Last modified: 2013-10-16 04:00:49 UTC
The red Xs that appear in the form fields to indicate a bad entry (improper password, already taken username, etc) is misleading because normally such an X would function as a clear button for the field. This one is purely static, but because it appears in the field like a clear X would, it's misleading. This isn't a major issue, but it's also not a necessary one, as it shouldn't make things any worse to either move the thing out of the field or change it to not be an X.
1. It would help to propose an alternative. 2. In the round of remote tests we did, no user misunderstood the X function: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Account_creation_user_experience/User_testing
(In reply to comment #1) > 1. It would help to propose an alternative. Besides moving the X outside the input field itself or changing it to another symbol with the same general meaning? > 2. In the round of remote tests we did, no user misunderstood the X function: > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Account_creation_user_experience/User_testing While user tests can be invaluable for bringing up likely common issues and also seeing how proposed improvements fare in practice, it can be easy to forget that they do not necessarily constitute a representative sample. We must remember to take these tests with a grain of salt - use what is there, but also consider that each test is still but the results of a single user, and these results may or may not all be applicable in general, and may or may not include other potential issues. In this case, given that the x is only apt to cause confusion for those used to browsers that have an x (and the only one that comes to mind is chromium), there's a good chance such users were not represented at all.
I agree this could be confusing. If possible, we should consider possible alternatives as part of productization.
So... suggestions? <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Account_creation_user_experience/Engineering#Validation> summarizes existing invalid approaches I found. E.g. Brandon Harris proposed ∅ or ! in the 2011 style guide. BTW the current image is http://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.21wmf9/extensions/E3Experiments/css/acux/images/icon-field-error.png
Just move the check and x indicators out of the input boxes themselves. When the text can wind up on top of the images, and when the text is the same colour as the images, that doesn't work well anyway.
(In reply to comment #5) > Just move the check and x indicators out of the input boxes themselves. When > the text can wind up on top of the images, and when the text is the same > colour > as the images, that doesn't work well anyway. This doesn't work. _Where_ would you put them, so that they clearly are associated with the content of the input box, but don't muck with the tooltip placement, (which takes priority in the hierarchy because it actually contains the error message)? In any case, this discussion is sort of pointless. Per the target set in https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Account_creation_user_experience/Productization we're not currently planning on making the client-side validation portion of this new UI permanent. Making the server side validation point to a specific input box is also not trivial. So we're probably going to scrap this look in the long run, at least until the account creation API is working with CAPTCHAs and doing all the other things necessary to be fully functional.
If the tooltip doesn't work where it is, then move the tooltip. Nevermind hierarchy, things work where they work. If they don't work where they are, then generally they shouldn't be there. Tooltips could go above (y), perhaps, or the icons could go in them, or... well, there are options.
(In reply to comment #7) > If the tooltip doesn't work where it is, then move the tooltip. Nevermind > hierarchy, things work where they work. If they don't work where they are, > then > generally they shouldn't be there. > > Tooltips could go above (y), perhaps, or the icons could go in them, or... > well, there are options. Clear information hierarchy _is_ what makes things work. Deciding what elements are the most important is how we make decisions about where they should be placed and how they should look. The tooltips contain the actual content which users should read and act on, so moving them around to make way for a minor icon is not an ideal way to deal with the fact that the icon may be confused with a close action. There are alternatives that are probably better than moving things around. Such as choosing a different icon than an X, or simply doing away with it in favor of focusing on the tooltip.
This extension is no longer deployed, and the account creation UX changes tested therein are merged in core.
Also, it is not present in core since we removed this JavaScript validation for other reasons (the API wasn't ready for this use case).
