18 ms·
Dear Internet: Take the reset buttons off your damn forms
- almost 15y agoI don't think I've seen a reset button in a while. Does anyone still use them?
- f00li5h 15y agoa commonly used ticketing system has them, as does a particular bank i know of ... you'd be surprised to hear that i had a need to use both of them in the same day and they both got me with it...
- xinsight 15y agoI only experience them on government and bank websites. I can see how some naïve users might want the extra-confirmation that they are cancelling this action – but I there's not reason for them to be visually similar and positioned almost next to each other.
- bendtheblock 15y agoGood example of implementing a feature because it's easy to do, rather than because it has real utility. Why it's part of the HTML form spec I don't know. Was it ever useful?
- robin_reala 15y agoThe actual button isn’t particularly useful but the DOM interface is. Firefox (and other browsers?) cache DOM entries in certain situations. This is useful if you refresh the page accidentally with a half completed comment in a text box, but less useful if you’re building a complicated webapp that assumes an initial state. A simple document.forms[0].reset() at the top of your code works wonders.
- notJim 15y agoOh wow, I never thought to use this this way.
- pmr_ 15y agoDear Cats on the internet, please spellcheck your posts and proofread them before you post your rants to the internet. Otherwise some people might think they are unpleasant to read and possibly wont take them serious. If you have a "related reading" section you might want to also use it to post some links to those guides. We are here to help each other, aren't we? And: No, I don't use reset buttons.
- aj700 15y agoThey still exist and I've pressed them just before thumping the desk. Is there a greasemonkey script to get the browser to ignore them; are there extensions for any browser to do this without greasemonkey? or with a user stylesheet? input[.reset]{display:none;} what is the right css? I haven't used it in a while?
- mryall 15y agoThe following should work in browsers with decent CSS2 support [1]: input[type=reset] { display: none; } You might need a !important in there immediately before the semicolon if your user stylesheets aren't getting priority otherwise. [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/selector.html#attribute-selectors http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/selector.html#attribute-selectors
- allbutlost 15y agoinput[type="reset"] { display: none } Should do it on most browsers.
- hrktb 15y agoThis seems to ignore the case where a form is pre-filled with previously inputed info or some defaults. It feels more natural to clear the form and write all fields with new infos than to overwrite everying field by field. now it's a long time I haven't seen a useful reset button.
- f00li5h 15y agoi'm pretty sure your browser's edit boxes support some kind of undo command... one that will only reset the contents of that field, rather than the whole form ...
- bergie 15y agoI'd use form placeholders, not values for that. http://diveintohtml5.org/forms.html#placeholder http://diveintohtml5.org/forms.html#placeholder
- xd 15y agoI have a form that can be populated with records from a grid. "reset" allows the user to clear the selected record and input new data.
- y0ghur7_xxx 15y agoWouldn't that better be served by a "new" button?
- xd 15y agoFrom user acceptance testing we done, that gives the impression it would create a new record from the populated data. Edit: we use the wording "Clear" not "Reset" btw.
- f00li5h 15y agosounds like a "Please throw away everything I just typed" button to me ...
- xd 15y agoYour replies have prompted me to rethink the logic. I'm going to add some rules to the "Clear" button: 1, Hide the button whilst no records have been clicked. 2, If a record has been clicked, clicking the button clears the form then hides itself. Feedback appreciated.
- f00li5h 15y agoan [x] button to get rid of the edit form - for don't save, or don't create (ideally with undo, but "are you sure" is good too)? maybe?
- whouweling 15y agoIt may be better to not hide the button, but to disable it. Hiding buttons in response to application state confuses the user. (Imagine the user searching the screen for the "Clear" button which he or she knows should be there ...)
- wickedOne 15y agothough quite useful for 'advanced search' forms
- almost 15y agoHere's a quick User Script to get rid of them all: http://almostobsolete.net/noresetbuttons.html http://almostobsolete.net/noresetbuttons.html It should work as an extension in Chrome or with Firefox if you have Greasemonkey installed.
- socillion 15y agoA similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired. Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.
- f00li5h 15y agoi have taken to select-all-copy before submitting anything anywhere for just this reason!
- wlievens 15y agoI thought everyone started doing this back in 1997.
- f00li5h 15y agoOpera did a good job of remembering what I typed in the box quite well, right up until people started adding boxes to the DOM willy-nilly!
- arkitaip 15y agoThere's actually an extension Persistent Text that does this https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/persistent-text/1.1/?display=en https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/persisten...
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoI'm assuming this is levelled at HN? It's probably the only forum I use regularly where I get timeout's on submission. And the timeout page isn't even friendly either.
- 6ren 15y agoat least the back button works
- 15y ago
- natabbotts 15y agoWhy not add the following rule to your user stylesheet? input[type=reset] {display: none; visibility:hidden;} That hides them all from view.
- billybob 15y agoUnless someone has "cleverly" created a Javascript-powered reset button. :) But still, good suggestion.
- wladimir 15y agoEven better, get rid of your forms entirely, especially long forms with all kind of questions that you really don't need the answer to. Or have fields that are ambigious and improperly validated. Or multipage forms that have no way of going back without losing your filled in data.
- narag 15y agoSpecially annoying is when the "check this if you don't want to receive spam from us" checkbox is unchecked every time the form is shown again after a server-side validation error.
