I work in an environment that makes heavy use of mainframe systems. These systems are costly to maintain, so a decision was made years ago to replace the mainframe with web based systems.
As more people move off the mainframe to the web, a common request is that we implement autotabbing (i.e. automatically move the cursor to the next field once the current field has been filled in). I am generally opposed to autotabbing, but have no data to support my position.
Are there any quantifiable arguments for or against autotabbing? Specific research in this area would be much appreciated.
Answer
I've had my fair share of mainframe -> web refactoring projects over the years, and auto-tabbing topic comes up once in awhile.
As long as you are consistent in how you apply auto-tabbing, it can be a really good time-saving feature for data-entry intensive tasks.
For example, set up tabbing rules, and follow them rigidly for ALL fields.
- Make sure all INPUT fields have fixed-width font like Courier/mono-space applied.
- Make sure all INPUT fields have appropriate 'size' and 'max-length' attributes applied.
- Auto-tab when user has exhausted all the space in input field.
The first two are important because it lets user accurately gauge when the system will auto-tab. If we didn't use fixed-width font, then "iiiii" and "WWWWW" would take up different amount of space in input field, and users wouldn't be able to tell how many characters they have left until auto-tab kicks in, since they do not have the benefit of the character count hyphen "_ _ _ _ _" of mainframe.
I sympathize with OP, because when you are working with small and defined set of users who become expert of their application, conventional usability guidelines that are geared towards consumer-centric apps can be a tough sell.
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