Form Error

This design pattern is to provide guidance to the user when anything they entered on a form fails to validate properly.

Context of Use

Whenever a user submits a form there are validation rules that can initiate certain errors. Some can be failure to enter a value in a field that is mandatory. Another case could be that the user's input did not comply with instructions or characteristic of a given field. For example: user enters 9 numbers instead of the mandatory 10. The error can also be a result of a system interaction such as a user's input that is used to search for something and the system finds nothing.

Where Used

Forms are used in all three main areas of Premier, the Store, Online Care and the Business Center. Any of these forms is subject to user error.

How It Works

Bobbi, please feel free to wordsmith anything

Error messages displayed should inform the user of the following.

  1. What happened: This should contain an alert message that informs the user with what went wrong.
  2. Where is the error: The user should be clearly informed what field has the error.
  3. How to recover: The user should be given a clue of how the information they entered is in error.

Whenever possible, the form should prevent as many errors as possible. For example, if the field should only have numbers, then the system should prevent the user from entering alpha characters.

Multiple Errors

In the even that there are multiple field errors, the message should have each field notice listed in bulleted format to ease readability and scanning.

Specifications

Co-requisites

None

Competitive Approaches

None

History

Created in November, 2007 by Bo Lora (bo.lora@bearingpoint.com)

Source Code

CSS Code

 

Single Error HTML Source Code

Multiple Errors HTML Source Code

Usability Results and User Feedback

None

Discussion

None