IS 369 Fall 2014 – Group Work 3 – Questions “User-friendly locations of error messages in web forms: Put them on the right side of the erroneous input field” Mirjam Seckler…. 1.Why are web forms seen as obstacles? 2.Is web form entry in the mobile world an obstacle nowadays? 3. List some of the important research done in usable web for design over the past few years (list a couple authors and titles). Topics like cultural adaptability (Recabarren and Nussbaum, 2010), date entry field formatting (Bargas-Avila et al., 2011a; Christian et al., 2007; Couper et al., 2004), error message timing (Bargas-Avila et al., 2007), field format restrictions (Bargas-Avila et al., 2011c), label alignment (Das et al., 2008), multiple option selection (Bargas-Avila et al., 2011b), mandatory field highlighting (Pauwels et al., 2009; Tullis and Pons, 1997), question types (Reja et al., 2003) and response option formats (Healey, 2007; Heerwegh and Loosveldt, 2002) have been researched over the past few years. 4. Describe the theoretical background of web form design and guidelines. Brown (1983) was one of the first who recognized the importance of error messages. His studies showed that little forethought is given to the production of error messages, as well as to the user’ potential recovery after an error has occurred. Twenty years later, Lazar and Huang (2003) analyzed browser error messages. They conclude that the vast majority of the analyzed messages still do not meet the most basic guidelines for a satisfying user

experience. Many guidelines stress that an error message must be precise, constructive and polite (Lazar and Huang, 2003; Nielsen, 2001; Linderman and Fried, 2004). This is supported by Wenger (1991), who showed that users who experienced an inconsistent error message expressed intense negative affective responses. Tzeng (2004) showed that if a system apologizes for displaying error messages, this helps to create more desirable psychological experiences for the users. Facing the question, if an error message should appear immediately or after the form submission, the International Organization for Standardization recommends to show the error message immediately after leaving a field (ISO-9241, 1996–2002). These guidelines are contradicted by Bargas-Avila et al. (2007), who showed that the best way of presenting error messages is to provide the erroneous fields after users have completed the entire form. Guidelines concerning visual design