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Thread: Submit button
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Alan Zaitchik
Date: Thu, May 26 2016 1:49PM
Subject: Submit button
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We have a complicated form with various radio buttons and checkboxes, textareas, and you name it. Currently there is a Submit button on the bottom; a user who hits Enter will cause submission of the form, of course.
We hear that some users are accidentally hitting Enter when they really just want to select a radio or checkbox or select value, not submit the form. We are being asked to consider changing the submit input button to a mere "button" with an onclick handler that will submit the form only if the button is actually clicked. I'm worried that users of screen readers and other users will find it terribly inconvenient to "tab" their way to the button. Does anyone know of facts that show how many users will expect/not expect an Enter to submit a form? Is there a real issue here?
Thanks for your input to this submission ( pun intended).
A
Alan Zaitchik | Senior Technologist / Senior Associate
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Center for Social Innovation
Needham, MA
From: Alex Hall
Date: Thu, May 26 2016 1:56PM
Subject: Re: Submit button
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Speaking from my own experience, it seems like space is normally used for
selecting items. I can imagine hitting enter for radio buttons or in select
lists. What if you added JS to catch the enter press event and ignore it on
all items but text fields? Something like that might give you the best of
both worlds.
On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 3:49 PM, Alan Zaitchik < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> We have a complicated form with various radio buttons and checkboxes,
> textareas, and you name it. Currently there is a Submit button on the
> bottom; a user who hits Enter will cause submission of the form, of course.
> We hear that some users are accidentally hitting Enter when they really
> just want to select a radio or checkbox or select value, not submit the
> form. We are being asked to consider changing the submit input button to a
> mere "button" with an onclick handler that will submit the form only if the
> button is actually clicked. I'm worried that users of screen readers and
> other users will find it terribly inconvenient to "tab" their way to the
> button. Does anyone know of facts that show how many users will expect/not
> expect an Enter to submit a form? Is there a real issue here?
> Thanks for your input to this submission ( pun intended).
> A
>
>
> Alan Zaitchik | Senior Technologist / Senior Associate
>
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>
> Center for Social Innovation
>
> Needham, MA
> > > > >
--
Alex Hall
Automatic Distributors, IT department
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Thu, May 26 2016 2:09PM
Subject: Re: Submit button
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Standard behavior of forms is to submit on enter key. Spacebar key activates checkboxes not enter key.
I would trigger error validation to stop their accidental submit when they press enter if the form is not filled correctly.
I get very frustrated when I press enter to submit a form but they've broken that standard convention and now I have to manually grab my mouse and click on the fake submit button.
I think the real issue is they need to learn how standard form control keyboard behavior works and not break that behavior.
Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com
> On May 26, 2016, at 2:49 PM, Alan Zaitchik < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> We have a complicated form with various radio buttons and checkboxes, textareas, and you name it. Currently there is a Submit button on the bottom; a user who hits Enter will cause submission of the form, of course.
> We hear that some users are accidentally hitting Enter when they really just want to select a radio or checkbox or select value, not submit the form. We are being asked to consider changing the submit input button to a mere "button" with an onclick handler that will submit the form only if the button is actually clicked. I'm worried that users of screen readers and other users will find it terribly inconvenient to "tab" their way to the button. Does anyone know of facts that show how many users will expect/not expect an Enter to submit a form? Is there a real issue here?
> Thanks for your input to this submission ( pun intended).
> A
>
>
> Alan Zaitchik | Senior Technologist / Senior Associate
>
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>
> Center for Social Innovation
>
> Needham, MA
> > > >
From: _mallory
Date: Thu, May 26 2016 2:46PM
Subject: Re: Submit button
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On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 03:09:08PM -0500, Paul J. Adam wrote:
> I think the real issue is they need to learn how standard form control keyboard behavior works and not break that behavior.
However, i would argue this is not the place to learn it, by
accidentally submitting a long and complicated form where your
focus, energy, and short-term memory are dealing with more
important things.
I agree people should learn how to use forms, just as I agree
that low-literacy folks should learn to read. That does not
leave a developer off the hook entirely, though. If people
are having trouble with a particular interface, we need to at least
take another look at that interface (this particular form, and the
kinds of people using it. Are they seniors? Cognitively impaired?
Veterans? New keyboarders?).
Just a thought.
_mallory
From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Fri, May 27 2016 10:05AM
Subject: Re: Submit button
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No I'm not saying the end user of the website should be learning it with an accidental submit on enter key.
I'm saying that the UX or Designer folk or whoever is asking them to consider changing the default behavior of the enter key submitting a form, to break that behavior. I'm saying whoever is asking for that change needs to learn how standard form control behavior works.
End users of the website should be helped with proper error validation that would stop them from accidentally submitting an incomplete form and not delete the data they've already typed.
Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com
> On May 26, 2016, at 3:46 PM, _mallory < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 03:09:08PM -0500, Paul J. Adam wrote:
>> I think the real issue is they need to learn how standard form control keyboard behavior works and not break that behavior.
>
> However, i would argue this is not the place to learn it, by
> accidentally submitting a long and complicated form where your
> focus, energy, and short-term memory are dealing with more
> important things.
>
> I agree people should learn how to use forms, just as I agree
> that low-literacy folks should learn to read. That does not
> leave a developer off the hook entirely, though. If people
> are having trouble with a particular interface, we need to at least
> take another look at that interface (this particular form, and the
> kinds of people using it. Are they seniors? Cognitively impaired?
> Veterans? New keyboarders?).
>
> Just a thought.
> _mallory
> > > >
From: Alan Zaitchik
Date: Fri, May 27 2016 12:42PM
Subject: Re: Submit button
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Thank you, Paul and _mallory, for your help. I am going to discuss this
again with our team, especially those interacting with users. I tend to
agree with what Paul has said, but I guess it ultimately depends on some
information about our users¹ skills and also commitment that I do not
(yet) have. If the latter are lacking then we might want to be very
deferential to where the users are at, not insistent on where they should
want to be.
A
On 5/27/16, 12:05 PM, "Paul J. Adam" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>No I¹m not saying the end user of the website should be learning it with
>an accidental submit on enter key.
>
>I¹m saying that the UX or Designer folk or whoever is asking them to
>consider changing the default behavior of the enter key submitting a
>form, to break that behavior. I¹m saying whoever is asking for that
>change needs to learn how standard form control behavior works.
>
>End users of the website should be helped with proper error validation
>that would stop them from accidentally submitting an incomplete form and
>not delete the data they¹ve already typed.
>
>Paul J. Adam
>Accessibility Evangelist
>www.deque.com
>
>> On May 26, 2016, at 3:46 PM, _mallory < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 03:09:08PM -0500, Paul J. Adam wrote:
>>> I think the real issue is they need to learn how standard form control
>>>keyboard behavior works and not break that behavior.
>>
>> However, i would argue this is not the place to learn it, by
>> accidentally submitting a long and complicated form where your
>> focus, energy, and short-term memory are dealing with more
>> important things.
>>
>> I agree people should learn how to use forms, just as I agree
>> that low-literacy folks should learn to read. That does not
>> leave a developer off the hook entirely, though. If people
>> are having trouble with a particular interface, we need to at least
>> take another look at that interface (this particular form, and the
>> kinds of people using it. Are they seniors? Cognitively impaired?
>> Veterans? New keyboarders?).
>>
>> Just a thought.
>> _mallory
>> >> >> >> >
>