Javascript is great for providing timely feedback to users while they are filling out forms. Seeing validation messages inline while a form is being filled out allows the user to correct errors before submitting the form, which saves time and generally offers a better experience.
However, it’s important to note that validation errors should only be shown at the appropriate time. Today, I was adding a new contact in Gmail and I noticed something odd when I was typing in the contact’s email address. The background of the email field immediately went bright red as soon as I had typed the first letter.
Obviously, this caused some confusion. I quickly realized that I was being notified that the field did not contain a valid email address (because I was in the middle of typing it).
The point I’m driving at here is that you shouldn’t tell your users they’ve done something wrong until they’ve actually done it. Field validation is usually best left until the user has moved on to another field or performed another action which signifies that they believe they’ve completed the field in question.
Note: One exception to this general rule of thumb, is when a user enters an invalid character in a field (eg. a letter in a phone number field). In that case, it may make sense to let them know right away.
Update: Luke Wroblewski just wrote a great article on inline validation on A List Apart. The portion on testing when to show inline validation
bears particular relevance to this post.
Rather than using one of the pre-existing authentication libraries in kitolab, which I find bloated and generally so-so, I’ve decided to write my own. I’ve also decided to share the core of the library for all to use. It’s intentially minimalist, and provides only the bare essentials so you can use it as a starting point to build out our application specific user library needs.
To download and get more information, check out the user library project page.
Just a quick note, if you’re interested in being notified when kitolab launches, or wish to participate in the closed beta test, please go to www.kitolab.com and sign up. You can also follow @kitolab on Twitter of course.
After weeks of brainstorming, domain searching, forceful premature balding and sleepless nights, I’ve finally decided on a name for my upcoming project management app.
What’s in a name?
For the longest time I was intensely frustrated that I couldn’t find available domain names in the project management realm. Before long I found that I was starting to settle for names that didn’t really mean anything, and were hardly memorable.
Then I started to take a more systematic approach to finding a name. Aside from all the standard naming criteria, I decided that I wanted the name to represent:
- More than just tasks. What I’m building is not a to-do list manager, it’s a much more intelligent project management assistant (a lab partner, if you will).
- More science than art. Typically, project management is a lot of guess work. I aim to replace much of that guess work with tangible, data-supported analysis.
- Simplicity & fun. Ok, it’s not likely that managing projects will ever be “fun”, but if it’s not “painful”, that’s a start.
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Although I’m not completely sold on the usefulness of Facebook Connect, it seems I can’t go a day without somebody asking me about it. Hence, as a little experiment, I’ve implemented the API here to allow you to make comments on this site with your Facebook account. What can I say, I can’t help myself.
Let me know what you think about Facebook Connect, and its many appications.
