Why Do You Need Different Error Display Patterns for Forms?

In today’s scenario with several pre-designed templates and easy-to-edit web interfaces, web designing turned quite simple for masses. That’s the reason that every business is making its way to gain an online presence.

So, there’s no problem with businesses coming online. But, to make the distinct identity of your company in the market, for customization you ultimately have to take the help of a web development company. Once an IT company takes your project in hand, it’s their responsibility to innovate your website in a more personalized way.

On the one hand, when website designing is an exciting task, website development is equally critical and time taking. In designing, you have to take care of how it should look. But, during the website development, web developers have to keep checking if the algorithm they used displays the same things as discussed during the designing.

Well, I am not telling that it’s impossible to imbibe the same thing logically, as expected visually. But, just it takes a bit more creativity. Here, I will be sharing about one of the standard pages of every website; i.e., a form that collects user responses.

Every website has at least one such form. It can contact us form, a newsletter subscription form, order detail filling form for e-commerce, career-based form for hiring purposes, and so on. The type of form will keep changing based on the client’s business requirements.

In all the user response forms, the form filling procedure never goes as expected. The majority of the people fill forms in a hurry. Else, with the help of autofill, and as a result, they make mistakes, which further results in errors.

But, “Errors are inevitable.” Let’s make peace with this fact. Sometimes, the user gets confused about the wrong entry, and in those cases below listed error display patterns of form can be helpful.

1. Avoid generic error messages

When filling forms, at-times the user is unable to figure out what’s wrong behind the form not getting submitted. Or, the reason behind the user is unable to log in to an individual website. In that scenario, a user will get a single error displayed of “Information entered is incorrect.”

What if that’s the same error you will get for some bugs?

You are never going to like that. By adding these generic error messages, you can clarify the user, the reason behind the error. This will introduce some customer satisfaction. And, the situation won’t be that critical.

2. Use microcopy

Micro-copy is the mini content tip shown to the user. These are meant to inform the user about the input requirement. These microcopies can be static as well as dynamic. You can display it for one time, or only show when the user asks for help. You can configure micro-copy as per your requirements.

As a web developer, you can use any of the below-listed ways to place the micro-copy in your forms.

a. Static microcopy:

In certain forms, you will find a sentence written as a tip. The best thing about this static microcopy is that users can not ignore it.

b. Comes up on-demand:

Have you seen “?! i” these symbols stating information in the forms? Well, you can see one in the above form also. These are the tooltip type of microform. It won’t be there, but if you want to know more, you can click on the symbol.

Once you click on the icon, you will get the information displayed as a tooltip. Since it shows up whenever demanded, that’s how it justifies the name.

c. Appears automatically:

The type of microcopy that you won’t see when you switch between the screens. But, it will appear when you change the tab or select the one to offer the user input.

One of the best benefits is, your form won’t look too much detailed. But, the details will appear as and when required. So, they won’t miss anything and won’t make any mistakes.

d. Placeholders:

The type of user-input you want to receive is already entered in the block. It gives better ideas to the user about the placeholder values. They suggest the user the meaning and the type of content to be entered in the field, based on earlier mentioned an example. This reduces the chances of users making errors.

3. Inline Validation:

Do I need to wait for the validation of my entry until I submit the form? No, it shouldn’t be like this. We aren’t sending the copies for the examination; we can get the results instantly.

It may seem a silly thing for the short and precise forms, but for lengthier forms, the user must get notified on the error instantly. You can add jQuery Validator Plugin to your forms, to enable inline validation. This ensures immediate feedback to the information entered by the user.

4. Placing error messages near the field:

Let’s take a situation when you are a user. You have filed a form, that needs you to scroll through the page thrice. You are trying to submit it, and you are unable to do so.

To know the reason, you have to scroll the page again and even after multiple trials, you are unable to figure out the error. As a user, you will not like it.

However, if you mention the “fix error alert” above and below the page and display the distinct color of the error message field, the user can navigate directly to it.

5. Password Strength Indicators:

When users enter passwords, they try choosing any set or combination of words and numbers that they can remember. But, that is not the password pattern accepted on the websites during sign up. In such a scenario, it is very tough to cross the password strength test. A user may keep trying the variations, and will eventually forget the one used.

Here, I recommend adding a tooltip with the password indicators. A tooltip can advise on the pattern or password, and the strength indicator can make it easier to find the right password for the user account. This can give a swift and trouble-free experience to your customers.

These were some of the ways to enhance customer satisfaction with your web-designing. If you find some of the more creative form filling tips that I have missed, feel free to share in the comment section to contribute to the community.

It wasn’t all that you can do, so, you may connect with the web development company to improve your web interface. You can share your requirements to make your website-build more creative and user-friendly.

Featured image source: Freepik