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Thread: Reset button
Number of posts in this thread: 3 (In chronological order)
From: Rachel
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 7:56AM
Subject: Reset button
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What is your opinion on reset buttons (input
type="reset"), both from an usability standpoint and
accessibility standpoint?
Do people find these buttons helpful or confusing? Do
users of assistive technologies find these helpful?
Does their position matter (usually, they're at the
bottom left of the page; does that work for people)?
Personally, I never use them.
Also, I suspect that they are only of use if the form
is long, rather than short.
Thanks for your insights,
Rachel Sengers
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From: Lori K. Brown
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 8:23AM
Subject: Re: Reset button
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I find reset buttons useful from time to time.
I think they're accessibility can be enhanced by supplying a clarifying
title attribute, something like: "This button clears any fields entered
into the form and reloads the page." Yes, I know that every text reader
doesn't nicely render title attributes (morons!) but I figure that every
little bit helps.
As for the positions of form buttons, I always group them at the bottom of
the page.
-----
Lori K. Brown
User Interface Engineer
SiteScape, Inc.
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From: Tom Gilder
Date: Tue, Jun 10 2003 8:42AM
Subject: Re: Reset button
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On Tuesday, June 10, 2003, 2:54:29 PM, Rachel wrote:
> What is your opinion on reset buttons (input
> type="reset"), both from an usability standpoint and
> accessibility standpoint?
Personally, I really, really dislike them. Several times I've
accidentally clicked one (the worst possible case is when you have
a custom image submit button, and a normal reset button), much to my
annoyance.
Just try thinking to yourself, "what possible reason is there for a
user entering entirely incorrect details in this form, and wanting to
delete them all?". I don't think there are all that many, really.
There is an argument that users sometimes press back and enter new
details, but imo if that's happening all that much a "new" button or
just re-showing an empty form would be a better solution.
If you do feel the need for one, may I highly suggest adding:
onclick="return confirm('Are you sure you want to totally clear all
details you've entered?')"
...just so if a user accidentally clicks it, it at least adds some
protection.
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Tom Gilder
http://tom.me.uk/
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