This seems subjective, and it is; a client of mine would like me to highlight the required fields on the web forms in their application with a red asterisk, and I'm looking for an alternative since red asterisks usually mean there's an error to me.
How do I let a user know which fields are required? (One per answer, please.)
UPDATE: This is to indicate which fields are required before validation/postback occurs.
Answer
Since 95% of all fields are required at techinsurance.com, my decision was to simply use bold to indicate that a field is required and write the word (optional) next to the optional fields to reduce clutter.
e.g.
First Name
Last Name
Business Phone Number
Mobile Number (optional)
And perhaps just as important are the error messages themselves. I made them as obvious as possible...
required field...
with error...
These decisions were made after years of having a website with the semi-traditional red asterisks to indicate a required field. These asterisks worked most of the time. The problem was when there was a validation error. Some of our pages can be pretty long and the red validation errors just wouldn't stand out on the page enough when it was already cluttered with red asterisks. I know this because occasionally people would get frustrated enough to call us about it. But all indications show that the new (above) design fixed the problem.
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