction as you fill out the form.
The form gives you immediate feedback as to whether or not your fields will validate.
In-Form Validation Feedback
How great is that? It's such a simple interaction, but it gives users immediate feedback as to how they are doing throughout the flow, without submitting the form. This reduces the time spent making changes to fields after submitting the form and getting a list of errors.
While this isn't a solution for every form, I think that the concept can be used on every form that you design: Create forms that are next to impossible to fill out wrong and give users feedback along the way.
What great form experiences have you had?
