I was filling out an online form today when I came to this section:
It says Mailing Address in big red letters. Then it says Mailing Address in bold black letters. The cursor goes automatically to the first edit box.
So what do I — and I suspect most other folks — start typing? My mailing address, of course.
Designers, it may technically be part of your “mailing address” database table, but we humans on the other end of the screen don’t automatically think, “you want my name here” when we come to an area boldly and colorfully (and redundantly) labeled “mailing address.”
(By the way, this form was the gateway to a site whose core product is known to anyone who travels even occasionally; it’s not a one-off, one-person operation.)
Web-form annoyances account for a number of my pet peeves. Their number increased when I moved outside of the United States. Perhaps the biggest is forms that give you an option for selecting a country other than the United States or Canada, but still require you to select from a list of U.S. states and Canadian provinces, without even giving an “other”, “foreign”, or blank option.
Another one that I’m seeing more of is in country lists where Taiwan is not not listed or is listed as “Taiwan, Province of China.” You can bet that the company outsourced part of the web-site development to Chinese programmers.
Then there are the forms requesting common information (name, address, phone) that don’t work with my form-filling application (now Lastpass, in the past I used Roboform) because the form-fields are poorly named.
Ah, venting in the blogosphere is therapeutic. I feel much better now.