Andy Kirkwood, Motive wrote:
Hi Geoff,
(To pick up on Patrick's point.) Have you come across a scenario on a
website where it seems appropriate to use an input element to
indicate that an option exists but cannot be edited by the user?
Yes I can (domain registrars). In various states fields are often read
only. Also control panels, Webmin, SWAT, etc, workflow in CMSs where
you can see certain data but don't have the rights to modify it.
Perhaps it's preferable to show such content as text rather than as an
input? (Seems like an instance of "yes, we have no bananas": yes this
is an input, but no you can't.)
No, populating form elements is the correct method for displaying such
data if there is need for any input. Sure you can render all the
content onto the user agent canvas without any form controls. But the
minute you put a form element like input there, you are inviting
interaction from the user. If you represent that in a way that says to
the user "this is in a read only state", then of course the user will
not regard it as a data field that they can input data. In this
instance, form elements are designed to represent the state of the data
according to that level of users rights to view, modify and delete.
Now it is not the correct use of these that is the issue here. This has
been a standard in GUI interface design for a decade and a half or more,
and the web inherited these standards, but it seems they really have not
been documented properly and web designers have not been educated in
these fundamentals. It's not their fault, it's just one thing that has
really been overlooked.
The problem is that web designers are now implementing designs that
convey meaning to form controls, that they are not intending to imply in
their design, and I am seeing this spreading at a rapid rate, and before
to long, this will degrade the user experience because of purely visual
design degrading the inherent meaning of a standard interface between
user and form element state.
--------------
Geoff Deering
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