User friendly interface

    Let's talk about the most important part: form.
    That is, text fields, checkboxes, drop-down lists and other pleasures. I will not say a word about their design, I will share my thoughts on the script for the form to receive data (registration, for example).

    To make a cool registration procedure, you need to put yourself in the place of a visitor to the passport office or some other body working in exchange for the wasted paper.

    Situation 1.
    You have collected 20 references and 30 extracts, put an evil aunt in the window, come in 2 weeks - and you are told that one of the references made a mistake - bring a new one.

    Rule: data verification should be before sending data to the server (email is correct, password length, required fields).

    Why this happens: it is inconvenient for the programmer to do 2 checks at once (client & server-side), in two languages, but according to the same rules. It can be understood - a change in the rules (today we accept passwords of 4 letters, tomorrow only of 7) can lead to disastrous out-of-sync checks.

    Situation 2.
    You corrected the certificate and brought back the package of documents. An evil aunt says that your photo is 10mm larger than normal.
    Rules:
    1) Initially tell the user in which format you will exactly accept the data (user-resize is your task if the user is dear to you).
    2) Make all the checks right away and show him all the mistakes (today help, tomorrow photo, the day after tomorrow Kalash and there is no evil aunt)
    3) Save the data entered in the early stages.
    Including a check for "is it a robot?" - remember (in cookies, sessions, somewhere else) - that this user during the registration process has already entered the numbers from the picture and has already indicated the password 2 times. Ask him to just fix the mistakes and click OK.

    Situation 3.
    You come for help from the Housing Office, and there an evil aunt starts asking you about your son’s level of education, contact details, wife’s illnesses and so on.
    Rule:request only the data that you need at this stage. Usually enough Login, Password, confirmation that it is not a robot. Email is not always needed at all, and in addition, its confirmation must be post-registration (the user has the right to know all the delights of the site where he registered). All questionnaire, additional data can be politely asked to fill out after registration.

    And the last: the highest stupidity immediately after registration to ask the user to enter the username and password already entered by him a minute ago.

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