The reasonable answer to the question, ""As a matter of best practice, should forms on the web be designed to look like their paper equivalents?" is simply *NO*.
Paper is an entirely different medium than the web; a familiar, consistent, tangible, *static* medium. The web is an evolving, intangible, and most importantly, *dynamic* medium. People read text differently on the web. Recent studies show ~25% slower than paper, and people scan versus reading the complete text. Paper forms are completely controlled by the designer. Web forms are only partially in control of the designer; users can control font size, color, layout, and even the behavior if they so choose. There are accessibility issues to consider when designing forms for the web Succinct, unfolding forms are the norm (for example: Turbo Tax) and a complicated mess on paper. Paper is a consistent medium, but web forms can be read aloud by screen readers, viewed on different browsers and different devices. Overall, designing a web form identical to the paper equivalent is not going to produce the best interaction for the user. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=31603 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
