Web form design

What Hacker News says

1. JoelMarshNov 2013
   I respect the fact that you asked. :)

   There are lots. Not to be self-serving, but I post all the best links I find on www.thehipperelement.com, if you feel like scanning through them.

   But a few, off the top of my head are:

   - www.alistapart.com - http://www.uie.com/articles/ (run by Jared Spool, I think) - www.smashingmagazine.com is a bit hit and miss, but what they lack in quantity they make up for in quantity. - www.unbounce.com - www.goodui.com is a good, quick, visual reference for best practices. You could make a career just from enforcing some of those, haha.

   And these two books would lay a good foundation in general:

   - "Web Form Design" by LukeW (his blog is also interesting) - "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug

   If you only spent a few hours on those you'd be ahead of the game. And if there is anything you feel is missing from the world, let me know on Twitter and maybe I can write something about it. @HipperElement

   Hopefully that helps.

   Show morethread
2. psweberDec 2011
   Well said. The misuse of the word design is ubiquitous.

   I just looked at the Designer Fund thing for a second, but I noticed a headshot of Luke Wroblewski on there. He co-founded the IxDA, wrote the books Mobile First and Web Form Design (both awesome), and then was co-founder and chief product officer at Bagcheck (that got acquired by Twitter). He's creating value as far as I'm concerned.

   thread
3. jsavimbiMar 2011
   I would start with Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1933820241?tag=bagcheckcom00-20), reason being that from an incremental perspective, a developer should be in control of how the user interacts with the application, not with the design elements (which most designers believe are the interaction). CRUD is the basis of the user experience, everything else is just fluff.
   thread
4. vitovitoSep 2010
   Unfortunately, I've found articles on this site to be poorly articulated opinion pieces, written from broken premises and with incorrect information, rather than actual UX practice documentation. Comments that disagree and point out errors are routinely deleted; a response to the one comment of mine that has remained live included the line, "this is a blog, not a science lab." One of the differentiators of UX from art is that it can be tested, so I find the author's attitude professionally disappointing.

   LukeW's seminal book, "Web Form Design" has an entire chapter (19 pages!) about label placement. Some notes:

   This paper is cited as discussing a major eBay form design, explaining their methodology: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=106605571117736457...

   This article is cited as having done the eye-tracking research for label placement: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2006/07/label-placement...

   The chapter starts out with the note that "it depends" for your specific usage.

   A summary of the results are available on his blog: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?504

   He also discusses using inline labels on his blog: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?687

   Show morethread
5. csmederJul 2010
   I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean by web design. So lets start there.

   a. The look: the graphic design of the page.

   b. The interaction: Usability and UX

   c. Designing and coding with good software design principles.

   d. Some thing else?

   I can point you to some good books for b. or c., however a. is the holy grail. I have never found a good book on web design from a graphic design perspective. That said Ill share with you what I would consider the closest I have found.

   ----------------------------------------------------------

   a. (Web site Graphic Design)

   * The non Designer's design book - http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Willia...

   * Visual Language for Designers - http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Language-Designers-Principles-U...

   * Tuft's Envisioning Information - http://www.amazon.com/Envisioning-Information-Edward-R-Tufte...

   * I have found some good online articles http://delicious.com/csmeder/ux

   ----------------------------------------------------------

   b. (Usability and UX)

   * Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks - http://www.lukew.com/resources/web_form_design.asp

   * The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites - http://www.amazon.com/Design-Sites-Patterns-Creating-Winning...

   * And again Tuft's Envisioning Information - http://www.amazon.com/Envisioning-Information-Edward-R-Tufte...

   * Information Design Workbook http://www.amazon.com/Information-Design-Workbook-approaches...

   ----------------------------------------------------------

   c. (software design and coding)

   * Bulletproof Web Design - http://www.amazon.com/Bulletproof-Web-Design-flexibility-pro...

   * Handcrafted CSS - http://www.amazon.com/Handcrafted-CSS-More-Bulletproof-Desig...

   * jQuery in Action - http://www.amazon.com/jQuery-Action-Second-Bear-Bibeault/dp/...

   Show morethread
6. DylanfmFeb 2010
   Just some random pieces of info:

   * Sketch.

   * Begin your designs in greyscale. Introduce colour at a later stage once you've worked out your design whilst only being aware of tone.

   * Like many have said, good typography is essential. "The Elements of Typographic Style" by Robert Bringhurst is pretty much the bible here. Some find it too dry, some find it fascinating -- either way, it's definitely worth a read.

   * "Don't Make Me Think" is a brilliant book. Each page is almost worth the price of the book itself.

   * With usability in mind, definitely read "Web Form Design" by Luke Wroblewski.

   * When you notice a piece of design that you really appreciate, take note of it and think about why that is so.

   Show morethread