How not to do it: checking the form on the site and blocking buttons

    There are things that cannot be done if you do not want to lose a significant part of visitors. Even if you saw this on all sorts of cool sites.

    For example, you cannot lock a button (make it disabled) to prevent the form from being filled out incorrectly. Even if you just recently learned to turn off buttons. Even if your idol does that. This is a vicious practice to be eradicated. And that's why.

    Who are we dealing with


    Imagine a cosmetics or gift shop. One where not avid Internet users come, but ordinary people. Not fans of famous studios, not connoisseurs of design techniques, but managers, accountants, and secretaries who are very common in our area.

    For example, Maria Ivanovna, an accountant of a firm that has not yet gone bankrupt. On a computer, she works with an accounting program, reference books on legislation, Word, Excel, and solitaire-kerchief.

    The “ruble sign” for her is an incomprehensible squiggle, meaning some kind of foreign currency with an unknown exchange rate. She doesn’t know about Apple or Google.

    She does not have an iPod, a cozy zhezheshechka or an account on Twitter.
    But there is money and a desire to buy, say, several jars of all kinds of masks, creams and lotions. With the money and the willingness to spend it, Maria Ivanovna got to the site where she chose everything she wanted and presses the button “send order”.

    Ordinary story


    Since Maria Ivanovna is on this site for the first time, she is invited to register. She honestly enters her first name, last name, email address, password twice, zip code, home address, phone.

    In one of these fields, Maria Ivanovna made a typo. We do not know which one. Either in the e-mail instead of a period, she entered a comma, or her passwords did not match, or she completely missed one of the required fields. We do not know this. And the user too.

    Having finished the slightly tedious process of filling out the questionnaire, Maria Ivanovna is ready to click on the most important button. She does not mind that the button looks somehow pale. She also does not know that "advanced developers" disable the submit button if some of the required fields are not filled.

    Maria Ivanovna clicks the mouse button. No reaction. After three or four unrequited clicks, it dawns on her: “Probably something is hanging here or broken, this often happens in my accounting program.” Maria Ivanovna goes to a neighboring site. Or returns to the tablet in Excel. Or he collects his things and goes home, because the working day is over, and she spent half an hour already collecting goods, filling out a form, and clicking the mouse to death.

    This is because once the site developer decided to do it "like on that site" and dug up an example script somewhere.

    For those who believe that the “one-sided article” is how to do it.

    For those who naively believe that the words “fill in all the fields correctly” or consider inexperienced users to be idiots will suffice: look at the comments. A bunch of people rushed to furiously comment, not even having time to read (or realize) what was written. Similarly, users skip warnings.

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