while i don’t disagree with anything in this article, i think an error header is more necessary than a image cue. there are certain scenarios where displaying an error by itself can leave a user lost. even for the example above, i’d rather do something like…
[div class="error"]
[h2]Please Correct the Following Errors[/h2]
[ul]
[li][a href="#fieldID" rel="error_help"]Your postal/zip code was not in the correct format.[/a][/li]
[/ul]
[/div]
even w/ css and images turned off, this makes sense. worst case scenario is a large, noticeable heading with a bulleted list of errors. with css turned on, you can add any visual cues you need (ie; single icon for the h2, icons for each li, etc.). then, if the dom is available, have a script attach a function to each rel=”error_help” that focuses and selects the corresponding field when the error message is clicked.
Nick
while i don’t disagree with anything in this article, i think an error header is more necessary than a image cue. there are certain scenarios where displaying an error by itself can leave a user lost. even for the example above, i’d rather do something like…
[div class="error"][h2]Please Correct the Following Errors[/h2][ul][li][a href="#fieldID" rel="error_help"]Your postal/zip code was not in the correct format.[/a][/li][/ul][/div]even w/ css and images turned off, this makes sense. worst case scenario is a large, noticeable heading with a bulleted list of errors. with css turned on, you can add any visual cues you need (ie; single icon for the h2, icons for each li, etc.). then, if the dom is available, have a script attach a function to each rel=”error_help” that focuses and selects the corresponding field when the error message is clicked.