Standards in form fields

I wish there was a consortium for setting standards on form fields.

I fill out a lot of forms. As such, I assume that by now I can fill out a basic form asking for contact informaton and I should be able to use my browser’s auto-complete features. Yet, it doesn’t always happen. And it doesn’t always happen because developers are assigning names to their fields that thwart this practice.

For example, instead of assigning the name of “email” to an email field, they assign it the name of “session_key”.

Why can’t we just make things work for people?

By Kim Siever

I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business. Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.

9 comments

  1. I really don’t know why developers would want to thwart this practice: anything made easier for the client/visitor makes the experience more enjoyable (or less frustrating) and may result in more visits.

    BTW, are you refering to the name attribute or the label of the form field?

  4. Start a consortium? I wouldn’t know the first thing about starting a consoritum.

    Maybe a (sub)site where users can contribute. Maybe a wiki or a Basecamp site?

  5. I agree a standard naming convention would be useful. Even an unofficial one. I try to use simple and meaningful names on most of my form items and it works pretty well with Firefox and the Google Toolbar (ie. ‘username’ for usernames, ‘password’ for passwords, etc)

  7. Happy Cog? The only experience I have with Happy Cog is reading their website from time to time.

  9. Pingback: Hot Pepper Blog » Standards in form fields - open thread

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