Web Form Fundamentals

The form is the heart and soul of your application. After all, it’s the point of entry for the data in the system. Yet, time after time we stumble across confusing, and time consuming forms. Here are a few of my pointers and pet peeves when it comes to designing these forms.

Visual Design

1. Make the fonts slightly larger than your body text
2. Add padding around the input’s to keep text from mashing with borders
3. Use easy to read labels.
4. Provide sample input, or tell us what’s allowed (ex. passwords must be 6 characters)

Validation

1. All forms must validate on the server side for security reasons
2. Use javascript and ajax validation to improve user experience in addition to server-side validation
3. Clearly show error messages

What to Collect

1. Always collect the data you must have
2. Never collect the data you don’t need
3. Give people the option to change their input, and let them know ahead of time

I think this is one area of web design, and application development that needs prompt attention.