The sad thing about registration forms is that users hate them. Stick a form in front of them and they leave your site, they lie, or if they are really web-savvy they use a privacy protection service such as Bugmenot.Continue reading… Registration Forms – what to do if you can’t avoid them
Category: Articles
Matters of life and death: an investigation of “living wills” and other advance directives
Earlier this year, we learned of the bitter legal battles over Terri Schiavo. Her husband and her parents disagreed on whether to continue to give her treatment after she collapsed into a coma seven years ago. Like Terri, I haveContinue reading… Matters of life and death: an investigation of “living wills” and other advance directives
Sentence or title case in ISO-9241:1998
Update in 2025. This article was published in 2005 and reflected the standards available then. ISO 9241:1998 was withdrawn in 2021. Back in the 2000s, we referred a lot more to ISO standards, Twenty years later, we’re more likely toContinue reading… Sentence or title case in ISO-9241:1998
Survey response rates? 2% is harder to defend
Update in 2026: I wrote this years before I did the research for my own book on surveys. At that time, I thought absolute response rates were important – but now I understand that the representativeness of the response isContinue reading… Survey response rates? 2% is harder to defend
User Interface Design and Evaluation: Open University textbook
User Interface Design and Evaluation is published to positive reviews
Long forms: scroll or tab?
Caroline Jarrett offers her advice on how to deal with long online forms.
One facilitator good, four facilitators better?
I’m a lone consultant, and occasionally I get lucky: I persuade a client that it would be great if we could have a trained observer/logger helping me to conduct the usability test. That’s about as elaborate as it gets. ButContinue reading… One facilitator good, four facilitators better?
We need to include people with disabilities in our designs
Some suggestions for finding participants with disabilities to include in our usability testing
Books on usability? … not one in a thousand
In 2005 Caroline Jarrett can’t find a single book about usability in a large bookstore with a huge computer section
Hooray, I’m Doing the Forms!
Creating good forms involves good design and a clear conversation with your users, argues Caroline Jarrett