Thursday, July 25, 2019

terminology - Is the term 'field' too technical when giving messages on a form?


When writing help or validation messages on a form I usually write something along the lines of:



  • "This field is required"


  • "5 fields need to be corrected on this form"

  • etc


Is the term field too technical or is it a widely understood by the general public/users of tinternet?


Are there any better alternatives?



Answer



In short yes - unless you are dealing with a technical audience.


Instead, refer to what is required in this case. If it's name, say 'Your name is required'.


One useful bit of advice that all UX people should stick to is 'decode your language'. That means remove technical jargon and get rid of code names for projects and abbreviations. Many UX people coming from a technical background have a big problem with this as it goes against most of their programming instincts.


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