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Cover all the options

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2005-04-13 04:21:32 - Graham Ellis

I'm on site next week - driving to Falkirk on Sunday. Booked my hotel yesterday (and, yes, had to use a system running Explorer to do it because of the particular web site's Javascript). "Will I be arriving before or after 8?" asks the form. Good question. I really don't know. But the form doesn't give me a "Don't know" option.

A good reminder that online forms should be written to cope with all practical options. Allow for any browser, remember that yes/no may also have don't know/care answer. And while we're at it, be careful how you limit the number of units wanted, allow for non-UK/non-USA postcodes and phone numbers, bad capitalisation, spaces in credit card numbers, etc.