Smashing Mag: Form Validation Best Practices
Smashing Magazine's recent article, Web Form Validation: Best Practices and Tutorials, is an excellent distillation of the do's-and-don'ts in web form design and validation. KIMBIA's form widgets already employ a majority of theses principles, but we thought we'd point out a few and comment on our specific deployment of them.
Server vs. Client Side Validation
KIMBIA form widgets use both validation schemes. For most input field validations and other submission errors we prefer the rapid performance of JavaScript running on the client side. Our forms are JavaScript-generated, so validation is built-in to the framework. The necessary identity validation is handled by the payment gateway.
Confirmation fields
KIMBIA forms do not currently need confirmation fields. We have made a conscious decision to keep the number of form fields to a minimum to promote the quick completion of forms in the interest of our customers receiving donations.
Help hints vs. Tooltips
We believe strongly in displaying help hints to the end user from the moment the form is displayed. KIMBIA customer admins may write custom hints and apply them to any field. We position these hints under input fields to accommodate our customers' need to directly communicate what information is required of the end user. This placement enables hints of variable length to be displayed consistently. We currently do not offer a popup Tooltip feature, but are open to customer feedback on its potential usage.
Captchas
KIMBIA does not provide captchas, and we emphatically agree with the article's observation: "Still most users hate captchas (and there is a good reason for hating them!). Of course, people just don’t like filling in forms. If they can’t do it fast and effortlessly, there is a high probability that they won’t do it at all."
KIMBIA's goal is to create forms that are clear, concise and to remove barriers to the end user completing their donation or registration.
