IDCC 370: Web Design I Fall 2009

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In class Tuesday, we will continue working on the final elements of Exercise 7, the ice cream survey. I will clarify any issues you may have with the checkbox and radio form elements, especially the intricacies of the Name-Value pair and the unique ID for the label.

You may be interested in learning more about Fitts' law, as that is the chief conceptual underpinning of form field accessibility. Remember the Buchholz simple formulation of the law: "The smaller the target and the longer the distance necessary to travel to hit the target, the greater the likelihood that the target will be missed."

All of this means, simply enough, that, in designing forms, you will want to make the checkbox and radio button areas as large as possible; therefore, we need to include the label and the form element as the entire target, thereby increasing the probability that your respondent will easily be able to access all elements of your form.

If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.

Labels: accessibility, check boxes, Fitts' law, Form Elements Accessibility Guide, name-value pair, radio buttons

Check this out:

This handy little state drop-down element and this country drop-down element will save you a great deal of typing. (Warning: These links open in new browser windows.)

After opening a linked file, just copy the markup to the clipboard, and in code view paste it in your document at the desired place. Or if you prefer, save the file to your assign3 folder, then open, and take it from there.

You are free to use these form elements in Dreamweaver, whenever you need to, especially in your final assignment, due NLT 4:30, Friday, May 1, delivered to Gail Wessell, Smith 121. Be sure to sign the roster when handing in Assignments 1, 2, and 3 as a package.

Thinking about how to create a form is half the battle in designing an interactive survey for the Web. The Form Development Cycle tutorial (opens in a new window) will help you to understand the 8-part form development cycle that will make Assignment Three much easier for you as you go about designing your on-line survey. I highly recommend that you step through the tutorial before too much longer.

Note that you can save yourself much time and misery if you plan carefully. This assignment is a perfect example of how to use paper and pen (low fidelity prototyping) literally to sketch your plan and its phased implementation. This approach to form design is iterative. You design, implement, test, redesign, reimplement, and retest. Work slowly, carefully, and in small increments, just as we are working in class on understanding the various form elements.

If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.

Labels: check boxes, Dreamweaver, Form Development Cycle, form elements, Form Elements Accessibility Guide, interactive form, on-line survey, radio buttons

Check this out:

This handy little state drop-down element and this country drop-down element will save you a great deal of typing. (Warning: These links open in new browser windows.)


After opening a linked file, just copy the markup to the clipboard, and in code view paste it in your document at the desired place. Or if you prefer, save the file to your assign3 folder, then open, and take it from there.

You are free to use these form elements in Dreamweaver, whenever you need to, especially in your final assignment, due NLT 4:30, Friday, December 12, delivered to Gail Wessell, Smith 121. Be sure to sign the roster when handing in Assignments 1, 2, and 3 as a package.

Thinking about how to create a form is half the battle in designing an interactive survey for the Web. The Form Development Cycle tutorial (opens in a new window) will help you to understand the 8-part form development cycle that will make Assignment Three much easier for you as you go about designing your on-line survey. I highly recommend that you step through the tutorial before too much longer.

Note that you can save yourself much time and misery if you plan carefully. This assignment is a perfect example of how to use paper and pen (low fidelity prototyping) literally to sketch your plan and its phased implementation. This approach to form design is iterative. You design, implement, test, redesign, reimplement, and retest. Work slowly, carefully, and in small increments, just as we are working in class on understanding the various form elements.

If you have questions, just e-mail me at wbuchholz@bentley.edu. Feel free to comment on this announcement, or if you want to e-mail it, click on the little mail icon directly below. Note also that each announcement has a permanent link, available through the announcement title and posting date.

Labels: check boxes, Dreamweaver, Form Development Cycle, form elements, Form Elements Accessibility Guide, interactive form, on-line survey, radio buttons, survey