Blog Archive

October 30, 2008: Online Event & Discount Code: Modern Web Form Design (0 comments)

On Thursday November 13, 2008, I'll be presenting an online session about Modern Web Form Design as part of the Future Practice User Experience Webinar series. These 60-minute webinars are available as live classes, and then are made available in...

September 14, 2008: Alternative List Box UI (1 comments)

List boxes can act as a set of radio buttons (allowing people to select exactly one choice from a set of mutually exclusive options) or as a set of checkboxes (allowing people to select any number of choices from a...

September 9, 2008: Marking Required vs. Optional form fields (0 comments)

On the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) discussion list, Erin Walsh shared some interesting insights on marking Required vs. Optional form fields. "We recently did prototype testing on several search forms with a mixture of required and optional fields. On the...

September 6, 2008: Recent Reviews (0 comments)

Several new reviews for Web Form Design have been published: Review in Digital Web Magazine; August, 2008. Reviewed by Matthew Pennell."Web Form Design is that most curious of web-dev books—one without a single line of code within its pages. Instead,...

August 12, 2008: Impact of Removing Registration (0 comments)

In Web From Design, I advocated ways to get people engaged and interested in Web applications and services without requiring an explicit sign-up form. In many cases, registration is an obstacle that prevents people from exploring and engaging with an...

July 22, 2008: Kean Richmond Review (1 comments)

On his blog, Kean Richmond posted a review of Web Form Design: "Personally I could not recommend this book enough, although I have yet to put any of the ideas I’ve learnt to practical use I will soon be redesigning...

July 19, 2008: 10% Sign up Improvement with one Change (1 comments)

Marcello Calbucci recently shared some details behind the design of the Sampa sign up form. Sampa is a free Web site service that requires users to register before they set up a site and saw a 10% increase in sign-ups...

July 11, 2008: Boxes & Arrows Review (0 comments)

On Boxes & Arrows, Will Evans posted a detailed review of Web Form Design: "What is likely to win the most converts, though, is the joy Wroblewski takes in designing. This impression becomes clear as you page through the book....

July 9, 2008: Goodreads Review (0 comments)

On the Goodreads site, Marty DeAngelo posted a detailed review of Web Form Design: "Good or bad, there aren't many books that I can use for my job that I go through quickly. There's just something about a limit to...

June 26, 2008: Smart Defaults in Registration & Travel Booking Forms (0 comments)

On Functioning Form, I discuss smart defaults (selections put in place that provide answers to questions for you) in registration & travel booking forms. Check out the full articles: Smart Defaults in Registration Forms When electing to join the Naymz...

June 9, 2008: International Address Fields in Web Forms (0 comments)

Since publishing Web Form Design, one of the most frequent questions I've gotten about online forms is “How do I deal with international addresses?” So for my Communication Design column in UXmatters this month, I outlined many of the international...

June 7, 2008: Labels Within Inputs (0 comments)

On Functioning Form, I discuss the considerations behind combining labels and input fields into a single user interface element using an example from LinkedIn. Check out the full article: Web Form Design: Labels Within Inputs...

May 4, 2008: Now on sale! (20 comments)

Luke Wroblewski's Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks is now available for purchase! Buy directly from Rosenfeld Media and pay US$36 for the paperback and digital editions, US$19 for digital only. The paperback is 244 pages with high quality...

May 2, 2008: Update on the book's launch (0 comments)

Update, 1pm ET May 3: Oh so close, but we'd prefer to get everything with our digital edition just right before launching. We're hoping to have it done tonight! Stay tuned here for more updates. Well, we're still shooting for...

May 1, 2008: Images and updates galore (0 comments)

Hi, Luke's publisher here with some quick updates: All 218 images from Web Form Design, including the front and back covers, are now available for download under a Creative Commons license. Check them out in Flickr. We've also made book...

March 25, 2008: Publishing Update (6 comments)

After sweating the details and finalizing editing, layout, and indexing Web Form Design is ready to go to the printer this week. So it's with much glee I'm letting you know that printed copies of the book will be...

March 23, 2008: Upcoming Form Design Workshops (2 comments)

Over the past month, I've been distilling the content within my upcoming book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, into a full day workshop of exercises and presentations on Web form design essentials, best practices, and research findings....

March 3, 2008: Two Web Forms in the Wild (4 comments)

On Functioning Form, I wrote up some form design issues I encountered on Southwest Airlines and CORGI alongside some form design tips to remedy the problems....

January 14, 2008: Publishing Date (2 comments)

As some people have started asking when Web Form Design Best Practices will be in their hands, I figured a post about our publishing schedule would be appropriate. At this point, the manuscript is written and in the hands of...

