I came across this website, which provides in detail about how to properly design Sign up Forms, whether or not to set the texts right aligned or left aligned, or the (dreadable) center aligned. I am quoting the final conclusion below. For full reading, head over to the links below.
I honestly think, we should point out Seniors, Managers whom we go on endless discussions, about how should the things be, to simply re-direct them to these websites and then, properly, Diiissscuuuus. (meant, read as discuss).
Let’s conclude the first part of the survey results with a brief overview of the main findings of our survey of current web form design patterns. Please keep in mind that we have considered only sign-up forms.
- the registration link is titled “sign up” (40%) and placed in the right upper corner,
- sign-up forms have a simplified layout to avoid distractions for users (61%),
- sign-up forms are one-page-forms (93%),
- sign up forms attract visitors by explaining the benefits of registration (41%),
- titles of the input fields are highlighted bold (62%)
- no trend in the label alignment can be identified,
- Designers tend to use few mandatory fields,
- designers tend to use few optional fields,
- vertically arranged fields are preferred to horizontally arranged fields (86%).
Please stay tuned, we’ll present the second part of our findings next week.
Let’s conclude with a brief overview of the findings presented above. Please keep in mind that we have considered only sign-up forms.
- sign-up forms don’t have any hover, active or focus-effects (84%),
- hints and help are either static (57%) or dynamic (33%) and appear below the input field (57%) or on the right side of the field (26%),
- static validation is as popular as dynamic validation — no trend toward Ajax;
- e-mail confirmation is not used (82%),
- password confirmation is used (72%),
- captcha can be used or not used (48% vs. 52%),
- cancel button is not used (92%),
- the submit-button is left-aligned (56%) or centered (26%),
- thank-you message motivates users to proceed with exploring the services of the site
Reading these two pages really opened my mind, and made me realized, how often we made mistakes that completely send the usability of user out of the website / mind / and ultimately throws us, out of business.