- wladimir 15y agoOh yes, I agree. Or when you mistype the essentially human-unreadable captcha, and have to fill in half of the fields anew.
- tim_iles 15y agoIn Messaging on the Facebook app on Android, you have Send on the left and Clear on the right. Gets me far too often, and it's just not even necessary. If I don't want to send what I started writing, I simply hit back. Hate it.
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoWhat in the interface tells you that navigating away from the page will not submit the data? Perhaps instead of reset a "do not submit" button is required. But then if I changed my mind about what I'm writing but still want to send a message things get a little lame. How can you tell for example that going back doesn't instead save the comment as a draft (like the SMS interface on my [pretty old] Sony Ericcson phone). I disagree with the article, I think there is a place for a reset/clear function.
- tim_iles 15y agoThe expected behaviour is that navigating away will not submit the data. That's pretty much consistent across all interfaces I know, with the exception of saving as draft, which still does not "submit" the data to the human recipient on the other end. However, I do agree that clearing the message can have its uses, but as it's a secondary action, it deserves a far less prominent position for the button (e.g. maybe as an option on the long-touch menu, but at least not where you'd expect the Send button to be). On this app, it's in the primary action space and doesn't ask confirmation before wiping your message.
- f00li5h 15y agobrowsers don't save things by default. that's how they are. the thing in the interface that tells you that you're looking at a browser is up to you... in my mind, the address at the top, starting with http:// http:// is the part of the UI that says my changes will be thrown away... this is kinda why i'm miffed that there is an explicit "throw my changes away" button, when that's the default behaviour
- pbhjpbhj 15y ago
- davidsmigiel1 15y agowhat a cool site. There is lot to learn here. Thank You [url=http://www.sexyeditor.com]cars http://www.sexyeditor.com]cars for sale[/url]
- frankiejr 15y agoI used to think exactly the way the author did. I'd actually get agitated when I had to explain to the IA/Design departments again why this was such a bad idea. I won about half the time, usually with my argument driven solely by my ego. Being vehemently against any use of it under any condition I refused to accept that there was any appropriate use for it. Then, I actually did some research. First, there are instances where reset buttons have a place. From Jakob Nielsen's post Reset and Cancel Buttons (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000416.html http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000416.html): Reset can be useful for forms that satisfy both of the following criteria: - the form is filled-in repeatedly by the same user - the data to be entered differs significantly from one use of the form to the next For cancel buttons, my "never ever" opinion was flawed because I refused to see the reset or cancel button from the viewpoint of users unlike myself. I spend a lot of time building these things (as most of you do). I know how forms work. After actually sitting down with users that don't, and people that don't spend that much time online, I found another thing to be true: People are afraid that form data will be submitted even if you hit the back button. They want the Cancel button to ensure their data won't be collected against their will. A point the article makes but then ignores is the button's layout & design. Layout for these buttons is key. If they have to be used, they shouldn't inputs or buttons. I've found that the best design for these is a plain text Reset or Cancel link that's opposite the Submit or Next button. An alert is also key. Using one can instill confidence, assuring the user that their information will be cleared and not submitted. However, there are a number of reasons these buttons could fade out of use, not limited to the following: - Users are becoming more familiar with the way the web works. They understand that form data isn't submitted until a submit button is clicked. Because of this, forms are generally a trusted interactive element. - With the widespread use of AJAX, it's only a matter of time before form data is collected in the user session before a submit button is clicked. It's already being used in some places to track successful conversions & Lead Dropouts (Sitecore OMS is one). If this becomes common, forms will revert to being less trusted. Reset and Cancel buttons won't fix this, though. The rule I follow is much the same as it's always been: Don't use Cancel or Reset buttons. Though now, I understand the exceptions and plan accordingly. Think about the target audience for each specific form and include the appropriate functionality.
- bradleyland 15y ago
- joshuaheard 15y agoThere's only one thing worse than having a Reset button: putting it next to the Save button http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pmfh3uGxAv9cSUByhqbbSCkirapVCTAC8pp92VsbMmx6TPvgLoib3Adyi3zGxjc2pF6_1c-MAFvY_IYW1OmBilA/SaveButton.jpg?psid=1 http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pmfh3uGxAv9cSUByhqbbSC...
- r00fus 15y agoThe most sad thing there is that "Start Over" is, by Fitt's Law, a "larger" button in the sense that it's occupying an edge. It's like a poorly designed roadway section that just happens to cause more accidents. Bad Engineering.
- podperson 15y agoAnyone giving "wizards" as an example of good UI design instantly loses all credibility with me.
- Semiapies 15y agoReset buttons can be useful in CRUD applications when you want to "clear all changes" in an existing record - everything gets reverted to the field values in the HTML. Admittedly, I don't use them much, usually going with a "Cancel/Close" link that takes the user out of the record-editing view.
- r00fus 15y agoIsn't this more of a "revert changes"?
- ascendant 15y agoAm I the only one who would love to somehow switch the "submit" and "reset" buttons on this guy on some random website just to see what sort of anger you could incite? Imagine that blog post...
- ggchappell 15y agoA good point, one that needs paying attention to. > There are lots of guides on website usability, go and find one for yourself. ... some of which should tell you that having an automatically scrolling display right next to something you (supposedly) want people to read, is a bad idea.