January 10, 2008: A Few Form Design Articles (0 comments)

Though I have an upcoming book on the topic, I’m not the only one writing about Web forms. Here are a few recent articles that touch on some interesting or important form design topics. Messing up the interface This article...

November 24, 2007: Web Form Design: ZIP Codes & Locations (0 comments)

On Functioning Form, I published an article discussing when to ask questions and how focusing on ZIP codes and addresses in Web Forms. The full article: Web Form Design: ZIP Codes & Locations...

October 13, 2007: Web Form Design in the Wild, Part 2

User Interface Engineering published part two of a compilation of recent form design articles I've written. The two part series outlines several lessons learned from Web Form Design in the Wild (Part 2)....

October 3, 2007: Web Form Design in the Wild, Part I

User Interface Engineering published part one of a compilation of recent form design articles I've written. The two part series outlines several lessons learned from Web Form Design in the Wild....

October 2, 2007: Web Form Design: British Airways

On Functioning Form, I published an article outlining problems with primary & secondary actions on the British Airways checkout form. The full article: Web Form Design: British Airways....

October 1, 2007: Undo a Reset Form (0 comments)

In my recent article about Primary & Secondary Actions in Web Forms, I argue that in most situations secondary actions like Reset and Cancel are unnecessary and should be either removed or de-emphasized in the user interface to avoid mistakes....

September 18, 2007: Web Form Design: Fairmont Hotels

On Functioning Form, I published an article outlining several Web form design best practices and how they were neglected in the design of a Fairmont Hotels form page. The full article: Web Form Design: Fairmont Hotels....

September 5, 2007: Web Form Design: Boingo

On Functioning Form, I published an article demonstrating the importance of eliminating unnecessary inputs in Web forms. The full article: Web Form Design: Boingo....

September 3, 2007: Smashing Magazine Web Design & Development Books

Smashing Magazine included Web Form Design Best Practices in their very thoughtful list of 40+ Books For Professional Design & Development. They are giving away copies of each of the books they recommend as part of their one year anniversary....

August 27, 2007: Primary & Secondary Actions in Web Forms (6 comments)

In recent months, I’ve been working on refining the design recommendations in Web Form Design Best Practices through actual usage data. To that end, I’ve had the pleasure of working with London-based usability firm Etre on several eye-tracking and usability...

July 24, 2007: Perspective: Caroline Jarrett (0 comments)

Caroline Jarrett has been writing about forms for a number of years. In her column on Usabilitynews.com and her site Forms That Work. Here's a small sampling of some of her extensive writings on the subject of forms: Designing usable...

July 20, 2007: Perspective: Jared Spool (0 comments)

User Interface Engineering (UIE) recently republished my article on Web Application Form Design. It was this article (originally written in January 2005) that kicked of my writing about forms and ultimately led to this upcoming book. UIE was also responsible...

June 7, 2007: Form Development Best Practice Slides (3 comments)

As a number of people have asked about form development best practices in the comments on this site. I thought it would be useful to include Aaron Gustafson's Learning to Love Forms talk from WebVisions 2007 (embedded below). The big...

May 30, 2007: The ELMER Web form guidelines (0 comments)

Ram Yoga recently pointed me to project ELMER: a set of Web form guidelines developed for the public sector in Norway. ELMER outlines a common framework for page layout and form interactions and Norway is one of few countries with...

May 22, 2007: Dynamic Help Systems in Web Forms (2 comments)

UXmatters just published my new article on Dynamic Help in Web Forms which surveys a number of automatic and user-activated Help systems designed to assist the completion of forms. From the synposis: "...there are many types of forms that require...

May 18, 2007: IA Summit Redux 2007 (0 comments)

On Saturday, May 19, 2007 at 7:30pm (yes, that's late on a Saturday!), I'll be speaking at the IASummit 2007 Redux in Sunnyvale, CA about Web Form Design Best Practices. Hope to see some of you there!...

May 11, 2007: Technical Communication Summit 2007

On Monday, May 14, 2007 at 3:30pm, I'll be speaking at the Technical Communication Summit in Minneapolis, MN about Web Form Design Best Practices. The talk will feature a lot of topics from my upcoming book including: label alignment, required...

May 4, 2007: Form Development Best Practices

I'm at WebVisions 2007 where Aaron Gustafson just gave a great talk outlining many of the building blocks required to develop effective forms with a strong focus on valid and efficient XHTML and CSS code. I've posted my notes at...

April 24, 2007: An Introduction (12 comments)

Welcome to the working site for my upcoming Web Form Design Best Practices book. (That's a working title too!). I'm looking forward to sharing ideas, research, and design considerations with everyone here over the coming months as I write...