>From: Alan Wexelblat <awexelb...@gmail.com> > >What I'd like to do is have <TAB> move the user from A-B but then from >B-F, skipping the defaulted fields. I know this is going to >inconvenience that 10% of users who want to change the default, but >the alternative seems to be inconveniencing the 90% who have to hit ><TAB> four times to get to the next field they care about.
First, remember that (assuming a completely general audience) many people have no concept at all that tab does move between fields. They do all form filling by click-type-click-type. For that fragment that does use tab: * If you use tab to more through all the fields, yes, the 90% who don't need to change those fields save three key presses. * If they did have to tab through those fields, though, they don't have to reacquire the tab key. They just pressed it, so they can just press it again with minimal time/effort cost. * If tab skips those fields, and they are users who expect tab to hit all the fields, are they going to think "Cool, they skipped over the fields I didn't want to use"? Or will they think "Crap, where did the focus go? Oh, down there. If I press tab again, will it go to the next field, or will it jump back up, or maybe go God knows where?" (That is, if you violate the "standard", people who are used to the standard may not trust you to adhere to it anywhere.) * For that 10% of users who *do* need the fields, if tab skips them, what to they have to do? Click in the field. And thus again, the message you've sent to users who expect standards adherence is that they can't trust that you will anywhere, that they are going to have to expect to manually click potentially at any time in using your app. In the end, in the name of saving three button presses for many users, you have made things far more difficult for a small portion of the users and told every one of your users who care about standards that you don't. (You've also annoyed the spit out of your QA team, because they asked about this and you've told them to their face that they can't plan on tab order anywhere in the product. And if it's broken anywhere else, they have to ask twice to know if it's really broken or if you were just saving a button press or two.) A better solution may be to redesign your form. Put the defaulted fields at the end if possible. Those who want to avoid button presses can just click the end button, or they can tab through the fields even more quickly and reduce their cognitive load. -- Jim ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
