
Pitfalls to avoid when designing forms - soundsop
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-08-25-n60.html
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Hexstream
For the reset button problem, why not have a reset button that saves the
information (client-side), resets the form, and shows a new "Restore" button
that does the obvious thing?

Of course it only works with Javascript so the static version could use a
smaller clear button or no clear button at all.

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ars
Saying 'Restore' is not actually obvious - restore what?

Undo maybe, but then I'd expect it to undo a piece at a time.

Put a onClick="confirm(...)" on the reset button maybe, if you feel they'll
loose a lot of work.

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Hexstream
You're telling me the user will press Reset, see the form cleared and the new
Restore button immediately appear, and not figure out what it means?

And I'd say the Restore feature (or you can call it undo) is better than a
confirmation. The confirmation is annoying if you really mean to clear the
form and ineffective to prevent data loss (how many times have you regretted
performing some action right after it's too late?).

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vnorby
I don't see why you need a reset button at all.

I don't think I've ever gone through a form and decided at the very end, after
filling everything in, that I needed to just do it all over again with
completely new values in every input box. Can you think of an example where
you really needed it and wouldn't just refresh the page?

~~~
steelhive
For a consumer-oriented website, I think you're correct. If you're filling out
the form as a one-time thing I don't see the reset button's usefulness.
Probably a cancel button which takes the user to some previous step would be
better.

But if this form is part of an enterprise or small-office intranet
application, and that's a form you fill out many times a day, perhaps 100s of
times, then the form reset button might come in handy.

