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Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

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Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#31

Post by pbhjpbhj »

tim_iles wrote: post #27

In Messaging on the Facebook app on Android, you have Send on the left and Clear on the right. Gets me far too often, and it's just not even necessary. If I don't want to send what I started writing, I simply hit back. Hate it.

What in the interface tells you that navigating away from the page will not submit the data?

Perhaps instead of reset a "do not submit" button is required. But then if I changed my mind about what I'm writing but still want to send a message things get a little lame.

How can you tell for example that going back doesn't instead save the comment as a draft (like the SMS interface on my [pretty old] Sony Ericcson phone).

I disagree with the article, I think there is a place for a reset/clear function.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#32

Post by xd »

f00li5h wrote: post #24
xd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From user acceptance testing we done, that gives the impression it would create a new record from the populated data. Edit: we use the wording "Clear" not "Reset" btw.

sounds like a "Please throw away everything I just typed" button to me ...

Your replies have prompted me to rethink the logic. I'm going to add some rules to the "Clear" button:

1, Hide the button whilst no records have been clicked. 2, If a record has been clicked, clicking the button clears the form then hides itself.

Feedback appreciated.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#33

Post by wladimir »

narag wrote: post #28
wladimir wrote: post #20

Even better, get rid of your forms entirely, especially long forms with all kind of questions that you really don't need the answer to. Or have fields that are ambigious and improperly validated. Or multipage forms that have no way of going back without losing your filled in data.

Specially annoying is when the "check this if you don't want to receive spam from us" checkbox is unchecked every time the form is shown again after a server-side validation error.

Oh yes, I agree. Or when you mistype the essentially human-unreadable captcha, and have to fill in half of the fields anew.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#34

Post by PonyGumbo »

socillion wrote: post #18

A similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired. Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.

Or losing half the fields due to a validation error, which then creates other validation errors when you re-submit. "Oops! Your password contains illegal characters. Please select a new password. (submit) Oops! Please select a state from the dropdown menu."

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#35

Post by ordinary »

socillion wrote: post #18

A similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired. Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.

I experience this from time to time. Sometimes(TM), a single undo in the now-empty field makes all the text reappear. I've recovered many an overly long forum post this way. Try it.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#36

Post by f00li5h »

xd wrote: post #32
f00li5h wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sounds like a "Please throw away everything I just typed" button to me ...

Your replies have prompted me to rethink the logic. I'm going to add some rules to the "Clear" button: 1, Hide the button whilst no records have been clicked. 2, If a record has been clicked, clicking the button clears the form then hides itself. Feedback appreciated.

an [x] button to get rid of the edit form - for don't save, or don't create (ideally with undo, but "are you sure" is good too)? maybe?

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#37

Post by follower »

socillion wrote: post #18

A similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired. Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.

You might be interested in Lazarus:

http://lazarus.interclue.com/

It's a multi-browser plugin that allows you to recover lost form content.

Disclosure: I know the people behind the company.

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#38

Post by whouweling »

xd wrote: post #32
f00li5h wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sounds like a "Please throw away everything I just typed" button to me ...

Your replies have prompted me to rethink the logic. I'm going to add some rules to the "Clear" button: 1, Hide the button whilst no records have been clicked. 2, If a record has been clicked, clicking the button clears the form then hides itself. Feedback appreciated.

It may be better to not hide the button, but to disable it.

Hiding buttons in response to application state confuses the user.

(Imagine the user searching the screen for the "Clear" button which he or she knows should be there ...)

Re: Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms

#39

Post by efsavage »

socillion wrote: post #18

A similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired. Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.

I've actually been conditioned so thoroughly by flaky forum software to ctrl-a-c on every post before submit that I don't even think about it and sometimes I'm surprised when I paste later and get whacked with a giant forum post.
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