It seems that many sites were posting information on how to build forms that are easy for users. Jeff over at Blankenthoughts has a great post on 6 Tips for Making Website Registration User-Friendly. Many of the suggestions are great (especially regarding weird password requirements), but I have to say that I really don’t agree that CAPTCHAS are a good thing. I realize that they may be needed to compact the prolific amount of spam that is out there but they are a usability nightmare. I often have to refresh CAPTCHAS till I can read what I’m supposed to type (I have 20/20 vision). Other than that there are lots of good suggestions for making your site registration easy.
As I said up front there was a lot on the web about forms today. Our second article specifically addresses Best Practice for Form Validation. All you have to do is read the headings and you’ll be nodding your head in agreement. Don’t stop with the titles though, give the whole thing a good read and brush up on your form validation best practices.
The final link today is kind of off topic for web design but many designer also take pictures as a hobby. I was listening to This Week in Photography and they mentioned what looks to be a very cool podcast called the History of Photography Podcast (the link goes to iTunes the site is here). This is a podcast from a teacher at DuPage College on the history of photography. Just started listening but some very good information for those of us that didn’t get to work much on film.
That’s it for today.