forms - Required field validation

How should required field validation be handled visually?

Note: assume asterisk is red

*Name:[_______________]

or

Name:*[_______________]

or

Name: [_______________]*

or

Name: [____red bg____  ]

or

Name(<- font color red): [_______________]

or

You tell me a better way!

Answer

There's never a right or wrong answer with these type of questions and a lot of it depends on your users personas (engineers vs. power users vs. aunt alice who never used a computer) and context.

A general rule is to use

label [input   ] [validation       ] 

Using the validation area for either a red asterisk to indicate a required field or an error message after validating the form (or both).

The Simply Accessible website has a good, concise write up on required form fields here: http://simplyaccessible.com/article/required-form-fields