[IxDA Discuss] Are required field notations really necessary withradio button selections?

[Caroline Jarrett]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Dondershine" <sdondershine at gmail.com>


: Does one necessarily need to add an asterisk indicating that a 
selection is required for a radio button selection form input?
:
: It seems to me that one can argue two ways:
:
: 1.)  The fact that some item in the radio button group will always 
be selected tacitly implies that the input is required. It is really 
impossiblefor the User not to mae a selection, so why bother to 
indicate that it's a required field?
:
: 2.)  Nevertheless, the required field asterisk draws the User's 
attention to the field input itself and the fact that there is 
potentially a decision to be made.  It is therefore worth including.

I've frequently seen users (particularly the more web-savvy ones) 
review the required field indicators to assess the amount of work 
required on a form and the level of invasiveness of the questions. At 
this point, they're looking at the labels not the fields so they 
wouldn't notice (or think about) the possibility that the answer to a 
radio button is generally required. My worry is, therefore, that if 
you don't indicate the field as required when it is then your form 
will be perceived as deceptive.

I agree with Steve Baty's point:

>Stephen, it's possible to code radio button sets
> so that no option is
> selected by default (by leaving out the 'selected'
> attribute of all elements
> in the set). This is often more useful as it
> forces a decision by the user
> instead of allowing them to roll on through
> the form without consideration.

But I don't agree with his other point:

> Note also that, in situations where most of the
> form fields are mandatory
> the asterisk might better be
> utilised to indicate optional fields.

It's just so much more common to indicate required fields on the web 
these days that I think indicating optional fields with an asterisk is 
very likely to be misinterpreted. It _can_ work if you indicate 
optional fields with the whole word as in "(optional)".

Best

Caroline Jarrett
caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk
01525 370379

Effortmark Ltd
Usability - Forms - Content