Selection-Dependent Inputs

by February 20, 2007

In my Communication Design column this month, I discuss the pros and cons of several interface design solutions to selection-dependent inputs in Web forms. Check out the full article on UXmatters:

Selection-Dependent Inputs

"Selection-dependent inputs are, in essence, a pretty simple concept: When someone initially makes a selection from one or more options in a form, they must provide additional input related to the selected option before submitting the form. The myriad solutions to this problem on the Web, however, indicate there’s more to this interaction than one might initially assume. The problem becomes particularly interesting when a form requires many additional inputs of varying types once a user makes a simple initial selection." Read the full article...

This article is an extended discussion of one section from my Best Practices for Web Form Design presentation, which I presented at UIE's Web App Summit in January and will be giving again at this year's IA Summit and STC conference.