How little users read - lessons from familiar tube signs

I've noticed a few blog posts doing the rounds in the past week highlighting some fantastic guerilla art. Tweaking London Tube signs with hilarious consequences. What struck me is the number of people who just won't be noticing them.

Usability fix tactics

A write up of a UX workshop run by Caroline Jarrett and Francis Rowland on how to get usability problems fixed. This follows on from a survey by Caroline and Steve Krug on why usability issues often go unfixed.

Why usability problems go unfixed

You'd think it would be a no-brainer to do something about serious usability problems when they're uncovered. But in some instances things that cause problems for users time and again, affecting business performance go untouched. Why? Caroline Jarrett and Steve Krug's presentation explains.

Form hint text guidance

A nice article from Caroline Jarrett explaining why it's not a good idea to put hint text in form fields you expect your user to complete.

Form design crib sheet

A great reference sheet for designers of online forms. Download in multiple formats, with lots of examples and guidance.

Keep online surveys & forms short as possible

There are always exceptions with particular audiences and scenarios, but the general rule seems to be the longer your form or survey, the less likely people are to complete it. And if they do they spend less time thinking about later questions.

Label placement in web forms

Caroline Jarrett is an expert in the field of usable web forms, and co-wrote the  book on the subject: Forms that work. A few links relating to her work and recommendations on the topic of label placement.

Better error messages

I've been writing help text and error messages this week for a new development on the University's content management system. A couple of articles from Caroline Jarrett have been really helpful.

Web forms - usability & accessibility

I've been doing some reading up on web forms lately as we're working on introducing a new feature to the University's content management system. The forms that will be generated obviously need to be accessible, but we're keen to help publishers ensure they're as usable as possible too.

It goes without saying that my number one point of reference has been Caroline Jarrett and Gerry Gaffney's book - Forms that Work. The accompanying website has tons of useful advice and links to further information too.
Forms that Work - free online resources and book promotion

Caroline Jarrett recently gave a presentation at the Usability Professionals Association conference.
Design tips for complex forms - presentation slides from Caroline Jarrett

A great introduction to making web forms accessible is provided by Webcredible.
Making accessible forms - article by Trenton Moss for Webcredible.com

Jakob Nielsen looks at the things you should consider when using checkboxes and radio buttons.
Checkboxes vs. Radio Buttons - article by Jakob Nielsen

A more techie article, but interesting and useful nonetheless. I like the breakdown of the guidance here into what's accessibility, what's usability and what's law.
Accessible forms: Guidelines, examples and accessible JavaScript tricks - article by Mike Foskett for websemantics.co.uk

Finally, a great article from Web AIM (Accessibility In Mind):
Creating Accessible Forms - WebAIM.org

Usability of ballot papers: Caroline Jarrett at SUPA in Edinburgh - 20 October

This month's talk isn't web-related, but it is co-presented by Caroline Jarrett who is an expert in web form usability. She co-wrote an excellent book - Forms that work.

This month's session is about election ballot usability - a case study of usability work conducted following complaints about the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.

Scottish UPA events

Forms that Work - free online resources and book promotion

Follow up - free report download
The talk was excellent, with many similarities to experiences of online usability testing. The scary thing is that bad usability is affecting our democratic right to vote. The number of ways participants were able to invalidate their vote was amazing.

The report is free to download from the Electoral Commission.

Usability of ballot papers - report by Effortmark and Uservision for the Electoral Commission

Usable web forms

Forms that Work by Caroline Jarrett is a book that nicely compliments Ginny Redish's Letting Go of the Words. Both sit on my bookshelf.

Web forms are incredibly frustrating when they're badly designed, and can be a barrier to successful eCommerce or even just basic interaction between the web publisher and their readers.

Caroline's website has useful free resources, so there's lots to learn without even buying the book.

Forms that Work - free online resources and book promotion

Web writing resources

Without a shadow of a doubt, there is one book out there ahead of the rest on writing for the web:

Free sample chapters of Letting Go of the Words




Editing that Works is a website inspired, at least in part, by Ginny's book. It's got a couple of sections worth a look - the principles, and a list of recommended resources.

Editing that Works - Caroline Jarrett's website