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In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jQuery Plugin

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Re: In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jQuery Plugin

#4

Post by alabut »

timmaah wrote: post #2

Once the user has filled in anything then the label is completely lost. How is that better then having the label above or to the right where it is always viewable?

It's sort of lost - the info is still there in the form of the information they entered, which is a pretty strong hint. You're not likely to forget your name or website url, for example.

You still have a point about the usability of labels outside the form field, especially given the caveat in the article that "this plugin still has problems when the browser tries to pre-fill the fields".

But it's still a useful technique because it makes the labels a lot easier to read because it's possible to left-align both the labels and the input fields. Just to give you a sense on how much thought needs to go into the graphic design of labels and form fields, here's a breakdown of the pros and cons behind labels arranged vertically, left-justified and right-justified:

http://www.lukew.com/resources/articles/web_forms.html

There's so much to learn about form design that the guy milked into an entire book.

Re: In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jQuery Plugin

#5

Post by nopal »

Oompa wrote: post #3

The jQuery example plugin does this a tad better, but with out the special fade out a bit on click effect, which I actually prefer. http://mucur.name/system/jquery_example/

I agree. Fading the text but not removing it may be confusing to some users who won't understand why there is text they can't delete in the text box.

It is pretty, though.

Re: In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jQuery Plugin

#6

Post by pmichaud »

timmaah wrote: post #2

Once the user has filled in anything then the label is completely lost. How is that better then having the label above or to the right where it is always viewable?

I think it just saves space in applications where UI space is scarce. It's also a useless trick that amateurs can abuse for fun. Yay!

Re: In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jQuery Plugin

#8

Post by oneplusone »

timmaah wrote: post #2

Once the user has filled in anything then the label is completely lost. How is that better then having the label above or to the right where it is always viewable?

A plugin such as this has a very limited and specific set of use cases. The most obvious one being a search box that says search inside, but once it receives focus it goes away.

Re: In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jQuery Plugin

#9

Post by sant0sk1 »

pclark wrote: post #7

Since when did labels cause harm? The main pain point of that is that you can't see what field means what once you've got content in it. Oh and its dreadful if you disable Javascript.

The web pretty much runs on JavaScript these days, so anybody disabling it should be used to dreadful looking sites. I don't think GoogleBot minds too much either.
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