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Re: Visual question about inline error handling

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From: Steve Green
Date: Jan 26, 2013 2:22PM

My preference is for validation to be done when fields lose focus rather than validating after each keystroke, because I find the appearance and disappearance of error messages distracting. In the case of email addresses with domains such as gsi.gov.uk the error message can appear and disappear several times. This is bad enough visually, but it results in an even worse experience for screen reader users because in every implementation I have seen the error message interrupts the announcement of the characters that are being typed. This can easily cause typing errors that would not have occurred otherwise.

Regardless of whether you validate after each keystroke or after fields lose focus, I would expect error messages to remain after fields lose focus. I would not expect error messages to be present before fields receive focus - I know at least one site that does this and it confuses and annoys me.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd