“A form reset button is still needed if there are radio button elements and you would have preferred not to click one at all. Unless there is an extra radio button in the set that says ‘none of the above’ a reset button lets you blank out those fields.”

Don’t you think a better plan would be to always use a “none of the above” radio button then? I’d be pretty pissed if I had to clear my entire form just because I accidentally clicked a radio button. (And I agree with you completely, by the way. Radio buttons are poorly handled by so many sites.)

I’ll add a small super webnerd aside. A form reset button is still needed if there are radio button elements and you would have preferred not to click one at all. Unless there is an extra radio button in the set that says ‘none of the above’ a reset button lets you blank out those fields.

So we may live with reset button yet but we better see some damn radio buttons on that form

And for the love of dog don’t add a cancel button that looks anything like the submit button. Make the cancel option a link or something totally different. I’m looking at you americanairlines.com

Overall, I agree with most your complaints. Especially with regard to audio…if a site has anything that makes noise without my ability to turn it off, I immediately close it (that includes “cutesy” rollover navigation noises.

An annoyance I have is with fixed-width designs. I’ve spent the better half of the past six months tinkering around with many designs, both fluid and fixed-width and have found that most of my users (around 20 or so on this floor) tend to prefer the fluid layout. That said, I notice that *most* major web sites have settled on a fixed width of roughtly 950-960 pixels, as you have. At least yours is centered. I really hate the look of fixed-width left-oriented designs.

What I meant by “native operating systems use this functionality” is that if you click on the text next to a checkbox in an application (as opposed to a website), it checks/unchecks the box – so adding that functionality to a website is not something that makes it less usable, it makes it more usable, contrary to the ramblings of our lovely commenter above.

I agree – crazy tab numbering is really aggravating. And so is the auto-advance to the next form field javascript. Its super-helpful on stuff like phone numbers and SS#s, but since its not standard, I never know whether its going to advance me automatically or not. I wish they would just make that a standard feature (impossible, I know) so I’d know what to expect one way or another. If you’re not expecting it, and it advances AND you tab, you’ve skipped a box, and it sometimes fights with you to go back. Meh.

Checkboxes as links, I’m not sure what you meant by “native operating systems use this functionality”, however I will say that I’m anal about using label tags so that people don’t have to click on the checkbox/radio button (which is a small area to try to target if you don’t have precise motor coordination), but can click on the text next to it instead.

And while I’m on the topic of forms, insane tab ordering is a peeve of mine, I go to great lengths to ensure that when people tab through my forms, they get a predictable experience. I also go to some lengths to set up access keys if I can, too, although I consider the tab ordering to be a higher priority.

Comments welcome.

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