Label Placement in Forms

[Chad Nantais]

Interesting article on how four different label placements affected
user eye movements:

http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000107.php

And the winner was Left-Aligned Labels Above Input Fields:
"Placing a label right over its input field permitted users to capture
both elements with a single eye movement. Also, if a label indicated
data that was very familiar to users—for example, their first name or
family name—users did not fixate on the label separately to read it.
They were able to view both the label and the input field in the same
foveal area; thus eliminating the need for additional fixations and
saccades."

--
Chad Nantais

http://myspace.com/chadnantais

[Stephan Wehner]

On 8/8/07, Chad Nantais <cnan...@gmail.com> wrote:

Interesting article on how four different label placements affected
user eye movements:

http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000107.php

Related:

  http://dnevnikeklektika.com/uni-form/ 

- an attempt to standardize form layouts "so even people with only basic knowledge of these technologies can get nice looking, well structured, highly customizable, semantic, accessible and usable forms."

But then they offer two styles right from the start :-) The second one corresponds to "Left-Aligned Labels Above Input Fields", see below.

Still looks worthwhile. (Standards are good for usability)

Stephan

And the winner was Left-Aligned Labels Above Input Fields:
"Placing a label right over its input field permitted users to capture
both elements with a single eye movement. Also, if a label indicated

data that was very familiar to users--for example, their first name or
family name--users did not fixate on the label separately to read it.

They were able to view both the label and the input field in the same
foveal area; thus eliminating the need for additional fixations and
saccades."

--
Chad Nantais

http://myspace.com/chadnantais

--
Stephan Wehner

-> http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
-> http://www.thrackle.org
-> http://www.buckmaster.ca
-> http://www.trafficlife.com
-> http://stephansmap.org